Filmed over five years, Writing Hawa is the story of three generations of Hazara women from the same family in Afghanistan. Director Najiba Noori films her mother Hawa and her niece Zahra in their aspirations to emancipate themselves from patriarchal traditions. Forced into marriage as a child, Hawa is already 52 years old when she can truly start learning to read and write. With the support of her daughter, she opens a small textile business: she looks for traditional Hazara embroideries in the Bamiyan region and turns them into modern dresses to sell in the capital Kabul. Hawa eventually saves her granddaughter Zahra from her abusive father in a remote village and brings her to Kabul. There, they study together and make plans for the future. However, the Taliban takeover in August 2021 upturns the lives of the three women: Zahra has to return to the village she escaped from, and Najiba is forced to flee and live as a refugee in France. From afar, she helps Hawa continue to fight for her dreams.
The Asia Pacific Screen Academy expresses its respect for and acknowledgement of the South East Queensland Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander communities. We pay our respects to the Traditional Owners of country, including the custodial communities on whose land works are created and celebrated by the Asia Pacific Screen Awards. We acknowledge the continuing connection to land, waters and communities. We also pay our respects to Elders, past and present. We recognise the integral role Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander and First Nations peoples continue to play in storytelling and celebration spaces.
