(Un) Veiled Film Analysis

The documentary short film “(Un)Veiled” was filmed in Dubai, United Arab Emirates and focuses on several women living there, some wearing the traditional veil known as the Hijab, some not wearing it, and their reasons why. All of these women live and work in Dubai but many of them are from different walks of life and different nations, ranging from Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, and even the United States. While there are thousands of people across the Arab world that either wear the Hijab or enforce the wearing of it, there are, perhaps, an equal number who do not, nor will they. Many of those in opposition to wearing the veil seem to come from other places and are well travelled, having traveled to and lived in many places across the globe; however not all of the world-travelled women are in opposition, as is evidenced by one woman who was born in the west, …show more content…
Dubai is a pretty diverse city in the United Arab Emirates, especially from the viewpoint of someone from the west, who has been indoctrinated through news media and film to see the Middle East as a place of desolation and desert nothingness. It was even stated in the film that Dubai and a lot of the Emirates were, in fact, desolate and nothing but desert as little as forty years previous (Mindedge, 2014), but the nation(s) have built themselves up with oil money and the need to attract tourists to the country to sustain its economy. “Unveiled” shows the many reasons why the Hijab is worn, why it is important and not a tool of oppression as is expressed in other places, like in France, where it is banned. The film does not cast its own opinion on the subject, rather, it just lets the people who do wear it and who do not wear it speak their minds about the