{"id":209140,"date":"2025-01-13T13:53:35","date_gmt":"2025-01-13T23:53:35","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/?p=209140"},"modified":"2025-01-15T10:31:43","modified_gmt":"2025-01-15T20:31:43","slug":"rifaat-film-in-shackles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/2025\/01\/13\/rifaat-film-in-shackles\/","title":{"rendered":"Grad student\u2019s new documentary addresses real-time challenges facing Pakistanis"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"span-reading-time rt-reading-time\" style=\"display: block;\"><span class=\"rt-label rt-prefix\">Reading time: <\/span> <span class=\"rt-time\"> 2<\/span> <span class=\"rt-label rt-postfix\">minutes<\/span><\/span><p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-1.jpg\" alt=\"Woman walking with her daughter\" width=\"676\" height=\"381\" class=\"aligncenter size-full wp-image-209141\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-1.jpg 676w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-1-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-1-130x73.jpg 130w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 676px) 100vw, 676px\" \/><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/politicalscience.manoa.hawaii.edu\/\">Political science<\/a> graduate student at the University of <span aria-label=\"Hawaii\">Hawai&#699;i<\/span> at M\u0101noa will officially premiere a new short documentary on campus this month spotlighting systemic oppression facing a Pakistani woman. <abbr>PhD<\/abbr> student, Haider Rifaat directed, wrote, narrated and produced <em>In Shackles<\/em>, which will be screened on Friday, January 24, at 1 p.m. in <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/library\/\">Hamilton Library<\/a>, Room 306.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_209142\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-209142\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-2.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-2-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Woman in traditional dress\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-209142\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-2-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-2-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-2.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-209142\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Shamim<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>The short documentary chronicles the life of Shamim, a 34-year-old Pakistani woman navigating the harsh realities of a patriarchal society in a village in Islamabad. Her story focuses on forced marriage and sexual violence, which are connected to more complex societal problems facing Pakistanis, including religious hypocrisy, impact of family conditioning on children and the culture of silence surrounding violence.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The film\u2019s title <em>In Shackles<\/em> is a metaphor to describe helplessness of a woman experiencing personal and professional problems that are connected to broader, more complex societal issues in Pakistan,&rdquo; said Rifaat.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_209143\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-209143\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption alignright\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-3.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-3-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"Haider Rifaat\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-209143\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-3-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-3-130x73.jpg 130w, https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/01\/manoa-in-shackles-film-3.jpg 676w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-209143\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Haider Rifaat<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<ul>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/docs.google.com\/forms\/d\/e\/1FAIpQLSdZdQh20x8LZI8msiqgMNi6rS6Imr--V2Maa0iVx6ZT88agww\/viewform\">Register to attend the film screening<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>At only 29 years, Rifaat, who produced the film under his production label Haider Rifaat (<abbr>HR<\/abbr>) Films, is not only a filmmaker but an accomplished journalist and an actor. Through In Shackles, he critiques Pakistan\u2019s legal system, particularly the Child Marriage Restraint Act, which sets the minimum marriage age for girls at 16.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;Although the short documentary supports women\u2019s rights, it also centers on complex sociopolitical and legalistic problems that prevent women from progressing. Just like the controversial <em>zina<\/em> (illicit sexual intercourse) ordinances incarcerated female rape victims under Zia ul Haq\u2019s controversial regime, laws surrounding child marriages aren\u2019t accomplishing anything better for girls either. Setting the legal age of marriage for girls to 16 years may give families an opportunity to have their daughters marry without consent, which falls under forced marriage,&rdquo; Rifaat added.<\/p>\n<p>Rifaat\u2019s film will also be released simultaneously on YouTube under <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@haiderrifaatfilms\">Haider Rifaat (<abbr>HR<\/abbr>) Films<\/a> following the premiere event.<\/p>\n<p>The premiere is sponsored by the <abbr>¶«¾«Ó°Òµ<\/abbr> M\u0101noa <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/asianstudies\/\">Department of Asian Studies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cseashawaii.org\/\">Center for Southeast Asian Studies<\/a>, <a href=\"https:\/\/manoa.hawaii.edu\/csas\/\">Center for South Asia Studies<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.initiatefutures.org\/\">Initiate Futures<\/a>, a policy think tank based in Islamabad, Pakistan.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Haider Rifaat directed <em>In Shackles<\/em> which chronicles the life of a Pakistani woman navigating the harsh realities of a patriarchal society.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":16,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[26],"tags":[777,1562,646,1194,1466,9],"class_list":["post-209140","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-community","tag-asian-studies","tag-center-for-southeast-asian-studies","tag-film","tag-gender-inequity","tag-manoa-enhancing-student-success","tag-uh-manoa","entry","has-media"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209140","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/16"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=209140"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209140\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":209312,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/209140\/revisions\/209312"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=209140"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=209140"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hawaii.edu\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=209140"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}