“I would like everyone who watches the film to see and understand a new perspective”, says about her new film “From the Other Side of the Veil” French-Algerian model Farida Khelfa, for many years a friend and muse of Azzedine Alaïa, Jean Paul Gaultier and Christian Louboutin, as well as fashion photographers such as Jean-Paul Goude and Pierre & Gilles.
The film is a refreshing look at Muslim women in the Arab world, women with ambition, women who are intelligent and incredibly passionate about their careers in the world of fashion or art, while maintaining their faith and honoring their culture.
“I was invited to Jeddah in Saudi Arabia and I met all these women who are so talented, have such fluency and good education,” Khelfa tells AnOther.
“The way the Western media portrays the women of this region is so outdated and inaccurate that I really wanted to do something about it.”
Khelfa’s aim is to deconstruct stereotypes, prejudices and misconceptions about Middle Eastern women.
“The most important thing for me is to show reality.
Women are so important in the Middle East, I believe that they are the future and that they will soon be the leaders of the region. So many of them are business owners and CEOs who have graduated from Harvard, Stanford and all the best universities in the world.
They are not victims as we are constantly told. They are fighters who express themselves with ease. To see them as victims is a colonialist look.” he explains.
“Women in the Middle East are just like other women around the world, we are all fighting for our rights,” Farida Khelfa stresses.
The film “From the Other Side of the Veil” will be available in July on YouTube.
