Submission (2004 film)

Submission is a 2004 English short film directed by Theo van Gogh and written by Ayaan Hirsi Ali (a former member of the Dutch House of Representatives for the People's Party for Freedom and Democracy); it was shown on the Dutch public broadcasting network (VPRO) on August 29, 2004. The film's title is a direct translation of the Arabic word "Islam" (see also the etymology and meaning of the word). As a result of the film, van Gogh was assassinated by a Muslim fundamentalist.

Content

Image of a woman's body with Koranic verses written on it from the film Submission. The actress plays the role of a Muslim woman (dressed with a transparent black clothing), having been beaten and raped by a relative. The bodies are used in the film as a canvas for verses from the Quran.^[1]

The film tells the story of four fictional characters played by a single actress wearing a veil,^[2] but clad in a see-through chador, her naked body painted with verses from the Koran.^[3] The characters are Muslim women who have been abused in various ways. The film contains monologues of these women and dramatically highlights three verses of the Koran that give authority to men over women (4:34 2:222 and 24:2), by showing them painted on women’s bodies.

Motivation

Hirsi Ali has said "it is written in the Koran a woman may be slapped if she is disobedient. This is one of the evils I wish to point out in the film".^[4] In an answer to a question about whether the film would offend Muslims, Hirsi Ali said that "if you're a Muslim woman and you read the Koran, and you read in there that you should be raped if you say 'no' to your husband, that is offensive. And that is insulting."^[5]

Director of the film, Theo Van Gogh, who was known as a highly controversial and provocative personality,^[6][7] called the film a "political pamphlet."^[8]

Reception

The film drew praise for portraying the ways in which women are abused in accordance with Islamic law, as well as anger for speaking against the teachings of God.^[9] It drew the following comment from movie critic Phill Hall, "Submission was bold in openly questioning misogyny and a culture of violence against women because of Koranic interpretations. The questions raised in the film deserve to be asked: is it divine will to assault or kill women? Is there holiness in holding women at substandard levels, denying them the right to free will and independent thought? And ultimately, how can such a mindframe exist in the 21st century?" ^[10] Movie critic Dennis Lim, on the other hand, stated that, “It's depressing to think that this morsel of glib effrontery could pass as a serious critique of conservative Islam.”^[11] An other (unnamed) critic referred to the stories told in this film as "simplistic, even caricatures."^[9]

After the movie's broadcast on Dutch television, newspaper De Volkskrant reported claims of plagiarism against Hirsi Ali and Van Gogh, made by internet journalist Francisco van Jole. Van Jole said the duo had "aped" the ideas of Iranian-American video artist Shirin Neshat. Neshat's work, which made abundant use of Arabic text projected onto bodies, had been shown in the Netherlands in 1997 and 2000.

Assassination of Theo Van Gogh

On November 2, 2004, Theo van Gogh was assassinated in public by Mohammed Bouyeri, a Dutch-Moroccan Muslim with a Dutch passport. A letter,^[12] stabbed through and affixed to the body by a dagger, linked the murder to Van Gogh's film and his views regarding Islam. It was addressed to Ayaan Hirsi Ali and called for a jihad against kafir (Kafir is a disbeliever or infidel), against America, Europe, the Netherlands, and Hirsi Ali herself. Following the murder of Van Gogh, tens of thousands gathered in the center of Amsterdam to mourn Van Gogh's death. There were fire-bombings of mosques and Muslim schools, and counterattacks against Christian churches. Besides Bouyeri, eleven other Muslim men were arrested and charged with conspiracy to assassinate Hirsi Ali.^[13]

After the murder of Theo van Gogh, Submission gained international fame. It was withdrawn from the International Film Festival Rotterdam. The film had been scheduled to be shown on Sunday during a discussion on freedom of speech in film at the festival. Because of the violent murder of Van Gogh, the producer of Submission, Gijs van de Westelaken, said, "We do not want to take any chance of endangering anyone else who participated in the film."^[14] The film was shown on television in three European countries.^[15]

Hirsi Ali has stated she would like to make a sequel to the movie because "By not making 'Submission Part II,' I would only be helping terrorists believe that if they use violence, they're rewarded with what they want." When asked if she would submit to threats against her life, she said "Not me."^[16]

See also

• Apostasy in Islam
• Criticism of Islam
• Criticism of the Koran
• Freedom of speech versus blasphemy

Women in Muslim societies:

• Women in Islam
• Islam and domestic violence
• Namus

Other controversies:

• Jyllands-Posten Muhammad cartoons controversy; began after 12 editorial cartoons, most of which depicted Islamic prophet Muhammad, were published in the Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten in 2005
• The Satanic Verses controversy; heated and frequently violent reaction of some Muslims to the publication of Salman Rushdie's 1988 novel The Satanic Verses in the UK
• South Park controversies#Censorship of the depiction of Muhammed; in which South Park creators Trey Parker and Matt Stone were targeted by a radical Muslim group for satirizing the censorship of Muhammed's image
• The Sudanese teddy bear blasphemy case; the arrest, trial, conviction, and imprisonment of a British schoolteacher in Sudan in 2007, for allegedly insulting Islam by allowing her class to name a teddy bear "Muhammad"

References

External links

• Submission at the Internet Movie Database
• Hirsi Ali on Film over Position of Women in Koran