Performative Radicalism in Contemporary Canadian Documentary Film

Articles Performative Radicalism Below Writer Anwa Othman

Performative Radicalism in contemporary Canadian documentary film

By William Anselmi and Sheena Wilson

Keywords: Faith Without Fear, Irshad Manji, post-politics, optical personage, performative radicalism, resistant ethnicity, postmodernism, multiculturalism

Film criticism in the social sphere: Have in self-promoting work – documentary film, Faith in Yourself. Know no Fear. contextualized by a website and two mono- Irshad Manji’s 2007 documentary film Faith graphs – that does not produce social change. Without Fear promotes a mission to reform Within the Canadian context the multicul- Islam, in order to bring it out of the seventh tural framework sanctions resistant ethnicity, century and make it applicable to contem- as ethno-cultural agents define themselves porary life. The film has achieved success in against the practices of social manage- a disparate variety of cultural circles, from ment by the white mainstream. While this social activists to neo-conservative ideologues. allows for a specific space for ethno-cultural This incongruous response belies the fact that identity, it also embeds, in the end, white- the current historical moment is steeped in Canadian identity as the normative stan- a process where the individual does not have dard in the social discourse. This ensures the necessary historical referents to engage in that ethno-cultural identities remain as political and critical analysis with the world dynamic buffer zones at the periphery of at large. Despite Manji’s role as a media icon dominant economic and political practices. in Canada and beyond, and that her work has The problems that derive from Manji’s film been positively accepted by the mainstream are representative of practices of narcissism: media culture in North America, her 2007 film the optic personage performs social activism and her popular status still need to be framed so as to become a new point of aggregation for by the engaged lens of critical scrutiny. potential activists through an implementa- The initial context of analysis is to address tion of post-political action – predominantly the three ring circus of the post-political, the rhetorical – that conflates the historical political construction of an optic personage, and mul- dialectic. When the documentary is used as the ticulturalism. The sum of this process has echo-chamber for the optic personage, insti- resulted in what we term performative radicalism tuting a continual self-referential process, this that imbues the optic personage with an aura alters the traditional documentary genre. The of activism. The whole process results, finally, new format highlights an a-historical reading

44 | film international issue 37 Articles Performative Radicalism of the lifeworld, and promotes a spectacular- ized presence of the documentary filmmaker/ Faith Without Fear – personage. The process finalizes the infamous clash of cultures while professing social agency, integrating the optic so as to create an amorphous, seemingly personage in the involving space of denunciation. By focusing on Irshad Manji’s documentary it is possible to public sphere illustrate how performative radicalism parallels the rhetoric of neo-conservative Canadian / Manji has honed her optic personage as a American political structures while proclaiming radio and television host and author and guest a progressive, liberal vision. In the end, a basic speaker over the last two decades. After the question can be posed: Who benefits from this? events of September 11 2001, her presence has been socially necessary and this translates Framing the zero degree into cultural currency. Her promotion of self, climaxes with the release of her self-referen- of our pleasures, tial 2007 documentary titled Faith Without Fear, briefing history which was nominated for several awards in 2007 and 2008. The film is Manji’s journey ‘to The fall of the Berlin Wall in 1989 created a reconcile her faith in Allah with her love of free- domino effect in terms of political thought dom’ (back of DVD cover). Such statements end throughout the world: the end of the Soviet up framing a very problematic and essential- Union made it seem as though ideological ized view of Islam that is also very self-promot- polarizations had run their course. Reconfig- ing. Freedom, for Manji, is specifically a western uring the geo-political realities throughout feminist vision of freedom, which because of the world was informed, in part, by Francis its association with issues of feminism and Fukuyama’s article ‘The End of History’ that liberalism, and freedom of worship and the appeared in The National Interest in the sum- interpretation of religious doctrine, appears, at mer of 1989, subsequently expanded upon face value, to be very positive and enlightened. and published in book form as the bestselling However, within the context of Manji’s film, her The End of History and the Last Man (1992). The reception by popular media – such as her guest general position pointed to the fact that the appearances on Fox Television and CNN, etc. dialectical process was now exhausted since – are actually authoritarian manifestations of one vision had won the day: liberal democracy one culture over another: the West over the East had triumphed over its exhausted opponent. echoing the same effects as Zach Snyder’s 300 The reconfiguration of the political habitat (2006), or Wayne Kopping and Raphael Shore’s in the West started, within the category of Obsession: Radical Islam’s War Against the West post-modernity, to envisage a post-political (2005). In effect, Manji’s optic personage in the discourse. It was now possible to transcend documentary can be summed up as a dynamic the old political categories of left and right. Trojan horse, who globe trots to various Islamic What this has meant practically is bril- hotspots in no seemingly logical, historically liantly simple. What is identifiable as the determined context or order, despite her claims post-political discourse is that the ‘right’ to the contrary. The finality of the film is to discourse won the day. It becomes a useful expose the ‘problem with Islam’ – a term she narrative script for politically naïve individu- repeatedly invokes and legitimizes by a reduc- als and it manifests itself, for example, on the tive mechanism of interacting with the Other. back cover of Manji’s first book, Risking Uto- In a sense, hers is a revision of Islam through pia: on the edge of a new democracy, as what the convex lens of Protestantism: to take the Michael Adams calls the ‘all-too-common- Qur’an and, like Luther in his relationship to sense notions of left and right’ (Manji, back- the Bible, read it without mediation from the cover, 1997). This is reflective of the 1990s religious establishment. However, the prob- right-wing parlance in Canada that recuper- lem with this type of exercise is that there is ated ‘common sense’ as a social Weltanschaung always the temptation when reading for oneself of cohesion and integration of disparities. to succumb to prophesizing and martyrdom.

www.filmint.nu | 45 Articles Performative Radicalism

As a result of both her construction of iden- responsibility, assuming the status of the com- tity and its multiple interactions with media mon parlance of hero/heroine of the people. apparatuses, her personage is established as In reality, however, the optic personage is authentic, legitimate, and representative of a vessel for public engagement by proxy, at diversity, but it is nevertheless a performa- a safe distance, where individual existences tive, highly constructed, one. The possibility of are voided of their critical potentials. Further, capitalizing on the gratification of one’s media the neo-activists, who use the optic person- image while performing radicalism is visibly age to popularize their socio-political positions, manifest. The optic personage adopts the cur- are nurtured by the mediatic circle: a specific rency of easily identifiable public tags, which constellation of economic, social and politi- include being politically outspoken, adopting cal forces. Performances of activism recuper- rhetorically progressive vocabulary, being dia- ate their message so successfully that the lectically challenging and subsuming gender dominant discourse(s) can appear to be in a issues, including issues of sexual freedom. dialectical engagement with other constitu- Specifically, the optic personage is invested encies. Yet, any actual form of critical change with the purpose of nurturing and maintain- remains suppressed: this repression of one’s ing the paradigm for public activists. In other human potential can negatively manifest itself words, it is a post-political ready-made agency: in pathologies and addictions that are eas- post-political, or grounding itself in the a-his- ily exploitable by the economic market, such torical moment within the fluidity, or absence as drug addiction, sexual addiction and gam- of, right/left-political actions. In a sense, this ing addictions. The pseudo-dialectical tension is analogous to the techniques of appeasement formulated through the narrative of the activ- and cooption used by French President Nico- ist documentary, however, is maintained so las Sarkozy to persuade four members of the that there is never any synthesis, or progress; French Left to join his newly formed cabinet. instead there is a constant tug-of-war, which gives rise to aesthetically pleasing mediatic The optic personage, (re) performances. Althusser would have integrated such process in his concept of ‘ideological active self-representations state apparatus’, or how education, the fam- ily, the media, arts and literature, and religion The optic personage is the invention, or the work to contain any forms of ‘real resistance’. end result, of a mediatic process which started The lure of the pool, the stream of identity with the film industry, and bloomed under the In reflecting determined economic and proliferation of the television-world that has political interests, the optic personage par- ‘emancipated’ itself in the last decade. Since takes of the second-degree of the star-system the optic personage is cocooned in media rep- process. (The first degree being the Hollywood resentations, its status is that of a phantasma- star. These optic personages are media stars gorical reality, living and performing for the used to target and select an engaged pub- mediatic circle. Its appearance and propagation lic.) It is not a vacuous presence à la Sophia denotes the leaking of the virtual world and its Loren or Angelina Jolie, United Nations Good- diffusion into the material world. Though the will Ambassadors (a different modelization of optic personage corresponds to specific bio- social activism), given that its performance is patronimics, the optic personage, using the the embodiment of progressive, illuminated media circuit, is a promotional and narcissistic involvement – with all the sacrifices that can technological device used by the convergence entail the quest for truth(s). As such, it cre- of specific economic and political interests ates a status that is separated from the banali- to promote ‘an engaged practice of reality.’ ties of everyday life. Attractive to those of us ‘Engagement’ here designates the perfunctory interested in making the world a better place, aspect of agency and empowerment in pro- it promotes a participatory visibility of resis- gressive look-alike social interactions. In the tance, which invariably carries a quasi-religious post-political lifeworld these are the residues of prominence. And, in demanding our atten- attempts at changing and empowering others. tion, the second-degree star fulfills dreams of It still bears the aura of activism and of social redemption and appeasement. Conversely, in its

46 | film international issue 37 Below Left Head of the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada, Articles Performative Radicalism Imam Syed Soharwardy Below Right Mother of Irshad Manji

[Faith Without Fear] has achieved success in a disparate variety of cultural circles, from social activists to neo- conservative ideologues. cogitus interruptus relationship with the viewer touched him at a personal level in terms of (maintaining the same power relations govern- community and class: the film invokes autobio- ing present neo-liberal processes), the activist graphical elements, making the main argument optic personage diminishes its viewer(s) to the against the alienating and reifying processes basic role of passivity, since its hieratic engage- of corporations and the capitalist system. In ment perpetually postpones actual engage- reaction to the death of the author, as sancti- ment and community-building processes. fied by the post-structuralists in the late 1960s, The use of the optic personage has a direct the late 1980s and early 1990s mark a rebirth impact on how politics and culture are narrated of the author(s), and the narrative legitimiza- to the public, as is the case in Faith Without Fear. tion of the autobiographical para-literary In a post-political era, the rise of media gurus elements that give ‘reality’ credibility to the in several forms has been accelerated. We have, text. Around the same time as Michael Moore as we always have had, our political pundits was working on Roger & Me, in literary theory and favourite interview personalities on the personal narratives were acquiring credibility news-media. However, in the present digital and legitimization as a proper narrative and media, it is possible for Manji to transcend the genre, linked as they are by the post-modern traditional boundaries of journalism by declar- process of the depoliticization of the public ing herself a religious, social, cultural, political sphere. The rebirth of a literary star system is pundit and using her sophisticated website, one end result. Salman Rushdie, for example, blog, and IrshadManjiTV sites to provide pro- both benefits and suffers because of the blur- motional sound-bites of her cultural produc- ring of boundaries between fiction and reality. tion, which can be purchased through the sites, Would Michael Moore’s rise to fame have and to brand her work for ‘active consumerism’. been possible had he remained behind the An archetype with a variance would be camera? One could argue that his presence in Michael Moore’s early rise to fame with Roger the narrative was necessary since – in order & Me in 1989, whose notoriety was not only to address specific problems – he had to be due to his progressive practices of exposing directly involved, and, in so doing, guide pub- problems such as the automobile industry, or lic opinions. Interestingly enough, his work- the war in Iraq, but also due to his narrative ing process addresses the media circuit and is style, which placed his journalistic personal- foregrounded by it. For example, in Bowling for ity at the centre of the issue. His role in Roger Columbine (2002), he targets and exploits a Hol- & Me is that of the investigative reporter who lywood Superstar, Charlton Heston, in order to exposes a social injustice, which seemingly position himself antagonistically and visually

www.filmint.nu | 47 Articles Performative Radicalism within the media spectacle. As President of the National Rifle Association, Mr Heston was an Democracy versus Tribalism unrepentant – mors tua vita mea, or ‘from my cold, dead hands’ – ideologue of the right to In Faith Without Fear, Manji’s performance as bear arms. The instrumental use of Mr Heston a radical activist personage proposes that pertained to the indictment of the world of Islam should reform itself in order to meet the arms in Moore’s work: where young men who demands of a changing global cultural climate. modeled themselves after misguided forms Yet, the documentary reduces and polarizes of resistance (the so-called trench-coat mafia the ‘trouble with Islam’ to tribalism versus indicting violent video games, and movies like the modern neo-liberal democratic paradigm. The Matrix [1999]) culminated in the Columbine As a lesbian Muslim woman, Manji’s rhetoric School massacre. The original media coverage paradoxically mirrors the conservative commu- of the events, the making of the documentary, nicative strategies of Canadian and American the subsequent celebratory reception of Bowling societies in such a way that different political for Columbine in Europe (Cannes, 2002 Special perspectives conflate in the mainstream public. Prize), and the plethora of media appearances Her personage validates the rhetoric of anti- of the director, all partake of the mediatic circle Islamic attitudes, since a woman who claims where one spectacle multiplies itself through to be a devout Muslim – by her own definition, other forms of spectacle. While Moore’s ear- interpretation, and performance of that term – lier films are a platform for raging against the presents them. She calls for reform for Islam so machine, they do not necessarily promote that it better suits her ideals, and in so doing, social activism. Some of his later films, such would conform with the demands of a conser- as Sicko, work synchronously with other media vative Western society in its construction of technologies – namely the Internet and his offi- the enemy Other. Mainstream, predominantly cial website – to inform the public about possi- white, viewers might be enchanted by a pro- bilities for social action, such as writing to their gressive rhetoric that suggests change, agency, local government representatives to advocate inclusiveness, and the hermeneutic value of for the 9/11 workers. Pay particular attention being able to read and interpret religious text to his emphasis in terms of providing agency (in this case the Qur’an). However, the film does back to the reader. The site says, ‘Urge Con- not nuance the criticisms of Islam by contex- gress to Support Legislation: Support the 9/11 tualizing them within historical developments rescue workers by asking your congressperson that have challenged religious dogmas. The to support H.R.3543. . . . If your congressperson film fails to acknowledge that other religions is not a cosponsor of this comprehensive 9/11 can be contested according to individual rights, health care legislation for the sick and injured, interpretations, absolutist readings and have contact your congressperson and demand that also been the cultural ground for fanaticism at he or she give our 9/11 heroes the same level various times. And despite the fact that para- of care as the detainees at Guantanamo Bay’ digms such as witch-hunts are used to frame with web-links provided for visitors to the her anti-historical retelling of Islamic ‘devel- site to determine who their congressperson is opment,’ Manji as narrator does not acknowl- and how to contact him/her. Michael-Moore edge that events of this type have occurred style and media practices pre-date the explo- as a result of Christian fanaticism at different sion of reality TV in the late 1990s. Yet, with historical moments as well. The performance the rising interest in reality TV, and the blur- therefore caters to an inactive, non-interactive, ring of the boundaries between fiction and consuming public so enamored with the ideal/ reality, Michael Moore’s practices are recuper- idealism of the activist as the protector of their ated by other documentary filmmakers looking civic values that it suffices for them to be mir- to highlight issues of social concern relevant rored within the process of the performance. to their own ideological projects. In Canada, In a post-political era it is typical of spectator- the most successful to date is Irshad Manji, ship to be conflated with participation, just and her signature oeuvre: Faith Without Fear. as performance is conflated with activism. An analysis of Manji’s performative strategy reveals that her media persona piggybacks on those

48 | film international issue 37 Below Left President of Spain’s Islamic Commis- Articles Performative Radicalism sion, Mansur Escudero, Below Right Irshad Manji

The film fails to acknowledge that other religions can be contested according to individual rights, interpretations, absolutist readings and have also been the cultural ground for fanaticism at various times. still acceptable humanistic principles that deal must look only as far as the questions pertain- with the Other, so as to recuperate and trans- ing to the pioneer narrative: Who is admitted form them into tools by which to destabilize entrance into that historical identity? What Islam and demand its surrender in terms of is the role of the ethno-cultural immigrant in Westernization. In other words, Faith Without this foundational discourse? When does the Fear reflects the tri-partite tensional structure transition from immigrant to ethnic citizen- in Canadian social practices and cultural poli- ship take place? These issues are generally cies: 1) the residual conflict between official filtered through a sense of representational Multiculturalism and its lived everyday prac- belonging. In so doing, the tensions in Cana- tice; 2) the contemporary commodification da’s Multicultural nation-state, which are the and rhetoric of terrorizing each-Other; and, 3) result of a political hierarchy grounded in the the actual historical and political foundations national identity myths of English / French his- that have exported Canadian Multicultural- tories of colonization – subsetting ethnicities, ism, through UN sponsorship, as the model of presently, into integrated spaces of performance a diversified social management program. – are left unresolved at a critical level. Multiculturalism in a post-political era Multiculturalism requires a bio-political per- Official Multiculturalism in Canada is struc- formance in specific designated areas of partici- tured on and around the tension of constructed patory socialization. These areas can be called differences. For the purpose of this article, integrated spaces of performance, which are both ‘Multiculturalism’ with a capital ‘M’ denotes mandated and lived as daily practices where official state multiculturalism: with a small the ethnic-designated body is asked to perform, ‘m’ it signifies the lived everyday reality of that to act out for the various media technologies term outside of legislated, state multicultural his/her sense of cultural authenticity. However, practices. So that Multiculturalism ensures the this is an impossible authenticity, given that it maintenance of composite status quo power is already altered by the expectations and des- structures, embracing ethno-cultural groups ignations of the viewing public. A striking illus- into displays of active participation in the Cana- tration would be festivity-related performances, dian Dream. While administering the mosaic such as Heritage Days, where ethnicity is show- showcasing of status diversity, these structures cased and bio-politically marked individuals of representation, in fact, maintain the offi- present their palatable selves. Heritage Day cial discourse(s) produced by the federal state, performances involve tasting piquant foodstuff, or official Multiculturalism. For example, one visioning saltatory others. They cause no disrup-

www.filmint.nu | 49 Articles Performative Radicalism tion to official discourses about and in relation can become one of ‘them’? The viewer’s curios- to ethno-cultural subjectivities. In so doing, ity is piqued by the filmic introduction given to the mutual project of appeasement is rendered Lamia. When the documentary cuts to a more through the equally participatory actions of formal interview scene, the viewers/voyeurs are the performances: as the dancers enjoy becom- gratified when Manji asks the woman, ‘Would ing Other, the spectators enjoy consuming the you feel comfortable at this point to remove culture, both through viewership and gour- the niqab?’ Lamia feels compelled to meet the mandizing. In this paradigm, Canada reaf- demands of her interviewer and she removes firms for itself that it is de facto multicultural. her veil after saying ‘I can do that, if you’d like In refusing the definition of the Canadian to be…for me to do that now…’. Manji replies, mainstream, ethnics are guided by the media ‘Let’s see.’ And the viewer waits and watches as instruments at hand – when they are deemed Lamia undoes the veil and reveals herself. This necessary to the discourse of cultural diversity act resonates as a gratifying exploitation of the – to also define themselves against the govern- body, because Lamia exposes her face to make ing practices as a form of resistant ethnicity. her point – that she is still in control of her life Resistant ethnicity serves two explicit pur- – but in the end the act is exhibitionist within poses in maintaining the power of the domi- the context of her Yemeni reality. The removal nant discourse: 1) it circumscribes a specific of the veil assumes a synecdochal quality since space for ethno-cultural identities to publicly the niqab is suggestive of the abaya. As she manifest themselves, and 2) it also embeds strips out of her chosen cultural and religious the white-Canadian identity as the norma- garments, Lamia represents a variance of the tive standard and ensures that ethno-cultural process in the integrated areas of performance. identities remain as dynamic buffer zones at The camera sets up a defined space of repre- the periphery of dominant economic and, con- sentation where the ethnicized Other is now versely, political practices. Such a basic, schiz- authenticating her ‘conversion.’ This titillating oid, cultural process is channelled through the detail in a brief scene, is reflective of a narrative conversion of legitimate, subaltern, social-polit- reverberation throughout the documentary. In ical goals into narcissistic, and individualistic the end, when the Other is encountered by the manifestations. Through media apparatuses, camera, it is the very camera’s gaze that creates which are themselves mechanisms of the the area of performance and that integrates imaginary of social governance, the doubly dis- Otherness as a manipulated/altered rendition placed subjectivity (the Other) is invested with of the bio-political subjectivity. Finally, Other- public meaning through technologies of self- ness is domesticated for the particular message, governance and representation at everyone’s an ideological construction that sustains the economic disposal in a post-modern world. narrative. Lamia is further questioned about her use of the veil and how it is reflective of Faith Without Fear in a the society she lives in. She agrees with her interviewer’s observation that wearing the veil Multicultural world is not entirely a free choice in a society such as Yemen, where one is not allowed to act inde- Irshad Manji’s film resorts to the basic prin- pendently on many accounts, not just issues ciples of permitted performances of Multicul- of public dress. In her words: ‘In that type of turalism: the people being interviewed ‘dance’ society it can’t truly be a free choice… because for and are ‘savoured’ by Manji’s camera lens. it is not a society that allows free choices in Lamia, the Californian woman-convert to Islam many ways, not just in terms of how women who lives in Yemen and is interviewed by Manji, should behave.’ The use of the demonstrative is made to feel self-conscious of her acquired adjective ‘that,’ used in reference to ‘that type Yemeni practices; she is aware of how her inter- of society’, announces (in a pronounced way) viewer and the North American public may see that Lamia is suddenly displaced from her her as someone who has relinquished her sense own context and is caught between her two of agency. The viewer is curious to discover worlds: her Californian origins and her cur- what kind of American woman converts to rent home in Yemen. At that moment, in her Islam and moves to Yemen – who is the ‘us’ that denunciation, she is recuperated to the West.

50 | film international issue 37 Below Writer Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali refugee and Articles Performative Radicalism former member of the Dutch Parliament

While performing radical activism what she is doing is actually scripted by the western media already: criticism of emigration to the East, conversion and observance of Islam, wearing the Burqua which signifies immediately – correctly or incorrectly – the oppression of women’s rights. By following the script once again specific tags are associated with a negative reading of Islamic religious and/or associated cultural practices. The optic personage has naturalized western social practices making them the unques- tioned standard by which the film frames the

The finality of the film is to expose the ‘problem with Islam’ – a term [Manji] repeatedly invokes and legitimizes by a reductive mechanism of interacting with the Other.

This momentarily displaces the viewer, as well, Other. However, Manji’s optic personage is while the meaning of ‘that’ in relationship to highly constructed and very much displays the speaker must be decoded. Where is ‘that’? popular conceptions of the engaged femi- Yemen, United States? The interviewer’s capac- nist, which she even jokes about, referenc- ity to recuperate the interviewee is indicative ing her short spiky hair and other aspects of of the persuasive process that is part of all her appearance. Her focus on external rep- film-making, regardless of claims of objectiv- resentations of identity through dress codes ity. The staging effect is something that the and body language, are for Manji, manifesta- participant and the spectators need to be aware tions of one’s beliefs and/or practices of social of so that the immediacy of the image effect agency. While this, to a degree, corresponds does not result in a lack of critical engagement. to reality, the reductive process of focusing While Manji denounces the uniformity of only on external representations as ideo- the niqab and abaya, since it demeans women logical statements is misrepresentative. by denying a visible manifestation of individu- Part of Manji’s process of identity creation ality and constrains them into the hegemon- and promotion also has to do with whom she ized fabric of society, it is hypocritical to lead aligns and maligns herself: for example Sal- such a line of inquisition with Lamia – who man Rushdie is invoked as a ‘fellow traveller’, chooses to wear the Burqua in order to com- while the Imam is introduced as her fiercest ply to norms of social acceptability in her critic. The documentary subjects, for the most new-found home – when Manji herself dons part, are unaware of how their responses will a turtle-neck in Yemen, an equatorial climate. be framed and absorbed to become part of the This indicates that she too, to a degree, will aura of the media icon. In other words, the conform in order to avoid open confrontation appearance of Salman Rushdie in the docu- or causing offence. However, contrary to this mentary, is suggestive of a shared religious performance of social sensitivity, what sus- and critical perspective between Manji and the tains the narcissistic regurgitation through Muslim-born writer and essayist, who had a the whole documentary is that the other side fatwa issued against him in 1989 by Ayatollah of narcissism is the authoritarian self, which Khomeini, then the Supreme Leader of Iran. manifests as moral superiority and control of Although both criticize Islam, Manji is a believer others. Ultimately, Manji, as the optic person- who advocates looking to the Qur’an as the age, determines what is acceptable without word of God, whereas Rushdie is, ultimately, a having it infringe on women’s personal rights. secular intellectual. Nevertheless, their differences are not identified in the film. She pres-

www.filmint.nu | 51 Articles Performative Radicalism ents a sound bite of her and Salman Rushdie in draw parallels to illustrate how she too lives in intellectual conversation, insinuating a com- danger, is called a devil or Satan, and is threat- plicity of perspective. The same occurs with ened for her beliefs. Ultimately, these parallels the Yemeni woman writer, Arwa Othman, who are narcissistic ruminations meant to portray is critical of the changes in women’s status her as a would-be martyr and strangely paral- in Yemen over the last thirty years, and who lel other practises of martyrdom that the media advocates for women’s rights. Manji’s inter- associates with specific areas of the globe. view of her in the film focuses solely on the fact that Arwa does not always wear the full-veil Unveiling Maya and shows some of her hair. Manji emphasises that Arwa places herself in danger through this In conclusion we cannot deny that there is choice, and then draws parallels between the a process at work: across Canada, the US, and dangers Arwa faces and the threats against Europe, pro-West Muslim-born optic personages her own life. The focus on the optic person- have appeared such as Ayaan Hirsi Ali in Hol- age and her similarities with the interviewee, land (now in the US), or a Magdi Allam in Italy. however, do not allow space for the elucidation They are the result of a mechanism of cultural of Arwa’s philosophical or religious opinions production larger than themselves. These optic beyond her thoughts on this one issue. What personages are interchangeable, new masks appears to be empathy for the Other is actu- for a Commedia dell’Arte of the post-political. ally a narcissistic manipulation that allows As characters, they are bound by their optic focus to again revert back to the optic person- personage and yet they can improvise within age, who is the actual subject of the film. the confines of their masks. However, given Ultimately, the scene with Arwa Othman that time has come to a stop – as auspicated does not permit explanation of the problematic in Shakespeare’s Henry IV or by Fukuyama’s Yemeni social, cultural, and political develop- acolytes – it seems that, paradoxically, time ments in the last three decades. Arwa, in the is on their side, as they encompass and navi- article ‘Freedom flower “has withered away”’, gate the post-political conditions of the pres- explains: ‘Our expatriates were influenced ent times. In this process the political subject by the… Sunni Salafis in Saudi Arabia and comes to the oblivion of historical referents imported their views of the veil. We slowly necessary to engage critically with the world started to see the al mashaqir and traditional portrayed by the optic personage, as well as the dress vanishing to be replaced by the veil’ (al world at large. Therefore, the possible critical Qadhi 2008). The editing of the film focuses on map ends up corresponding to the actual ter- the homogenizing practice of wearing the abaya ritory of representation. Whatever references and niqãb, in order to naturalize a dichotomy are given by the optic personage are mirrored of self-legitimization that inherently denun- back in a closed, self-referential circuit. It is ciates the other perspective. In the end, the not a labyrinth and yet in this world-out-there, veil, as an image, supplants any discourse anyone who wants to participate is contained around the veil that would nuance its complex- by the ever fluid images of engagement. In the ity. Within this general context of personal- film, when we are shown the map of Yemen ized issues and relations, the viewer is left to this corresponds one-to-one to the rhetorical assume that Manji’s position is the same as all strategy that makes Yemen the synecdoche for the people she interviews, which may or may the whole Arab world. In this process of cultural not be the case. With Salman Rushdie or Arwa and geopolitical reductionism, the complexity Othman she manipulates the conversations surrounding the issues selected for digestible and interviews in order to elicit from them the representation is sublimated by the narcis- position that she is arguing in the film, allow- sistic and self-referential personalization, so ing no nuance to interfere with the process of that each oppressed woman that we see on polarization that the narrative sets up. Rush- the streets wearing a veil is actually an exten- die and Othman represent radicalism within sion of the optic personage. For example, when their own communities, and their resistance Manji goes to a shop in Yemen and costumes to social norms puts them in physical danger. herself in the Burqua, she adopts sarcasm and In both cases, Manji uses the opportunity to condescension to ridicule first the use of the

52 | film international issue 37 Articles Performative Radicalism

Burqua and then the male salesclerk who is Contributor details capitalizing on this cultural fashion norm and, by implication, capitalizing on the oppres- Sheena Wilson is Assistant Professor at sion of women. However, by personalizing the Faculté Saint-Jean, the French campus issues, through jokes and complaints about at the University of Alberta, Canada. Her the physical constriction the Burqua imposes research interests involve an interdisci- on her ability to see and breathe properly, the plinary approach to the study of human/ process of aestheticizing the subjugation of civil rights abuses as they are repre- one gender by another is not addressed. No sented in literature, film, and media. serious discussion or criticism takes place. The film simplifies discussion of the Burqua to William Anselmi (who, as a 6 year old, western stereotypes about how this garment was inspired by the film La passion de limits the freedom to express one’s individu- Jean d’Arc) teaches at the University of ality through fashion statements. There is no Alberta in the department of Modern acknowledgement of the rigidity inherent in Languages and Cultural Studies. western fashion choices that classify different social groups according to clothing and References accessories (including technological devices). Furthermore, the narrative does not address al Qadhi, Mohammed, (2008) “Freedom the individuality cloaked by the Burqua which flower ‘has withered away,’” The National. can still be expressed within designated social August 13, http://www.thenational.ae/ spaces: either the private sphere or in women article/20080813/FOREIGN/108149804/1107. only gatherings, for example. There is no Last accessed Oct. 1, 2008. nuance. The issues represented are swallowed Faith Without Fear (2007), Dir. Ian McLeod, up by the dichotomy set up in the film, which written by Irshad Manji and Ian McLeod, does not aspire to create social awareness, Narr. Irshad Manji, 90th Parallel and NFB. only to argue for an agenda of Islamic reform. The optic personage performs for the a-his- Manji, Irshad (2008), Irshad Manji.com: for torical audience, a post-political engagement Muslim Reform and Moral Courage, 1 Sep- on a multicultural stage in Canada and else- tember, http://www.irshadmanji.com/ where. This performance of resistant ethnicity home. Last accessed Oct. 1, 2008. is one outcome of legislative policies created to ---. (1997), Risking Utopia: on the perpetuate illusions of diversity in pluralistic edge of a new democracy, Vancou- societies. The conditions and tensions within ver, BC: Douglas & McIntyre. the contemporary world, represented as the natural setting for the clash of civilizations, ---. (2003), The Trouble with Islam: A nurture the evolution of the optic personage Wake-Up Call for Honesty and Change, as the focal point for a performance of social Toronto: Random House. engagement that presents no threat to the cur- Moore, Michael (2008), Welcome rent western paradigm. These performances to Michael Moore.com, 1 Septem- ensure the constancy of existing conditions: ber, http://www.michaelmoore. the optic personages (Manji and others like com/. Last accessed Oct. 1, 2008. her) are imbued with an aura of activism but their performances freeze, through the image frame, any actual intervention in the social sphere. At the end of the movie, Manji and her partner parachute to the ground, to announce the need for reform. The scene is emblematic since it resonates with another moment from recent history: George W. Bush, in full pilot’s gear, lands on the USS ‘Abraham Lincoln’, at sea off the coast of San Diego California on May 1, 2003 to announce the end of the Iraq War. •