A Thousand Girls Like Me

The courage displayed by Khatera, an Afghan woman in her early twenties, should not be underestimated. Her father abused her throughout her childhood and got her pregnant several times, so she had a number of abortions and eventually gave birth to a daughter. Acting on the advice of a mullah, she told her story on a TV program and brought charges against her father. When the film begins, Khatera is pregnant again. The child she’s carrying is her evidence: proof that her father raped her.

Sexual violence against women became a punishable offense in Afghanistan in 2009. But in practice, women fear the possible consequences of bringing charges. Regrettably, Khatera’s story is a prime example of this phenomenon: she and her mother receive various threats, including from her own uncles, and they frequently have to move.

The film closely follows this valiant young woman and her mother, and shows how little support Khatera gets from her brothers, who knew the whole time what was going on but didn’t intervene. It all serves to reinforce the extent to which Afghan women must fend for themselves.