Educational Media Reviews Online

In this documentary, Huckabee explores accusations made by Asra Nomani of growing extremism in her Muslim community in West Virginia, as demonstrated by increasingly rigid gender roles and religious isolationism. While Nomani is the center of the film, the director provides other members of the mosque the opportunity to express their viewpoints. This includes showing points of view varying from blatant disrespect for Nomani and threats of violence against her for her progressive campaign, to supporting for her goals but disagreeing with her methods. As an outside observer to the events depicted over the two years covered in the film, it is obvious that fear is a strong motivator for everyone involved – fear of how their community will look to outsiders, fear of extremism and its consequences, fear of passivity, fear of action, fear of women, fear of violence; all of these are factors for different players.

Overall, this was a very thoughtful and thought-provoking look at Muslim-American culture and the difficulty in nurturing an inclusive community amid conflicting ideologies.

The film primarily features interviews, with some news clips of the events surrounding Nomani’s protest.

For additional exploration of the impact of gender segregation within Muslim communities, see also Me and The Mosque.