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Egyptian Women Work Conditions in Khan's Movie "Factory Girl"
Abstract
Egyptian Women have been laboring in various capacities for a very long time. Mohamed Khan’s Factory Girl is a 2013 Egyptian movie about 21-year-old Hiyam, an impoverished worker in a Cairo textile factory. When Salah, the factory's new supervisor, becomes attracted to her and pregnancy comes into play, Hiyam gets into a severe struggle between giving up her job, which is her only source of income, and facing society with an illegitimate pregnancy. This paper deploys the movie to illustrate the double pressures on underprivileged working women in Egypt. I explore the enforced working conditions and ostracization that young women face from both the rigid traditions imposed by the micro and macro aggressions these women are subjugated to by a society that is blinded by stereotypes propagated by the exploitation of the female in capitalist enterprises. By analyzing "Factory Girl”, I provide a snapshot into an unknown work world rarely discussed in the Western academy. Various theoretical concepts, both Western and non-Western, are deployed in this paper to study how discrimination and oppression are positioned on Middle Eastern female laborers. I deploy a Marxist framework to explore gender harassment of poor women laborers.
Discipline
Media Arts
Geographic Area
All Middle East
Sub Area
None