Inside a posh shopping mall in Kabul, a quiet gender revolution is under way. Compared to other movie theaters in Kabul, the cinema inside, the Galaxy Family Miniplex, looks tidy and modern. But the biggest difference is the audience.
"Here you see women coming in often without a mahram[an unmarriageable family member, which for women can also be an escort] and you feel free," says 29-year-old Rohina Haroon. The Galaxy Family Miniplex is Afghanistan's first cinema for women; Haroon has been there four times.
For the past 15 years, cinemas have been almost exclusively men's territory in Afghanistan, considered off-limits and inappropriate for women. On a recent visit to Pamir Cinema, one of Kabul's oldest movie theaters, marijuana smoke thickened the air, and seats were full of boys and men who whistled and clapped when a female character appeared on the silver screen. "This is really something quite radical in Afghanistan, to build a cinema for women," says 34-year-old Abu Bakar Gharzai, who opened the Galaxy Family Miniplex in March of last year.
Gharzai grew up as a refugee in Pakistan and later studied in India. When he moved back to Afghanistan in 2008, he quickly noticed there weren't many places to go out as a family: Suddenly, going to the movies—something Gharzai had done on a regular basis in India—was out of bounds for his wife. He soon decided to open a cinema where women could go.
Read more on Broadly
Advertisement