Introduction
The intimate documentary film “For Sama” (2019) conveys the human costs of war through a mother’s video letter to her daughter born in besieged Aleppo. Its overriding message is that despite the destruction of prolonged conflict, the resilience of human love and community prevails.
Two significant climactic moments exemplify this: the scenes of Waad al-Kateab giving birth to Sama while bombing rages outside the hospital (For Sama 2019, 00:13:45-00:16:30), and the family’s harrowing evacuation from Aleppo through dangerous checkpoints and bombed-out streets (For Sama 2019, 01:33:00-01:40:00). These sequences reveal how in even the most trying circumstances, human connections provide slivers of hope.
Scenes Reinforcing Amin’s Vision of Women’s Empowerment
The progressive Islamic thinker Qasim Amin would likely perceive the documentary “For Sama” as affirming his views on advancing women’s rights and condemning autocracy in the Arab world (Amin 1899). Amin was an early advocate for improving women’s social status. In his 1899 landmark book The Liberation of Women, he called for expanding Egyptian women’s access to education, employment, legal rights, and participation in public life as essential to creating a new empowered woman.
Scenes in “For Sama”, such as young mother Waad al-Kateab courageously reporting on the war from rebel-held Aleppo (For Sama 2019, 00:03:20-00:04:30), and women protesting side by side with men against the Assad regime (For Sama 2019, 00:06:00-00:07:00), would resonate strongly with Amin’s progressive beliefs. He argued that women were capable of much more than just traditional roles, if given the opportunity through reforms.
Amin would commend these Syrian women for actively participating in the struggle against dictatorship, proving themselves equal to men in the courage and political activism displayed in the film. Additionally, Amin was a critic of authoritarianism in Egypt and urged more just governance. He would denounce the indiscriminate bombing of civilians and targeting of hospitals and children documented in “For Sama.” Despite supporting resistance against tyranny, Amin opposed violence that harmed innocent people or stifled human rights.
The empowered women and pro-democracy protests in “For Sama” would reinforce Qasim Amin’s reformist views. He believed the Arab world could not advance without improving women’s liberty and rights. At the same time, he would condemn the brutal suppression of dissent by an autocratic regime. Amin sought measured political and social progress grounded in Islamic ethics, rather than extremism on either side. Many of the young Syrian voices in “For Sama” echo the open-minded, progressive values Amin championed.
Qutb’s Rejection of Secular Activism
In contrast to Qasim Amin, the Islamist thinker Sayyid Qutb would likely see “For Sama” as confirmation of his view that Western secular values were corrupting Muslim society. Qutb believed Islam and the West were fundamentally incompatible based on his time studying in America in the late 1940s (Sayyid 2003).
Scenes such as the Aleppo hospital staff dancing and enjoying music amidst the chaos (For Sama 2019, 00:07:30-00:08:00) would serve as prime examples for Qutb of how Western secular influences could undermine Islamic morals and culture. Qutb was disturbed by the materialism, individual freedoms, and sensuality he observed during his stay in the United States.
Similarly, while Qutb opposed dictatorship, he advocated replacing it with a fundamentalist Islamic state governed solely by Sharia law. As outlined in his radical manifesto Milestones, Qutb promoted revolution to establish an Islamic utopia isolated from secular Western values and influences (Sayyid 1964). While he agreed with resisting Assad’s authoritarian rule, Qutb would harshly reject the pro-democracy activism aligned with the West displayed in “For Sama.” The empowered young Syrians fighting for freedom would be considered naïve tools of Western liberal corruption in Qutb’s rigid ideological perspective.
Fundamentally, while Qasim Amin regarded the nascent women’s empowerment and democratic activism in “For Sama” as encouraging advancement, Sayyid Qutb would view these developments as merely symptomatic of the insidious infection of secular Western individualism and moral decay eroding traditional Islamic society. For Qutb, only through relentless imposition of his own rigid, austere interpretation of Islam could the downward spiral into sinful modernity be reversed and his idealized utopian order attained.
Shared Humanity Rising Above Rigid Divides
Ultimately, “For Sama” reveals the human toll of war through an intimate mother’s letter to her daughter born in besieged Aleppo. Despite ideological differences, the film’s core message is the resilience of parental love in the face of harrowing conflict. Scenes of Waad al-Kateab caring for baby Sama highlight this universal human story. “I wanted to protect you from all this, though I couldn’t. I wanted to give you peace, though I couldn’t,” Waad narrates (For Sama 2019, 01:36:20-01:36:40). No matter the circumstances, a mother’s devotion to her child perseveres.
The film captures civilians’ shared experiences of war – as parents, children, families – trying to survive, love, and find meaning in the chaos. While thinkers like Qasim Amin and Sayyid Qutb offer divergent ideologies, this profoundly human story transcends their divisions. “For Sama” offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of ordinary Syrians as they strive to endure extraordinary trauma. Their tales of resilience and love offer hope amidst ideologies and inhumanity.
The divergent perspectives of Qasim Amin and Sayyid Qutb underscore how “For Sama” engages with deeper debates surrounding modernity, women’s rights, secularism, and Islam. While Amin would see cause for optimism and progress, Qutb would view only moral corruption. Yet the film’s core message transcends these ideological differences. Its empathetic portrayal of civilians caught in war’s crossfire speaks to our shared human experiences as parents, children, families, and communities seeking to survive and find meaning.
References
Amin, Qasim. 1899. The Liberation of Women and The New Woman: Two Documents in the History of Egyptian Feminism. Translated by Samiha Sidhom Peterson. Cairo American University in Cairo Press.
For Sama. Directed by Waad Al-Kateab and Edward Watts. 2019. PBS Distribution.
Sayyid, Qtub. 1964. Milestones. New Delhi: Islamic Book Service.
Sayyid, Qtub. 2003. “Sayyid Qutb’s America.” NPR. 2003.