Cinematizing Women’s Struggles: Gendered Laws in <i>Sofia</i> (2018)

How can feminist filmmakers use film as a counter-discourse to subvert hegemonic gender norms in a context where gendered ideologies and laws are iconized and strongly enforced? While much of the existing literature focuses on gender representation in Arab cinema, there is a significant gap in research examining how filmmakers in the Maghreb, particularly Morocco, engage with law, gender, and agency to de-stereotype saturated clichés indoctrinated in religious and popular culture (for example, <i>hchouma</i> and <i>fitna</i>). This paper tackles this gap by analyzing <i>Sofia</i> (2018), directed by Meryem Benm’Barek, through feminist film theory, decolonial feminism, and theories of agency. Using qualitative methods, such as intertextual discourse and thematic analysis, this study examines how the film deconstructs the ambivalence of female agency in challenging restrictive gender ideologies and laws. In particular, the study raises important questions about how post-colonial filmmakers balance the exposure of gender inequalities while avoiding reductive (re)presentations of women and resisting Western stereotypes about Third World women and societies. The findings foreground Moroccan feminist cinema as a powerful site for cultural resistance, gender norms contestation, and enunciation.