Deeyah Khan – “Abortion Wars” –

– When I was little, I read stories that resistance to abortion was the main motivation behind the biggest terrorist bombings in America in the 80s and 90s. I have always been fascinated by why abortion is so politicized in the United States and what it makes people want to bomb abortion clinics. This has been a personal project for me, but it suddenly became more intimate, Deeyah Khan (43) tells Dagbladet.

The filmmaker and human rights activist released two films leading up to the US elections, currently showing on NRK under the banner “Deeyah Khan in Trump’s America.” For 22 months, the former Norwegian-Pakistani artist has taken his daughter across the great continent, to make a film about hate crimes against Muslims and another about resistance to abortion.

She believes both issues have become more inflamed since Donald Trump came to power. In the films, Khan meets armed militiamen ready to fight Muslims, and protesters both for and against abortion, the latter of whom daily attack those who act and those who must abort.

Absolutely terrible

This week, Khan received the 2020 Fritt Ord Award for his fearless and methodically innovative documentaries on extremism. She previously won two Emmy Awards and received several other awards for films in which she addresses women’s rights and provides insight into the dynamics of violent groups.

Both issues concern her. But this time the subject felt extra personal, when the Muslim filmmaker discovered that her unborn son’s heart had stopped on a 12-week check-up during the last part of the film’s work, a story about which she herself has written in Graziadaily.

– It was completely surreal. I fell asleep and felt nothing. It was a week before I could have surgery to remove the fetus. Meanwhile, he was carrying a dead child. It’s absolutely horrible, he says by phone from London, where the 43-year-old lives.

Had children with a friend

In “The Abortion War,” Khan says American abortion opponents have killed 11 people employed in abortion clinics since 1993 and have been behind 84 serious cases of abortion clinic shooting, bombing and burning in the past 10 years.

In the documentary, protesters are seen standing up and yelling “whore” and “murderer” after everyone who goes to an abortion clinic in the state of Alabama, a state where politicians want to ban abortion and now only three remain. clinics. Those who visit clinics are exposed to harassment, regardless of the reason for the visit. The women Khan meets in the film find themselves in difficult situations.

Some cannot afford to feed a child, some are very small, some have removed sick fetuses, and one removes a fetus after it has been raped. All are greeted with howls of protesters heading to the abortion clinic. Khan, who had to go to the hospital to extract her fetus after the miscarriage, felt the problem close to her body.

– Everyone I met in the hospital in England was very nice, but in Alabama they would have yelled at me. It’s unheard of for someone to yell at women in such vulnerable situations, she says excitedly.

Deeyah Khan already has a 3-year-old daughter, Maya, whom she got through a test tube with a friend as a donor. This time, the non-traditional couple would be parents again. And they rejoiced.

– I lost a child that I really wanted to meet, who I thought would be part of our family. I was sad, but I had to go back to film editing. I didn’t have time to focus on myself, I had to finish the movie, also for the other women.

Was scolded

Deeyah Khan previously, in both the current movie about Islam and his previous movie about neo-Nazis, managed to start a dialogue with people who really see multicultural people as their enemy. But during her work on the “War on Abortion,” she was first subjected to direct harassment.

The film shows angry protesters calling Khan both stupid and evil, as well as a Muslim who approves of pedophiles. One also makes statements like “if we were good Muslims, we would rape them.”

– I have been scolded before, but few do it while the camera is working. These men were also incredibly rude. They yelled at women all day, talking about raping and touching babies. I felt nauseous and angry, and it was completely over for me, he tells Dagbladet.

– I am usually very calm in such situations. But this was very intense, and damn it. In fact, I thought I was going to hit one of them with the camera.

But the 43-year-old ruled and later managed to talk to the protesters.

– I had to do it. I was there because I am interested in knowing why they shout provocations. It is a kind of shield. People act provocatively to exclude others and so that no one can get close to them, he says and continues:

– It is also interesting that I am insulted for being Muslim in the film about abortion. First I thought: this should have been in the movie about the Muslim religion. But it shows that these opinions are connected. It is often the same type of people who are against many things. They are against the rights of women, against feminism and against Muslims. That is why they are also very against me. I was a legitimate target for them, Khan reasoned.

Khan, who has had two abortions before, says at the same time that he understands opponents of abortion.

– The potential of a life runs out during an abortion, I understand that people are against it. But it is never an easy choice for those who choose abortion. And no one can make that decision for anyone else. Women must be able to decide for themselves about their body and their life.

I am optimistic

Khan returned from the United States in September and has since worked on the making of his two films. In the future, the filmmaker will try to write a book and be with his daughter. Possibly he will return to the United States to make more films about the great differences of the vast country.

After Donald Trump recently appointed conservative Justice Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court, Khan fears that the 1973 “Roe v. Wade” ruling, which guarantees American women the right to abortion, is in jeopardy.

But now that Joe Biden has won the presidential election, he hopes it will be easier for the vulnerable groups he has met in his two films.

– I think it will be a little easier for minorities. But one of the biggest challenges Biden has is to bring the country together and include everyone, including poor whites who think Trump is the only one who thinks of them. The United States has many socioeconomic problems and many are struggling. Biden and Harris must show Trump supporters that the cause of their problems is a broken system, not blacks and not immigrants. If they don’t get it, but they continue with the same policy where they only talk to those they like, there will be another unconditional populist and worse, a Trump 0.2. So we’re in real trouble, Khan says, but adds that he’s still optimistic about development in the US.

– My hope is young people. Young people don’t care about gender, sexuality, or skin color. They are in front of us, we simply must not destroy the world before they take over.