Sophie Schrago

In a cramped storefront in Mumbai, Khatoon presides over the city’s first women’s Sharia court: one of the only spaces in India where Muslim women can seek legal redress, be heard, and speak their anger out loud. As one of India’s first female Islamic law judges, she counsels couples in crisis and women fleeing abuse, showing that religious law, in the right hands, can be a force for women’s emancipation. This documentary feature grew out of fifteen years of research, beginning with an ethnographic fieldwork conducted inside Khatoon’s courtroom. Supported by a Wenner-Gren Fejos Postdoctoral Fellowship awarded in 2019, the project transformed years of ethnographic scholarship into a film: a form better suited to capturing the visceral, living quality of this place. Production spanned France, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States, with support from France’s prestigious CNC Aide aux Cinémas du Monde. The film had its world premiere in 2026 at the True/False Film Festival, and went on to screen at Visions du Réel, Hot Docs, and DOXA Film Festival. In an era of widespread Islamophobia, it offers an important counter-narrative: a portrait of Muslim Indian women as independent, courageous, and fully in charge of their own stories.