Just A Piece of Cloth    

The idea for this documentary came from my own experiences as an educator and from the voices of my former students. I've always been fascinated by how we enact and negotiate our diverse identities during classroom discussions. The stories I heard from some of my female Muslim students propelled me to invite them to think with me about how we could make these stories come alive for a broader audience, how we could challenge and complicate the dominant US narrative of Muslims as terrorists. Arwa Abushariefeh and Mahsa Modirzadeh in particular encouraged me to pursue this project, contributing to its content and shape as well as connecting me with other Muslim women to interview. Ultimately, these stories are not only about Muslim women; they are about all of us and the power of our voices and stories to confront stereotypes about "the Other."
-- Rosemary Henze, director