Humaira Bilkis

Humaira Bilkis is a Dhaka-based independent filmmaker and producer. Her early forays into filmmaking are informed by a critical reading of media, culture, gender, and development issues — arising from her academic background in Mass Communication and Journalism. She graduated from the Creative Documentary program at Sri Aurobindo Center for Arts and Communication in New Delhi. Bilkis explores the complexity of human relationships through an observational approach. Her work tends to be self-reflexive; THINGS I COULD NEVER TELL MY MOTHER is her most in-depth work in this domain. As an associate producer and director, she has worked on a wide range of projects, including with the Oscar-winning filmmaker Sharmin Obaid Chinoy and the Japan Broadcasting Corporation.

“[...] Bangladesh has a Sunni Muslim majority. Islam in this nation is nourished by a rich and ancient artistic and literary culture. For a long time, Islam in Bangladesh was a syncretic religion, full of local rituals and beliefs, and quite different from the austerity found elsewhere. But with the introduction of martial law, the Islamization of political and public institutions progressed until 1988, when General Ershad declared Islam to be the state religion. This was the beginning of a slow but continuous transformation. The Muslim community -89% of the country’s total population-follows and practices Shariah, or Islamic Law, in civil activities such as property transactions, marriage, and divorce. But the rest of the community, including the 10% Hindu minority as well as other groups, practice standard law as per the constitution of Bangladesh.
The country has practiced secularism since its inception, but its inner harmony was wrecked by the enforcement of martial law and the definition of a state religion.
These changes have profoundly affected individuals’ lives, especially the lifestyle of women. Their daily lives are punctuated by numerous rituals, restrictions, and proscriptions. The wearing of the purdah, the Bangladeshi hijab, has become widespread. Madrasa schools are multiplying, and religious education has spread. A system of rigid and dogmatic values has influenced the mentality of Bangladeshi youth. The preaching of the most radical imams resounds through the streets of the capital. Since 2013, my country has experienced an upsurge in tensions provoked by Muslim fundamentalists [...] After studying filmmaking in India, I returned to Bangladesh, where I strengthened my reconnection to my homeland and came to grips with a few different realities. I noticed that my own mother, once an extraordinarily unprejudiced woman and exalted artist, had become obsessed with Shariah law, adopting the practice of extreme Islamic rituals. THINGS I COULD NEVER TELL MY MOTHER is about our reunion. Long separated by distance and now divided by our beliefs, we must learn to understand and respect one other again.”