What Comes from Sitting in Silence?

Sophie Schrago

In a cramped storefront in Mumbai’s Naupada neighbourhood, Khatoon—a middle-aged woman with an unflinching presence—runs the city’s first women’s Sharia court. One of India’s first female Islamic law judges, she counsels couples in crisis and women fleeing abuse, navigating volatile emotions with calm and authority. In this makeshift courtroom, plaintiffs are given rare permission to speak out, express anger and seek justice. Through intimate observation of Khatoon’s daily work, the film follows a space where religious law is reinterpreted and women challenge entrenched structures of power.

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