Hausa Movie Criticized For "Degrading" Portrayal Of University Girls

The recently released Hausa movie called "Matar Jami'a," or "University Woman," has come under heavy criticism, especally from female university students, for allegedy portraying them as materialistic, impudent, deceptive and flirtatious.

The film focuses on the unhappy and short-lived marriage of a young civil engineer, Mahmud (Ali Nuhu), to Fadila (Halima Atete), an undergraduate daughter of a well-educated family who refuses to apply herself fully to her marital responsibilities. Fadila's excessive devotion to her studies, her stubborn resolve not to conceive a pregnancy until she graduates and her rejection of an uneducated co-wife that would fill the marital vacuum she creates, finally leads to collapse of the marriage.

Mahmud subsequently marries Nuratu (Aisha Tsamiya), a young widow and a secondary school leaver whose husband dies and leaves her with a child. Mahmud's marriage to Nuratu brings him all the happiness he could not find when living with his former wife. Meanwhile, Fadila, who now graduates and has a job but could not remarry, suffers depression and regret after seeing her ex-hubby with his new wife and child.

Fadila is also portrayed as deceptive after she collected a car gift from a wealthy but illiterate businessman even though she knew she was not going to marry him.
Many female students of tertiary institutions who reacted to the movie complained that it misrepresented their way of life and saw it as a setback for the drive towards supporting female education.
A female graduate of English department from Bayero University, Kano (BUK), Zelfa Ado Zango, faulted the film for solely demonizing female varsity students, saying most women in the movie industry also exhibit unacceptable behavior.

"If you look at the society and even in the film industry most of the artists, especially the female actresses are not educated and also don’t stay long in their matrimonial homes. So you see it is the kind of upbringing one receives from home that matters not attending higher institution of learning," she observed.

"I think it is totally wrong for one to condemn the film just because it portrayed female students in negative role."

Another student, Zainab Baba, a graduate of Mass Communications department of BUK, said though some of the situations shown in the movie happen in real life, the film had made an unfair generalization on female students of advanced studies.

"I have watched the film and to be sincere to the producers of the film, what they portrayed in the film is happening in real life. There are some married women that behave as if they are not married. In fact there was a particular married woman that dressed in a way that nobody would believe she was married. The way she relates with her male course mates is jus inappropriate," she said.

"But also at the same time there are those that are obedient to their husbands despite being in higher institution or being graduates. These are the women that respect their marriage and they hardly talk to their lecturers unless it is necessary. I think the mistake made by the producers of the film is that they have generalized and painted any woman that attends a university in a negative way," she added.

However, the film’s producer, Muhammad Auwal, says the objective of Matar Jami'a was not to denigrate women female students of tertiary institutions but to highlight some of the social ills that are inherent in excessive devotion to education.

"Our aim is to pass a message to young men who see highly educated women as the only choices that could give them ultimate marital happiness because of their qualifications. It’s not like that. Young men should first give priority to the personal integrity and moral values of the ladies they wish to marry," she said.

He said the film is also targeted at parents who try to force their daughters to acquire advanced western education even though such daughters may prefer marriage to school.

"These parents are often blinded by their obsession with western education to the extent that they don’t see the potential moral dangers inherent in such situations," he said. "There are many options for a woman to achieve self-reliance without education. For instance, she could engage in commerce."

Auwal said the events portrayed by his film happen in real life but he never meant that all varsity women behave negatively.

"We are all prone to mistake and we are open to criticism because it helps us to improve our work," he said.

Prominent Kannywood actors, like Ali Nuhu, Ibrahim Madawari, Halima Atete, and Aisha Aliyu aka Aisha Tsamiya, have starred in the movie.

READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/55792.html
READ MORE:  http://news.naij.com/55792.html