In Her Hands

In a country like Afghanistan with conservative people mind about the Women, Zarifa did a Bravery to stand against patriarchy and did a lot for Women of her country. Every Afghan should be proud of her, otherwise loosing such women is painful and later they will regret. If Afghan people support people like Zarifa, there will be no matter to stop any kind of improvement in Afghanistan. When she says that put the guns down and get a pen, it means that she thinks like King Amanullah Khan and she care about Afghan Women and men education and that's the only way the country will improve.

Many regards for Zarifa and her companions.

Afghanistan in the 1970s before the coup and religious fanaticism was a much more peaceful if poor society, and women had more freedom and opportunities than they do now, albeit by the standards of the 70s. This documentary about the youngest mayor of the capital of a small province in Afghanistan gives us a hint of what could have been.

Zarifa Ghafari was appointed major of Maidan Shahr, the capital of Maidan Wardak Province in central Afghanistan, next to Kabul, by then-President Ashraf Ghani. She wasn't the first female mayor, but she did earn her appointment and she did try to serve the city well. Unfortunately, Wardak is very conservative and so she had to do her job from the relative safety of nearby Kabul.

The Good: We get to see both the private and public life of Zarifa Ghafari - anyway as much as could culturally be allowed. The tender moments between her and her supportive fiance are particularly poignant. So too were the conflicts between her and her father, such as about having her then-fiance visit her before marriage. These show her to be the kind of leadership Afghanistan needs.

The Bad: There are some factual errors in the documentary which could have easily been corrected. So it's strange that the film-makers left them in there. Also, the use of dramatic music simply doesn't fit the tone of a serious documentary. And finally, there are some scenes that look more like a political campaign or propaganda, giving fodder to her critics.

I don't know if this documentary is good for Zarifa Ghafari or not. But I believe it is good for the rest of the world to see that Afghanistan is not 100% some backward country or society. There are good people there trying to make their home a better place, at great risk and cost to themselves and their loved ones. Afghanistan is a beautiful country, and it deserves better.

Zarifa was one of the female mayors in Afghanistan but not the FIRST female mayor in Afghanistan. I appreciate Zarifa's working as female mayor in Afghanistan, but when she claims she was the first female mayor in Afghanistan, that is a fraud. She was not appointed as Maydan Shahr's Mayor based on a fair competition as she claims, but she was appointed as Maydan Shahr's mayor based on her ethnicity and her network in Ghani's office.

This movie can't be called a Documentary, but it could be called a Sci-Fi, Action and Thriller movie; Because it is based on a fake story.

It was mostly a made up story, than a real documentary. One star is too much for it. I am sorry for Netflix for funding such a fraud.

The film has misrepresented all the historical facts.

Zarifa is not the first female mayor of Afghanistan.

Zarifa's father was killed in an inter-tribal conflict.

And this person is normalizing and keeping silent for the genocide of Hazaras in Afghanistan.

#StopHazaraGenocide.

We need facts that aware people around the world,and help women and people in Afghanistan .

But like this films just show the Taliban good and everything legal or nothing happen in Afghanistan ?

Although In Afghanistan, women are whipped and stoned and it is human rights violations.

So The film has misrepresented all the historical facts.

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She was only 26 when she became a mayor in a country where once women would not dare walk alone on the streets. Her work was considered as blasphemous by many in her country. She was the mayor of Maidan Wardak, a town in Afghanistan surrounded by the Taliban territory. The youngest woman mayor in a country where for many decades women had been deprived of their basic rights. And then comes the 15 Aug, 2022 and she witnesses once again the darkness that she had known as a child slowly engulfs her beloved country. The grim reality returns. The fall of Kabul.

A great subject but documentary fails to capture the essence of it. It is a blurb as it leaves its viewers dig in further themselves to find more. A hands-on heuristic. Zaria Ghafari shown as a gutsy woman leader in the starting of the documentary surfaces as a frightened, weak deserter. While documentary deftly portrays the life in a war torn country amidst incessant fear and instability with a flawless flow, it fails to advance beyond the preface. Executive producers Hillary Clinton and Chelsea Clinton.