The New Yorker Documentary

This short film follows a rebellious girl who asks questions about when and why she needs to wear a hijab.

Film by Azadeh Navai

When the filmmaker Azadeh Navai was five years old, her mother took her to have her photo taken for an I.D. And, before she knew it, a scarf was placed over Navai’s head and tied under her chin. In Iran, girls are legally required to wear the hijab when they hit puberty, but parents often have their much younger daughters photographed wearing a scarf so that the photo can be used for years. In Navai’s short film “Rizoo,” the titular character finds herself in a similar situation. Rizoo is an eight-year-old from California, living in Iran with her family and still figuring out the rules around wearing a head scarf. She gets different instructions from her mother, her grandmother, and her schoolteacher, and we see her working to figure it all out—she’s highly motivated, because she needs an I.D. in order to take a swimming class at a community center. “I made ‘Rizoo’ for people to see ordinary Iranian life,” Navai told The New Yorker. “I’m hoping for people to realize that, despite the constant discrimination and censorship in Iran, we find ways to bring joy into our lives.”