The Day of Arafah

Hadeel is a young woman in a conservative Arab society who struggles to reconcile her desires and aspirations with what her society wants her to be. She tries to please the society, while simultaneously breaking its rules and taboos in secret. But how long can she maintain her dual lives?
Hadeel is an Arab woman who must live with her doubts about her looks. She always feels like people are looking at her, like people are noticing her physical flaws. Body shaming and image shaming is a phenomenon, woman experience every day. We are always reminded that we are too fat, too skinny, too white, too dark. Hadeel believes she will never find love without makeup and that no one will accept her with vitiligo.
In a society where women are valued mainly for their beauty, Hadeel is worthless. Imagine you must always cover your skin and become very anxious if your foundation fades away. This is how my heroine feels every day. Applying makeup religiously, Hadeel slowly sank so deep into this new identity that she lost herself. She doesn’t want to acknowledge the face beneath makeup. She doesn’t like this new, fake identity that she has created, but she has no choice but to live with it.
Hadeel works in a lingerie shop, where she sells lingerie to young and pretty girls and she sees how they were courted and became engaged thanks to their beauty. This kind of job affirms the social belief that women must look pretty and sexy for men and men expect this from them.

While I am conscience of the prevalence of misogyny in all societies, I want to use this film to draw particular attention to its role in Jordanian society, where it reaches a level of intensity and social control. In addition to emphasising the suppression of women in Jordan, the film will explore Jordanian culture in all of its complexity and dignity.
The story takes place two weeks before Eid Al Adha, when Hadeel’s brother buys a cow to slaughter as a sacrifice for the festival. The cow’s presence triggers Hadeel’s insecurity. It brings back a troubled past of bullying and abuse: she was called La Vache Qui Rit, or “the laughing cow”. We see how the relationship between Hadeel and the cow develops, how their paths cross as Eid Al Adha approaches.
“The Day of Arafah” means the day of awakening. It begins just before noon and lasts until sunset. Pilgrims, in white clothes, gather on Mount Arafah and take their stand of faith before God, entreating His mercy and acceptance. On the Day of Arafah, while the pilgrims go through their spiritual journey, Hadeel will be in her higher state of inner awakening, when she hits rock bottom. While the pilgrims raise their hands for god to accept them, Hadeel will raise her hands to her higher self to accept herself and the skin she lives in.