Wonder Woman of the Week: Haifaa al-Mansour

While female film directors in the United States face stiff obstacles in establishing themselves in Hollywood, female film directors across the world face similar struggles. One such director started from scratch with a film industry in a country that had no movie theaters to show films in. Haifaa al-Mansour of Saudi Arabia became the first female film director in the country, fought sexist backlash against her work, and established a production company to tell the stories of women and girls in a country known for stiff misogyny.

Haifaa al-Mansour had a creative mind from childhood, being the daughter of a famous Saudi poet. Haifaa's father Abdul Rahman Mansour encouraged her to pursue a career in film even though Saudi Arabia did not have a single movie theater between 1983 to 2018. Thus, Haifaa left Saudi Arabia to pursue her education first in Egypt and an American college and then to Australia to finish her film studies.

Haifaa al-Mansour's work began with telling the narratives of Saudi and Arab women, but quickly expanded to tell the stories of marginalized women and girls cross the world with major accolaids for her work on the films Wadjda, Mary Shelley, and Nappily Ever After. Following her success in independent films, Haida married and moved to California to continue her work. Al-Mansour continues to work towards telling the stories of women and bringing to film critically acclaimed literature written by and revolving around strong women.