3 Times Divorced (2007)

Countries - Israel  |  
  • AllMovie Rating
  • User Ratings (0)
  • Your Rating

Share on

Synopsis by Mark Deming

One woman's desperate struggle to overcome the second-class status of women in Arab society is chronicled this documentary from filmmaker Ibtisam Salh Mara'ana. Khitam is a Palestinian woman who through an arranged marriage found herself wed to an Israeli Muslim; she moved with him to Israel and bore him six children, but he was frequently abusive towards her and one day simply abandoned his family. To Khitam's surprise, one day she received word that her husband had divorced her in absentia, and under Muslim law the father was immediately given custody of the children and full claim to all their property. Khitam was determined to win back custody of the children she loved, but she soon learned that despite her marriage she was not considered an Israeli citizen in the Muslim courts because she was a woman, and she was now being pursued as an illegal alien. With no legal recourse available to her, Khitam kidnapped her own children as she continued an uphill battle against the Muslim courts to give women the rights they enjoy in most of the Western World. Three Times Divorced received its North American premiere at Toronto's 2007 Hot Docs International Film Festival.