Nobody’s Metaphor
Nobody’s Metaphor is a documentary made by Chouette Films in 2018, which follows a group of school girls in North West London as they embark on the Muslim Girls Fence project, a unique and exciting initiative by Maslaha and British Fencing that brings together the sport of fencing, conversation and creativity.
Open to all girls yet centring the needs of Muslim girls, participants attend a series of fencing classes and immersive creative workshops, designed around topics of conversation chosen by them.
The documentary follows the girls as they pick up a sword for the first time, in a journey to build confidence and take up space through movement. In a sport traditionally dominated by white, elite men, they find inspiration in Olympic fencer Ibtihaj Muhammad and challenge the narratives that frame Muslim women and girls as weak or oppressed. Through poetry, they reflect on identity, feminism, and the stereotypes that shape how they are seen, pushing back against racism and Islamophobia and reclaiming the power to tell their own stories on their own terms.
