Credit: Fuuse Films
Deeyah Khan is an investigative journalist of Afghan/Pakistani decent, who in 2017 released a documentary film aimed at understanding the very people who hate her for her race. In the film titled, White Right: Meeting the Enemy, Deeyah travels to the United States from England to spend time with several leaders and members of neo-Nazi and white Supremacist organizations found in the darkest corners of our society. Several times throughout the documentary, Deeyah puts herself in situations that put her life in jeopardy, all for the purpose of understanding why these people carry so much hate in their hearts.
The strategy Deeyah employs in her interviews is direct engagement to try to understand how they think and why. What repeatedly occurs as she spends time with these men, is that their stances begin to soften. They begin to exhibit signs of warmth and affection towards Deeyah, many even begin to consider her as a friend. Many of these men had never known or met anyone from the groups they claim to hate. Which ultimately leads to several of the films participants actually leaving their hate groups. In an interview with Vox, Deeyah is quotes as saying, "Ken Parker was the guy in the film with the swastika on his chest who was posting neo-Nazi flyers in a Jewish neighborhood when I met him. He was saying the most vile things I’ve ever heard. He actually marched at Charlottesville as well. Well, he called me up a few months after the film aired and he said, “I’ve left.” He said he left because he used the word “friend” to describe me. Now, this was one of the most extreme people I met. But his experience with me opened him up to speaking to other people who are different from him."
This documentary was fascinating and is well worth a watch. This style of investigative journalism and documentary filmmaking are incredibly interesting and thought provoking. Deeyah also has two other award winning documentary films that are similar in subject matter and style to Meeting the Enemy, titled, Jihad: A Story of the Others and Banaz: A Love Story.
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