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As "I" Want
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I wake up refreshed after a good night's sleep.
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Ready to start a new day.
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I prepare my breakfast as I want it and I dress up the way I want to.
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Hold on! Did I say the way I want?
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I wish it was like that.
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Unlike the other girls,
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I dress up the way my dad wants me to,
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the way my brother wants me to, the janitor, the boys on the block, the young, the old,
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people that know me and people who don't,
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people who call themselves my friends,
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and people who pose their religious convictions and traditions on me.
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So there goes my day.
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As I fix it to suit everybody else's taste.
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People look at me as if they have an authority over the way I dress.
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They feel the need to control my personal choices and they express it in the ugliest and dirtiest ways possible.
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When I ask WHY?!
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The tables turn. They all turn decent and I become the obscene one.
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Religion says you shouldn't dress this way.
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Tradition asks you not to look that way.
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If you really respect your religious standards, then act on the one that says lower your gaze.
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At the end of the day,
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each of us is responsible for his or her own acts, aren't we?
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What's strange, is that no matter what I dress like, it really never stops.
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I'm supposed to keep walking.
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I'm supposed to listen.
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Keep quiet,
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and keep my head down, right?
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No!
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Nothing will ever make me keep my head down.
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It's not about the way I dress,
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it's about the way you think.
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The freedom of Arab women's wear doesn't promote going against any religion but only personal freedom; including the freedom of women's conservative wear in non-Arab countries.
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As "I" Want
Written, Produced, Directed, & Edited by Alaa Al Sa'di
Cinematographer - Zaid Ak
Main Actress - Bisan Khalifeh
Voiceover - Ayesha El Shamayleh
Music by - Omar Afuni
PLURAL+