A Girl Named Mahmoud

A Girl Named Mahmoud
A Girl Named Mahmoud
Directed by	Niazi Mostafa
Written by	Ahmed Abdel Wahab; Bahgat Kamar
Starring	Soheir Ramzy; Mohamed Reda; Samir Ghanem; Zinat Sidqi; Hala Fakher
Release dates	January 1, 1975; ;
Running time	102 minutes
Country	Egypt
Language	Arabic

A Girl Named Mahmoud (Arabic: بنت اسمها محمود; Bint Ismaha Maĥmood) is a 1975 Egyptian comedy film directed by Niasi Mustafa. The film stars Soheir Ramzy, Mohamed Reda, Samir Ghanem, Zinat Sidqi and Hala Fakher. The film opened in Egypt in January 1975.

Plot

Ĥamida (Suhair Ramzi) is the daughter of an illiterate widower, al-Ĥag Firghalee. Firghalee attempts to prevent his daughter from studying at a university, so the medical student Ĥassan helps her. After Firghalee reveals he will marry Ĥamida to a boy she dislikes, Ĥassan has her disguise herself as a man, Mahmoud. Ĥassan and his friends lie to Firghalee, telling him they performed surgery to change Ĥamida into a man.^[1] Ĥamida's disguise has an effeminate appearance, and both male and female employees at Firghalee's furniture shop are attracted to "Mahmoud" and many conclude "he" is a homosexual.^[2]

Firghalee's father mistakenly believes that "Mahmoud" is a homosexual when he sees "him" kiss Hassan. He arranges to have Lawaĥith, a cabaret entertainer, meet "Mahmood" to set "his" sexuality straight, but "Mahmoud" is not attracted to women and is unwilling to sleep with Lawaĥith.^[2] One woman says that she has the child of "Mahmoud" and two women claim to be engaged to "Mahmoud". After a doctor mistakenly states "Mahmoud" is pregnant, Ĥamida reveals her true identity. She and Ĥassan marry.^[3]

Cast

Samir Sabry as Hassan
Soheir Ramzy as Hamida/Mahmoud
Mohamed Reda as Farghali
Samir Ghanem as Wahid
Zinat Sidqi as Om Ibrahim
Hala Fakher as Suad
Sayed Zayan as Sayed Kolonia
Salama Elias as University Teacher
Fatma Omara as Tawhida
Soheir El-Barouni as Lawahez

Reception

Samar Habib, author of Female Homosexuality in the Middle East: Histories and Representations, wrote that the film "exploits the genre of transvestism as comedy" and that "several homoerotic images can be presented safely and innocently to mainstream audiences" through a female character pretending to be a male.^[1] She explained that because no characters consciously desire those of the same sex and because Ĥamida is still a woman, the film puts the audience "at ease".^[4] Habib added that "the question of [whether homoeroticism is forbidden in religion] does not surface so much as the issues of cultural belief, perhaps because the two can sometimes be interchangeable."^[1]

Habib concluded that the film does not successfully thoroughly examine homoerotic desire and that the film "attempts to rationalize homosexuality as a form of transgenderism (women who desire other women must be essentially men)".^[4]