Nareeman Dosa, Saudi-born of Sudanese heritage, grew up in the Arab world experiencing the casual racism that most black Arabs face. In this film she visits Tunisia, the first Arab country to have made racial discrimination a criminal offence, and embarks on a journey to explore whether law can change deep-rooted prejudice.

First, Nareeman meets two of the Tunisian women who campaigned for Law 50, as it’s known. Saadia Mosbah is a long-time anti-racism activist and Jamilla Ksiski is the first black woman elected to Tunisia’s parliament.

Saadia introduces Nareeman to some of those black Arabs who are now using Law 50 to fight cases of discrimination at work. Lassad Karim says his manager first racially abused him and then sacked him, but his case was dismissed for lack of hard evidence. In contrast, ‘Atef’, a nurse in the city of Sfax, used his phone to record the racial abuse he was subjected to by a co-worker. He won his case, but the abuse has continued on social media.

Nareeman finds out that Law 50 doesn’t just tackle explicit abuse and discrimination. In principle, it allows someone like Kamal Ziri, a taxi driver, to rid himself of the name he’s inherited that identifies him as the descendant of a slave – but it’s up to a court to decide whether he’ll be permitted to do so.

Fighting racism isn’t only a matter of law. Nareeman meets Saleh Baraka, a black Tunisian who has long been a pioneer in the fashion industry. He believes black Arabs should take their seat at the table without being asked, and that black is beautiful.

Nareeman’s investigation into the new law turns into a visceral personal journey. As she interacts with other black Arab women, she’s forced to confront the deep scars of the racism she herself endured as she was growing up.

She travels to Djerba, in Tunisia’s south, where she meets a family who appear to epitomise integration. The husband is black, the wife is white, and their son believes that true love is colourblind. Nareeman reflects on what issues might be raised when a black person marries a white person.

Thanks partly to her experience with Saleh Baraka, Nareeman feels her journey ends with a greater sense of her value as a black woman, and a feeling that legislation, even within its limits, can still offer hope to black Arabs. Show less