“Why can't you actually find a man?” Sonbol is asked by her mother. The answer is silence. Sonbol Fatemi is 35: she is attractive, single and divorced, has her own dentist surgery, likes to tell dirty jokes and has a passion for car races - competing against men. Sonbol lives in the holy city Mashad, in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Living a life like this in Iran means that she has to fight everyday. Against her mother who would love to arrange another marriage for her. Against the sports administration that wants to exclude women from rallyes altogether. And not least, against her own doubts about God and whether He is actually by her side. SONBOL gives a unique insight into a torn society by painting the portrait of an extraordinary and unconventional woman who pays a high price in order to be her self.

Passing the Rainbow looks at ways of subverting the strict gender norms in Afghan society, in areas like performance and film production as well as in daily and political life. A theatre company run by a young teacher in Kabul who moonlights as an actress, a policewoman who also directs action films, an activist with the organisation RAWA who defends the radical separation of State and religion, and Malek, who lives as if she were a boy in order to get a job: these women are the heroines of Passing the Rainbow.

Since Kyrgyzstan gained its Independence in 1991, there has been a revival of the ancient practice of Ala-Kachuu, which translates roughly as “grab and run”. More than half Kyrgyz women are married after being kidnapped by the men who become their husbands. Some escaped after violent ordeals, but most are persuaded to stay by tradition and fear of scandal. Although the practice is said to have its root in nomadic customs, the tradition remains at odds with modern Kyrgyzstan. Ala-Kachuu was outlawed during Soviet era and remains illegal under the kyrgyz criminal code, but the law has rarely been enforced to protect women from this violent practice.