At the end of 2017, a New York Times documentary called “She Wants Independence. In Egypt, That Can be Dangerous” was widely shared among my social circles. It wasn’t the relatively sensitive content of the video, which was narrating the experience of a young Egyptian woman who wanted to move out of her home, that struck me, it was the backlash that soon ensued. According to several acquaintances and lengthy social-media posts, those who were in the documentary didn’t want to be in it anymore; they seemingly regretted their participation and hadn’t agreed on the final form of the video. The NYT filmmakers were contacted, and various emails went back and forth; while the video was not taken down, the NYT did stress that it took the concerns and safety of the participants seriously without shying away from having taken on an important topic relevant to the modern state of the Middle East. I was one of the people who were against taking the video down. Still, I lamented the risks and possible repercussions on the participants, and I didn’t want them to possible face criticism from family or…
