A Girl Named Mahmoud (1975)

A Girl Named Mahmoud (Arabic: بنت اسمها محمود‎; Bint Ismaha Maĥmood) is a 1975 Egyptian comedy film directed by Niasi Mustafa.

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. 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". 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."

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)".

Synopsis

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 transsexual surgery to change Ĥamida into a man. 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.

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