Jihad

The footage is indeed remarkable. A group of former Guantánamo detainees, held captive by the US for 15 years or more, are undergoing what is described as a rehabilitation program for Islamic militants in Saudi Arabia. We watch as they learn about Freud in interpersonal skills training, draw their feelings in art therapy, swim laps in a state-of-the-art indoor pool. “Right now, you smell like sweat,” one instructor tells them in a lecture on how to find a wife. “How will she put up with you? Dress nicely for her.”Such…

A group of former Guantánamo prisoners are calling for the film Jihad Rehab to be withdrawn. In an open letter, the men express their “discomfort with the content of the film and its methods of production.”The letter was published after the film was screened at the Doc Edge festival in New Zealand under a new name, The UnRedacted. “Changing the title of the film doesn’t change its harmful narrative or lazy stereotyping,” says Moazzam Begg, a former prisoner and director of the Cage advocacy group. “Following widespread…