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Khadija al-Salami is a Yemen female filmmaker who was born on November 11th, 1966 in Mabar which is located in the North region of Yemen. She is considered the first female Yemeni film director.

Early Life and Education
At a young age, Khadija al-Salami was sent to live with her grandmother because she was born during a civil war outbreak and her parents were not in suitable situations to raise her themselves. At the age 11, she was forced into an arranged marriage by her grandmother. This was something that confused her as a young girl but realized as she got older that it was part of the tradition she grew up in and that it was not because her family did not love her. While married to this older man, she was raped as well as she tried to commit suicide and at some point during all this her husband decided to send her back to Yemen with her family. At age 11, she was also hosting a television program for children weekly. At this time, she had also returned to school were she was happiest and her only outlet. After this, she went on to study in the United Kingdom as well as the United States at age 16 were she had also won a scholarship.

Career
She has been making her own documentaries for quite some time like her most recent one called The Scream (2013) which is a documentary about the Yemen's uprising that happened in 2011 and what women did during this uprising. She had many works like this such as her documentary A Stranger in her Own City (2005) which is a documentary about exile and how home can keep you trapped with the traditions around it. Al-Salami has even stated that in her film A Stranger in her own City was "never aired on Yemeni television as they were not used to such controversial subject matter". She had created this film through the own pain she had experienced with arranged marriage as well as the experience of a young girl by the name of Najmia who was 13 years old at the time. She enjoyed filming her because of her carefree spirit and of how she had reminded al-Salami at her age. Another film that was important in her career was I am Nujood, Age 10 and Divorced (2014) and this was because it was the first film of hers to be a feature fiction film. Unlike most of her films since she currently resides in Paris, this one was only shot in Yemen. This film was also important in her career because of the context of the film. The film was about a girl by the name of Nujood Ali who is a child bride in Yemen and is very well known because it she was married when she was 10 years old and had gone to court after filing for divorce from her husband. This story was told to show the world what it is like to be a child bride and the effects it leaves on these young girls as well as the fact that sharing this story allows people to not only understand Nujood's story but also others like al-Salami and other young girls. This film was shown at the Dubai International Film Festival and others but it is at DIFF where it won her an award for best fiction feature.