Zero Dark Thirty has been billed as the feminist adventure of a ‘liberated Western woman’ defeating Osama Bin Laden. It is set primarily in Pakistan, with additional scenes occurring in Kuwait, London, Poland, and Washington DC. For a movie that spends most of 150 minutes exploring the streets of Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar, and Abottabad, Muslim women are conspicuously absent from the screen. Of the dozen or so unnamed extras who do appear in the movie, only one has a talking part. Mostly, Muslim women in this movie are background props, representing only the stereotype the West and white feminism is most comfortable exploiting- that of the monolithic, oppressed companions of terrorists. Below are photos of all the Muslim women seen in the course of the movie. 

Islamabad, Pakistan 

Marriot Hotel, Pakistan

Kuwait City, Kuwait

Peshawar, Pakistan

Peshawar, Pakistan - Woman is riding with Osama Bin Laden’s primary messenger

Abottabad, Pakistan- Women inside OBL’s compound

Abottabad, Pakistan - Woman protecting OBL inside his compound

Abottabad, Pakistan - Woman, wife of terrorist, captured inside OBL’s compound

Abottabad, Pakistan - 2nd woman, wife of terrorist, shot dead by Seals at OBL’s compound

Abottabad, Pakistan - 2 more women being restrained in OBL’s compound

Abottabad, Pakistan - Wives of OBL being interrogated