Corporations Meet Islam

Factories for the Third world, a case study of transnational corporations in Tunisia, brings to the documentary screen a rare look at the impact of foreign investment on an Islamic culture.

While the film shows that the trend we've come to associate with Southeast Asia and Latin American countries - cadres of young women behind factory doors in free trade zones and industrial parks, - is also on the rise in this North African country, it also raises a new question: will the tension between Islamic tradition and corporate expansion be more than capitalism can absorb?

This film takes us on a tour of an apparel factory in the capital city of Tunis, where women paid 38 cents a cay as "apprentices" sew, cut patterns, and the like, for goods which will eventually be shipped to Europe for retail. So strict are some of the export-only policies that old sewing machines and surplus or imperfect fabrics are burned, rather than distributed to Tunisians. To get caught filching even a tiny fabric swatch on its way to the incinerator means dismissal.

We also visit a new series of foreign-owned factories where rows of women sit on long benches producing "Tunisian" rugs which actually bear no relation to anything traditionally Tunisian.

Somewhat disconcerting, however, was an interview with a Mullah who criticizes the employment of women by multinationals based on an interpretation of the Koran which forbids women from being actively involved in life. One leaves the film not knowing what alternatives exist between the poles of fundamentalist Islam and corporate Exploitation.

Deborah Smith, a freelance film reviewer, is on the staff of the Institute for Policy Studies.

Distributed by Icarus Films, 200 Park Avenue South, Suite 1319, New York, NY 10003. (202) 674-3375. Rental $75; sale $429.