A Girl Named Mahmoud (; Bint Ismaha MaÃÂ¥mood) is a 1975 Egyptian comedy film directed by Niasi Mustafa. The film stars Soheir Ramzy, Mohamed Reda, Samir Ghanem, Zinat Sidqi and Hala Fakher. The film opened in Egypt in January 1975.
äamida (Suhair Ramzi) is the daughter of an illiterate widower, al-äag Firghalee. Firghalee attempts to prevent his daughter from studying at a university, so the medical student äassan helps her. After Firghalee reveals he will marry äamida to a boy she dislikes, äassan has her disguise herself as a man, Mahmoud. äassan and his friends lie to Firghalee, telling him they performed surgery to change äamida into a man. äamida'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.
Firghalee's father mistakenly believes that "Mahmoud" is a homosexual when he sees "him" kiss Hassan. He arranges to have LawaÃÂ¥ith, a cabaret entertainer, meet "Mahmood" to set "his" sexuality straight, but "Mahmoud" is not attracted to women and is unwilling to sleep with LawaÃÂ¥ith. One woman says that she has the child of "Mahmoud" and two women claim to be engaged to "Mahmoud". After a doctor mistakenly states "Mahmoud" is pregnant, äamida reveals her true identity. She and äassan marry.
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 äamida 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)".