The second segment opens on a man on horseback, thundering across the countryside in pursuit of some two dozen women who are participating in a bicycle race. With their dark chadors whipping in the wind, these smiling, laughing women could be a group of French nuns on a weekend outing to the seashore. The horseman catches up to the one woman in the group who is not smiling, and yells at her to return home and resume her wifely duties. The Day I Became a Woman is a spare film, with little dialogue but a lot to say. Shots are long and lingering, with minimal activity within the frame and few camera movements.
Natural background sounds fill the long silences.
Only a few images stick in the mind, but they are powerful enough to make a deep impression. A slow-motion shot of a horse's legs in the film's second section conjures up visions of the headless horseman. Neither the rider nor the upper half of the horse is seen, heightening the sense of doom and futility that overtakes Ahoo as she, metaphorically, at least, pedals for her life. A second image is of Havva's little friend. Unable to come out and play because he has not done his homework, the boy stands with his small hands cupped around the bars that cover the window.