Novelist Fadia Faqir recently expressed exasperation at the way Arab fiction sold in the West is often forced to fit into rigid stereotypes about the Middle East. "Every English edition of my work has had either a Bedouin woman with her head covered, or else a woman with a veil, on the cover," she told the Independent.

A number of new films from female directors across the Middle East look set to challenge some of those preconceptions, including Marjane Satrapi's much-anticipated Persepolis, which hits UK cinema screens today. As Annabelle Sreberny, director of the School of Oriental and African Studies’ Centre for Film and Media, argues: “People coming to Middle Eastern films for the first time often come with that sense of ‘wow!’; that’s the wow of your own ignorance. Film is that wonderful medium that invites us in to understand other cultures and if only a fraction of the people who see these films have their prejudices broken then that’s absolutely a good thing. But it’s not only that: they are great films in their own right and we should celebrate that.”

Iran in particular, which has a long and celebrated intellectual and cultural history, is witnessing a surge in filmmaking at the moment. “There were comparatively few filmmakers before the revolution,” explains Sreberny, “so we now have this interesting paradox of an Islamic state where women are finding their place almost like never before. There has always been a strong women’s movement in Iran – they are just turning their attention to film at the moment.”

Below, The Lipster picks some of the best new releases from female filmmakers across the Middle East, as well as some highlights from previous years that are worth checking out.

Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis

At the London Film Festival screening of Persepolis, Satrapi described graphic novels as “the bisexuals of the literary world”, which fantastically captures the potential of this artistic form – one that Satrapi uses so brilliantly in her graphic memoir, Persepolis, on which this animated film is based. Persepolis gives a girl’s eye view of Satrapi’s childhood in Iran, the overthrow of the corrupt Shah, the terror of the Khomeini years, the devastating war with Iraq, the refuge she seeks in Europe, and her painful coming of age. Incredibly moving and funny by turns, it provides a brilliant potted history of 20th to 21st century Iran. As Sreberny says, “If you don’t know Iran then go to see Persepolis – it is didactic as well as artistic and that’s fantastic."

Also worth seeing: Marzieh Meshkini’s lyrical film The Day I Became A Woman, an award-winning Iranian triptych depicting different stages in the lives of three Iranian women as they battle social and religious restrictions. It includes a fabulously filmed scene in which a young woman enters a bicycle race, black chador streaming behind her.

Rakhshan Bani-Etemad’s Mainline

Bani-Etemad, one of Iran’s leading directors, has been making films for more than 20 years, focusing on the politics of the public/private divide, encounters between women of different classes and her love-hate relationship with the city of Tehran. Her latest film, Mainline, is a harrowing portrayal of a heroin addict and an honest, non-judgemental look at drug addiction, a prevalent social problem among young people in Iran. Breaking with the renowned Iranian cinema style of the 90s, Mainline employs a distinctive film grammar that embraces authenticity rather than artifice. It has been 10 years in the making and stars Bani-Etemad’s daughter, Baran Kosari, who gives a stunning central performance. Catch it when it (hopefully) gets a UK distribution deal later this year.

Also worth seeing: A Bani-Etemad retrospective is running at the BFI until the end of April, with a selection of the director’s finest work, including Gilaneh and Under The Skin Of The City.

Nadine Labaki's Caramel

This bittersweet romantic comedy, out on May 16, is set in a beauty parlour in Beirut, Lebanon, and deals with themes of transgressive love. Director Labaki stars as the owner of the salon, who is having an affair with a married man and spends much of the film searching for a hotel that will allow unmarried couples to share a room. Sreberny says of this delightful film: “Again the idea is that relationships are not as easy as they are in the West and sometimes now there is a religious overlay, but that doesn’t mean women [from the Middle East] don’t negotiate and trespass these difficulties.”

Also worth seeing: Renowned Palestinian director Mai Masri has made numerous award-winning documentaries about the plight of Palestinian refugees in Beirut and the many devastating sieges of that city, including Under The Rubble, Frontiers Of Films And Dreams and, most recently, 33 Days, which screened as part of this year’s London Palestine Film Festival.

Hana Makhmalbaf’s Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame

The youngest of the remarkable Makhmalbaf filmmaking family, 19-year-old Hana has here woven a haunting allegorical tale of a day in the life of a young Afghan girl. Buddha Collapsed Out Of Shame is set in Bamian, the actual town in which the Taliban destroyed the cultural treasures, and follows Baktay as she tries to go to a school for girls that has opened across the river but must first overcome a series of obstacles. Shot in the neo-realist style familiar to fans of the Makhmalbafs, it also follows a recent trend in Iranian filmmaking for casting local, non-professional actors.

Also worth seeing: Hana has made a very interesting documentary, The Joy Of Madness, about the shooting of her older sister Samira’s 2003 film, At Five In The Afternoon, about life in post-Taliban Afghanistan. It breaks open the technique of filmmaking in some fascinating ways.