Cinematic Portrayal of Iranian Women - Essay Example

?Running Head: Cinematic Portrayal of Iranian Women s Cinematic Portrayal of Iranian Women There has been immense amount of debate and discussion when it comes to the social status of women in the Iranian society. The substance of this prose will examine the social status of women on a religious and cultural front, but this status will be largely observed through the internationally acclaimed cinema of Iran. The role of women in the Iranian society has greatly evolved and this evolution is easily noticeable through the significant number of changes that precipitated in the cinematic portrayal. Women all over the world have experienced immense amount of social pressures and obligations, in short simple words the plight of women has been the subject of countless literature and cinematic pieces. Iran is a highly patriarchal society since its emergence as a powerful empire to its establishment as an Islamic republic, a woman’s sole responsibility was to serve her husband and look after his well-being. Before the cinema had gained immense popularity, many literatures focused on the characteristics of a good woman and a bad woman and how a man’s fate depends on the character of his wife. (Donmez-Colin, 2004, p.155-170) Therefore, authors and poets seemed to hold the woman responsible for any sort of mishap that would befall her husband. The patriarchy was pretty evident but during the 30’s there were countless movies that showed a headstrong female lead but there role and discourse in the movie were especially when depicting sexuality. Women were not really treated as symbolic for sexuality; largely they played roles of young damsel in distress, however they shed significant amount of light on the strength of a woman’s to confront all her problems. The movies then followed a strict feministic theme and usually along with a female lead there were greedy and lustful antagonist that turned out to be the prime source of conflict in the movie plot. The commercial success of movies such as Dokhtar-e-Lor or the Lor Girl in 1933 showed the hardships and plight of a gypsy woman. Though the movie entailed strong factual errors and numerous directorial flaws but the heroic tale of Golonar, the Lor Girl became an instant success on an international front. The main protagonist was played by an Iranian singer and the movie propagated a progressive image of the Iranian society that the Shah wanted to establish. The plot of the movies largely revolved around the domestic problems of women and since their roles in the society was rather limited. (Lahiji, 2011) However, once the Islamic revolution had taken place the Iranian society became largely misogynistic in their practices. There was hardly any freedom given to the female population and at this point women’s participation in theater and films rapidly declined as it was compulsory for women to wear hijab and they were unable to step out of their houses without their “mahram’, which is a collective term for a woman’s male relative such as husband, brother or father. One of the main drawbacks that occurred as a result of this practice was prostitution, a problem that was further exacerbated by the Iran-Iraq war. (Donmez-Colin, 2004, p.155-170 & Dabashi, 2001, p. 7) Since most of the male members of the family had gone to war, women had no choice but to support their families by resorting to prostitution. In a country governed according to religious guidelines, though prostitution dealings are done from behind a veil but all these elements are pretty rampant in Iran. Iranian women are the prime victims of domestic and marital violence. Not only on a domestic front but women have to endure great atrocities especially the criminal justice and correctional system for women is often labeled as being ruthless. Women prisoners live in awful conditions and are treated like animals. They are often subjected to brutal physical and sexual abuse, during the Khomeini era any virgin prisoner on a death row was raped before she was executed in order to prevent her from entering paradise in the hereafter. The penalty for fornication was flogging and girls as young as nine years old can be held liable for their offences and adulterers are subjected to stoning to death. Due to the strict censorship policies observed by the Iranian media, during this period there were hardly any production that highlighted these aspects of the Iranian society, until 2006 when the release of “Stoning of Soraya M.” shed light on how women are oppressed and humiliated. During the Iran-Iraq war, some of the notable productions included Madar (Mother), Vaght-e digar shayad (Another time, maybe) and Parand-e koochak-e Khoshbakhti (The little bird of happiness). However, during this time women became infuriated at such unrealistic portrayal and raised their voices for their rights and greater participation in societal activities. Throughout that time women as emerged as a force to be reckon with and due to their feminist lobbies they made a point that men and women were equal in every right and to a little extent they eradicated the sexist ideology that pervaded Iran. (Tapper, 2002) A notable cinematic creation that has also earned its spot in the list of the 500 greatest movies of all time is Ten directed by Abbas Kiarostami. The movie is divided into ten scenes depicting a discourse between an unchanging protagonist; a female driver and ten passengers, who she drives around Tehran and exchange views on various matters. The passengers include the woman’s son, a bride, her sister, a prostitute and a woman on her to way to offer prayers. The movie explores a great variety of themes and social issues; largely on the plight of women in Iran but the most important issue that the movie deals with is of divorce and how the woman copes with her distant son as a result of the divorce from her husband. The movie focuses all its attention on the views of women and Kiarostami depicted women from all walks of life giving out their opinion regarding the world and the society in general. The entire plot takes place in one day and inside the car of the protagonist, as she listens to the complaints of the women and comments on them, in an attempt to console them. The movie has a female cast that delves into the problems faced by women from every social stratum and elaborates upon the issues one at a time. The movie received immense amount accolades from critics and the fact that the cast members included untrained actor added to the realism of the film and made the characters more relatable to the audience. The dialogues are mildly delivered, as the setting does not require any form of intense acting. The content is both polemic and playful; Kiarostami has given insight into some of the most scandalous facets of the society in a very light-hearted manner, especially the episode, where the prostitute relates her ordeal to the unnamed protagonist in a jovial yet defiant tone. The conversations between the mother and her son are the most emotionally intense and the boy’s insolence and bitterness towards the mother and her newfound partner is often termed as “an embodiment of adult masculine oppression in embryonic form”. The boy clearly sympathizes with the father and is unable to see the flaws of her father that also contributed to the breakdown of his parents’ marriage. (Srinivasan, 2008) Critics were greatly impressed with the use of two digital cameras to film the whole movie and the subtle manner through which it elaborates upon some of the very pressing issues in the Iranian society largely pertaining to divorce, second marriages, family dynamics and the scourge of patriarchy from a woman’s perspective that greatly hampers the development of a modern society. Cinema has been often labeled as a valid insight in to the psyche and dynamics of the society. Therefore, in order to understand the position of women the Iranian cinema is a reflection of the schism between the sexes and gender stereotypes that exists within the society. (Dabashi, 2001, p. 7) References: Dabashi, H, 2001, “Close up: Iranian cinema, past, present and future”, Brooklyn: Verso Donmez-Colin, G, 2004, “Women, Islam and Cinema”, United Kingdom: Reaktion Books Lahiji, S, “Portrayal of women in Iranian Cinema”, viewed 28th September, 2011 http://www.iran-bulletin.org/art/CINEMA2.html#_edn1 Sadr, H.R, 2006, “Iranian Cinema: a political Srinivasan, S, August 2008, “Ten – Abbas Kiarostami”, Viewed 28th September, 2011 http://www.culturazzi.org/cinema/ten-abbas-kiarostami Tapper, R, 2002, “The new Iranian cinema: politics, representation and Identity”, London: I.B.Tauris Read More