Why have some  Iranian women throughout history to this day been discriminated by  a subject to unfair laws and bans created by society. In the three stages of veiling, unveiling, and re-veiling, it was a way for the government to show their empowerment on women. The history and the significance of veiling is that through some extent it was a way for men to show their dominance and be allowed to do whatever they want while women were told to do as said. Women after divorce had no right over their children and depending on your class in society girls were killed when they were born. During the Pahlavi Dynasty, Reza Shah came along and presented this idea of “unveiling” to “modernize”. For some women, this meant that women were independent and now didn’t have any men dominance over them.  While women gained power, marriage laws were brought up, and custody. However, veiling came back in Iran. According to ,”Sedghi, Hamideh. Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. Cambridge University Press, 2014.” it states, “states manipulate gender for purposes of legitimacy and consolidation of their powers, and for their foreign policy pursuits. But women’s drive to articulate their own interests constrains and modifies the state’s behavior and gender policies. Thus, the state can modify gender and patriarchal relations”. This supports how the state used women for their purposes. They used unveiling to show how Iran can modernize, and then re-veiling to show how they still have their traditions.

         The  documentary, “Divorce Iranian Style” is a unique documentary that covers cases of divorces where the women in Iran come for the divorce. This documentary shows women being neglected of their rights. These women just wanted their right to be free from a marriage, however they were neglected. The first case is of a woman who wants divorce because her husband is always jealous and doubting her every move. Her husband accused her of having an affair with a man over the telephone, when she was just speaking to her uncle. There is another case, where the woman wants divorce because her husband does not have the ability to bear a child. The most interesting case I found was the one where a girl named Ziba who is sixteen years old, is fighting for a divorce because she is sixteen while her husband is 35 years old. In all these cases, the judge kept telling the women to compromise. 

       Another film I will use to support the idea of how women have been discriminated by society is in the movie , “The Salesman”. The movie , “The Salesman” really shows how women have to hold this clean pure view. This film revolves around a couple from a middle-class status and their struggles. Their flat gets damaged and they have to move into an apartment. When they move into the new apartment , one night his wife gets assaulted by an intruder because they thought she was the prostitute who lived in the apartment before. Emad wants to catch the man who assaulted his wife, Rana. Rana however does not want to talk about the past anymore. Soon they start havings fights because Rana tells Emad if he talks about this issue any longer it is over between them.

      Farhani Asgahr helps show how fragile male masculinity is. There is misinterpretation of the wife being someone else which leads to a lot of violence throughout the film. This film also shows how Emad’s own insecurities of not being able to protect his wife enough lead him on this verge of anger. Although, the wife, Rana does not want the assault to be talked about. I also noticed how Rana victim blames herself. She blames herself for opening the door and not making sure it was her husband. Rana thinks that is what people will say. 

         A book that tells us about womens’ movement in Iran and their importance is  , “Khurāsānī Nūshīn Aḥmadī. Iranian Women’s One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality: the inside Story”. It shows women’s movements and their involvement with political parties, and other movements. After reading , The One Million signatures campaign and other movements  the chapter stresses over the issue of  the role of men in these women’s movements. On one hand, the issue is that having men in the movement is important because the women’s movement needs to appeal to as much of Iranian society. However, on the other hand the issue is  women losing control over their own movement.Women being able to make their own independent history, traditions, and be responsible for their own activities. The reason why the author believes women need to this is so that they can not see men as a threat. If women want to be independent they need to be able to gain experiences, and experiment with new ideas. From this point on when women get to a certain amount of  experience they can be among other men allies, and find the cause of equality. 

      This mentality of women being held down has resulted in women to this day not being able to do what they want freely. This is supported by the 1979 Islamic Revolution where the ban was created of women not being allowed to attend stadiums where men are playing. According to Fassihi, Farnaz. “Iran’s ‘Blue Girl’ Wanted to Watch a Soccer Match. She Died Pursuing Her Dream.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 10 Sept. 2019,                        https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/10/world/middleeast/iran-women-sports-sahar-khodayari.html.” “ Iran barred women from entering soccer stadiums after the 1979 Islamic revolution when religious laws were enforced to segregate men and women in public spaces like schools, buses and sports events. For more than a decade, Iranian rights activists, feminists, and die-hard soccer fans have waged a battle to regain the right for women to attend games”. Recently, women are being neglected of their rights in other ways such as not being able to attend a game because there are men playing. For how long will women in Iran be held down by laws and bans?  

      Women were banned to attend a stadium where men are playing. Sahar Khodayari dressed up as a man to attend a football game where she was caught and arrested. Khodayari is a woman who poured gasoline over herself and set herself on fire after she was banned to a soccer stadium in Tehran. Khodayari went to jail because she dressed up as a man and attended a soccer game. After her death, Infantino discussed about the ban. Infantino mentioned how the ban was unacceptable and stressed about how significant it was to remove it. The FIFA conference, Infantino said that women will be allowed in the next Iran’s match in Cambodia. 

        I believe that it is important for Iran to start pushing towards the right of Iranian women. I also think that having to have such a tragic event happening for this issue to be talked about is really heartbreaking. Why do women have to go to that extent to just be able to attend a game? These laws and bans that are oppressing from simple things such as attending a game is just ridiculous. It is the right of an individual to be in a public place where everyone else is, there was no reason for khodayari to be arrested. According to, “The Washington Post, WP Company, https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dear-fifa-remember-blue-girl-and-demand-a-permane”,it states, “Khodayari’s arrest and death resonated far beyond Iran with women who live under oppression. Afghan women at a stadium in Kabul held signs honoring her memory. In Turkey and in Saudi Arabia, women have sent messages to their Iranian sisters declaring solidarity in the fight for women’s rights.” Solidarity and support from people all around the world are important, especially women because of the fact that its women themselves who must raise their voices and take peaceful but powerful actions so that there can be a change without women like Khodayari having to go this far. The reason why I am stressing this event is because of the problems it can lead to. This tragedy needs to be taken seriously because it may lead to other women taking stands like this, for them to get what they want. There can be more tragedies where women will go to such extreme levels to have their voices heard. There should be feminist movements and social awareness groups that can fight for women’s rights. 

               It is a strong need  for Iran to start pushing towards the right of Iranian women. There has been a history of Iranian women being neglected of their rights in many ways. They have been deprived of their rights in many ways such as being forbidden from public speaking, having men control them, some being forced to wear the veil, and being segregated by gender. Throughout history, veiling has been a way for men to show their oppression on some women. The government has used veiling for their own purposes to modify gender policies. Women like Khodayari have gone to extreme extents to have their voices heard. It is important for Iranian women to push towards their independence but in a more peaceful matter. We need to organize feminist groups and raise awareness for women in Iran so that such tragedies do not happen again. 

My name is Hefza Afreen Aslam. I am a freshman at City College of New York.  In my first semester as an undergraduate, this semester I was able to acquire knowledge in writing. I was able to write a conference proposal, conference paper, publication research, journal manuscript, peer reviews, and blog posts. All of these pieces of writing have helped me improve. I have improved while writing each of these assignments.       

When I first wrote my conference proposal, I was honestly clueless. The transition from high school to college was new and this material was new to me.  This class, however, helped me with writing a conference proposal. I learned that although I had several points I wanted to share I had to choose one that could potentially be an interesting topic. Later, I could have turned that into a research problem. Another thing I was able to achieve in this class was being able to write a conference paper. In high school that is something, I was not able to explore. Writing a conference paper, helped me learn to have a more specific question. At first, I would have a question that was either general or rhetorical. Publication research exposed me to different undergraduate academic journals and gave me practice analyzing published articles. Writing a Journal manuscript has helped me reflect the significance of the research further than the conference paper. Peer reviews have also played a role in helping me with my writing. Analyzing and critiquing other papers, refrain you from making similar mistakes and also perhaps learning from their writing. Peer reviews also help you write a better paper. For instance,  in my paper, I mentioned a film but did not go into detail of how it related to what I was saying. From the comments I got in the peer review I was able to edit my paper and make any corrections. Lastly, blog posts have helped me not only in writing but also in being informed about matters, I do not normally look into. Blog posts are an informal way to think about writing. Other students and I were able to read articles, journals, or any piece of literature that stood out to us which helped us write on issues, and merely reflections on what we read.                         Mr. Druffel has helped us with our writings through assignments and giving us feedback on our work. The conference proposal paper was an introduction to an important genre of the conference paper. The conference paper itself helped me answer the question I asked and then present it in a report that will effectively communicate my ideas to other scholars. Conference proposals are significant because they help you develop writing talking points for a presentation which is a transferable skill. Throughout this course, I was able to acquire new skills as mentioned, I was able to strengthen my weakness and find out what they were.  In this course, Mr. Druffel really helped us and I encourage other students to do these assignments because they really help contribute your writing.