How have some Iranian women throughout history to this day been a subject to discrimination through unfair laws and bans created by society? The government showed their empowerment on women through the stages of veiling, unveiling, and re-veiling. The Qajar Dynasty shows the first stage of veiling and how during this stage women were empowered by men. In this time period, women were seen to be just housewives and daughters were seen as a disappointment. According to,”Sedghi, Hamideh. Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. Cambridge University Press, 2014”, it states, “From birth to marriage, women experienced disapproval. Unless girls were born into well-to-do families, their birth was less enthusiastically welcomed. Among the less-privileged classes, the birth of a baby girl usually meant disappointment to the father and fear in the mother, who might face abandonment or punishment by her husband or his close relatives or her own father “. Therefore, it is important to mention how women in Iran have a history of being treated unfairly. Being human, yet some girls were killed at birth and buried into walls while there was joy at another house because of the birth of son. During the Pahlavi Dynasty, Reza shah came along and presented this idea of “unveiling” to “modernize”. In the Pahlavi Dynasty more than unveiling had occur such as women being able to enter this era of modernism, attending non- segregated schools, and even family laws became fairer. For some women, this was freedom from oppression that they were held by throughout their lives, however some women who were comfortable with their veil, were being forced to take it off. If forcing veiling is oppression than unveiling is also an oppression. Women were discriminated by the government and were used because unveiling was a way to show modernism and it was forced, and this is how it is was unjust. 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 women were an objective of the government to show westernization. They used to unveil to show how Iran can modernize, and then re-veiling to show how they still have their traditions.
Iranian cinema is important because through films we develop a better understanding of the relationship between Iranian politics and Iranian women. The film I will use to support the idea of how women have been discriminated by society is in the movie, The Salesman. This film revolves around a couple from a middle- class status and their struggles. Their flat gets damaged and they 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 which lived in the apartment prior to them. 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 having fights because Rana tells Emad if he talks about this issue any longer it is over between them. Farhani Asghar helps show how fragile masculinity is in this movie. 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. This mentality that Rana shows in this film is to portray how society will react to what happened to Rana, instead of supporting her they will question and point to her “mistakes” because of this “pure and clean” view they hold of women.
A documentary, I would like to address is Divorce Iranian Style. This is a unique documentary that covers cases of divorces where there are women in Iran that come to get 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, whereas she was just speaking to her uncle. The judge tells the woman she needs to wear makeup and look prettier for her husband. There is another case, where the woman got a divorce and married the man she loves and is now fighting custody. The judge repeatedly mentions that she got a love marriage, which is totally irrelevant to her wanting her 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. The reason why I am addressing this documentary is to show how the judge rather than ever telling the men they are wrong; he keeps telling the women to compromise. In this documentary all the stories all the stories and true and that shows how in Iran society will tell women to get her husband back before the divorce and if the divorce does happen, then she is seen as wrong.
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? 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.
Iran must start pushing towards the right of Iranian women. Having such a tragic event happening for this issue to be talked about is 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 its women themselves thay 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. I am stressing this event 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. Women will see how it took one woman to take such a big sacrifice and it led to a change. 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.
A book that tells us about women’s’ movement in Iran and their importance is , “Khurāsānī Nūshīn Aḥmadī. Iranian Women’s One Million Signatures Campaign for Equality: the inside Story”,to show how women’s movements and their involvement with political parties, and other movements. After reading, “The One Million signatures campaign and other movements” this 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 cannot 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. Women movements are needed in Iran. Women shouldn’t be worried about them losing control over these movements. They need to get as much of Iranian society involved.
It is s a strong need for Iran to start pushing towards the right of Iranian women. The three stages of veiling, un-veiling, and re-veiling have shown ways Iranian Politics have used Iranian women for their own use. Iranian cinema gives an understanding of the relationship of women, society, and politics. Women have been neglected of their rights through bans, the football ban is evident of that.During Qajar Dyansty, Pahlavi Dynasty, and The Islamic republic of Iran are three time periods which show how politics have used women 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.
