Her story begins as a child, before the revolution. She grew up in a very liberal home. Both parents were very intellectual. Her mother was forced to marry, therefore could not attend college and her father was a deputy minister working under the popular government of Prime Mister Mohammad Mossadegh. She grew up in a special household where her parents did not treat her or her brother different. They met their attention, affection, and discipline equally. She was raised thinking this was a perfectly normal environment when in reality, in most Iranian households it was the male children that enjoyed an exalted status, female relatives spoiled them, and their rebellion was overlooked or praised. As children grew older the boys’ privileges expanded while the girls’ lessened so they remained “honorable and well-bred”.…
In the essay “Shrouded in Contradiction” by Gelareh Asayesh discusses the distention of gender in her Islamic society. She expresses her feeling toward wearing a hijab and how it’s not a big deal until it is. “None have been more daring than I. I've wound my scarf into a turban, leaving my neck bare to the breeze. The woman in black is a government employee paid to police public morals. ''Fix your scarf at once!'' she snaps. ''But I'm hot,'' I say. ''You're hot?'' she exclaims. ''Don't you think we all are?'' I start unwinding my makeshift turban. The men aren’t hot,” I mutter. Her companion looks at me in shocked reproach. “Sister, this isn’t about men and women,” she said, shaking her head. “This is about Islam.” I want to argue. I feel like a child. Defiant, but powerless. Burning with injustice, but also with a hint of shame.” In this excerpt, she clearly expresses the way that a hijab is about a lot more than a religious article of clothing. It’s a societal definition of genders. She expresses the way that the hijab can become complicated do to the societal views. She feels a strong sense of injustice because on a hot scorching day by the sea short, as a result of their sexuality women have to endure the heat in silence under there hijab. When she expresses her discomfort, she is reproach by a women officer. She reminded her; that the hijab has nothing to do with being a woman or a man, but is about being an Islamic woman. Thus, lies the contradiction, gender does play a role within the Islamic religion and society. This dictates the way in which a woman should dresses, and is expected to behave.…
The reality of an individual’s environment, can inhibit the ability to create connections. In “Selection from Reading Lolita in Tehran,” Azar Nafisi discusses prejudices her students face in Tehran because of unequal gender rights. Under a totalitarian type of government society is forced to conform to traditional societal rules and beliefs. This results in the loss of their individual identities and conform to their societies beliefs. Nafisi states while looking into a mirror that, “In its reflection, I could see the mountains capped with snow even in summer, and watch the trees change color. That…
Nafisi, Azar. “Selections From Reading Lolita in Tehran.” The New Humanities Reader. 4th ed. Bost: Wadsworth, 2012. 247-267. Print.…
The forces of art and the forces of power, ever since their existence, have always clashed with each other. The battle field, where the fight for artistic exposure is suppressed by the powers of censorship, is not just one field, but a massive number of fields. Fields like painting, advertising, food, media, and even gaming are being massacred by the weapons of censorship. Now, is it wrong to hold back art, or is it wrong to let it run free? It all depends on how the art is presented. There are good sides and bad sides to art. In the infinite battles of the war of art, the outcome of the war has already been decided, even before any battles have taken place: a stalemate.…
Stranded in a remote Iranian village, Freidoune, a French journalist, is approached by Zahra, a woman who has a harrowing tale to tell about her niece, Soraya, and the bloody circumstances of her death the day before. As the journalist turns on his tape recorder, Zahra takes us back to the beginning of her story which involves Soraya's husband, the local mullah, and a town all too easily led down a path of deceit, coercion, and hysteria. The women, stripped of all rights, confronted the overwhelming desires of corrupt men who use and abuse their authority to condemn Soraya, an innocent but inconvenient wife, to an unjust and torturous death. A shocking and true drama, it exposes the dark power of mob rule, uncivil law, and the utter lack of human rights for women. The last and only hope for some measure of justice lies in the hands of the journalist who must escape with the story and his life, so the world will know.…
In Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi the main character, Marjane, lives in Iran and is required, by fear of punishment, to wear a veil that only leaves her face uncovered. Having to wear a veil is portrayed as an insult to women’s rights. However in the article “Why We Wear the Haijab,” by Sumayyah Hussein, Sumayya Syed says the veil “‘liberates you from the media’” (p118) It is also seen as a form of protection from judgment and western influences. The women interviewed in the article tell of the benefits of wearing the veil and see it as an honor instead of an insult, like in Persepolis. The veil is part of Iran’s culture. To de-emphasize a women’s body and to gain respect as a person, the veil is worn to protect from the judgments forced upon us by the media. Marjane was influenced by the trends in the media and lost her self respect and identity when separated from the veil and her culture.…
Muslim women really were in charge of their own religion, and it really was a personal matter, they would not choose to participate in a society where they were so discriminated against. What this shows us here is that despite people believing that religion is a personal belief, in some cases it is not. When religion is dictated by a society, it becomes almost impossible for an individual to escape the crushing confines of that society.…
Women have always had a strong role in Iranian life, but rarely a public role. Brave and often ruthlessly pragmatic, women are more than willing to take to the streets for a good public cause. Moreover, although the world focuses increasingly on the question of female dress as an indicator of progress for women in Iran, this is a superficial view. Women have served in the legislature and as government ministers since the 1950s. The difficulty for the leaders of the Islamic republic in allowing women complete equality in employment and public activity revolves around religious questions of female modesty that run head-to-head with the exigencies of public life.…
In the fall of 1995, after resigning from my last academic post, I decided to indulge myself and…
Many Islamic countries require women to wear clothes that do not flaunt or define their bodies in any form. In certain countries such as Iran, additional clothing is required especially when engaging in religious or outdoor activities. Iranian women are known to wear a chador or a loose black robe that covers the body from head to toe. Iranian women in specific have covered themselves for centuries due to religious and family traditions but after the revolutionary government of Iran enforced the wearing of the veil and began restricting women’s rights, the veil or covering of the body represented something very different and changed the meaning of the act all together.…
This is the main reason it is surprising that conservative religious values among Muslims are being spread around the world. If Muslim women are able to freely decide whether or not they want to wear a veil, why are they still being restricted? Laleh Bakhtiar translated the Quran and caused an uproar of dispute among men. Her translation of verse 4:34 changed the meaning of the word “daraba” which used to translate to “beat” or “hit” to “go away from” (Ahmed 266-267). Her translation uses one of the few translations given, and she has solid evidence as to why she chose to translate the way she did. Men were very upset and some even wanted to change it back. The surprising aspect of it all is that traditional views are coming back, yet Muslim gender inequality is still wavering back and forth from progressing in certain aspects to regressing in others. The fact that a Muslim woman is able to choose how to dress, but cannot change or alter the Quran for a better, more accurate translation shows that a progression is possible, but still needs some…
In the Western world it is the stereotypical belief that Muslim women are treated unequally and forced to cover up, "The burqa does not fit comfortably with Western sentiments. It 's closed; Westerners are open. It 's also viewed as a prison for women -- even if Muslim women are free to choose it. And it symbolizes fundamentalist Islam, which conjures up images of terrorism.”, however that is not at all the case. Randa Abdel-Fattah contests, "To the Muslim woman, the hijab provides a sense of empowerment. It is a personal decision to dress modestly according to the command of a genderless Creator; to assert pride in self, and embrace one 's faith openly, with independence and courageous conviction." This essay will illustrate how head coverings do not reduce a woman’s freedom, but in fact adds to her liberation because it her choice to wear it. This essay will illustrate the ways in which others have taken away the rights of veiled women, how Muslim women view their veil, and discuss the small differences in real life between veiled and non-veiled women.…
The rights granted to women in the Quran (the Islamic Holy Book) and by the Islamic prophet Muhammad were an improvement to the rights prior to the birth of Islam. In fact, the Quran states that "God treats men and women as spiritual equals". The Quran also states the dress code for the believers but does not support or advocate it. It was innovations and fabrications that introduced the Hijab (veil) to the Islamic religion. The Hijab is a veil that is a traditional, not religious, head cover that dates back to the ancient civilizations. In Iran, the law is that all women MUST wear a Hijab in all public places, regardless of citizenship, religion or choice. Those in contravention of the dress code are subject to punishment, such as lashings. This type of dress code impairs women to do certain jobs or tasks that most males can do. For example, if a women decided to become a doctor, this would be impossible because she wouldn't be able to operate on her patient if she was wearing the required dress. Although the Quran states that women are equal to men, there are also man made books, called the Hadith, which put women on the same level as animals. As stated in the Hadith, "Women are naturally, morally and religiously…
Nawal El Saadawi’s novel Woman at Point Zero is a story set in Egypt in the 1970s, full of many different and yet similar characters. However, with all of the characters in this novel, the women are portrayed in a very specific way; they tend to be characterized as dependent, and less capable. They are also the main recipients of much of the violence included within this text. This will be shown through the main character, Firdaus, and another woman, Sharifa. The environment and context of Woman at Point Zero had a profound effect on the women in this story, affecting their behavior; however, El Saadawi had her reasons for writing this way.…