The Image of Women- Directory of Word Cinema- Iran 2

Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2015

This book analyzes the changes in the representation of women in Iranian cinema since the 1960s, and investigates the reasons and motives for this. Iranian cinema, both before and after the Islamic Revolution, has been closely monitored by the ruling power, and has been utilized to relay messages and information that comply with the ruling ideology. However, it was only after the 1979 Revolution and the subsequent legitimization of cinema by the Islamic rule that cinema became widely accessible to the general public. Within this context, this book explores the changing roles of women in film production and their representation in films made between the 1960s and 2000s. Although some aspects of women’s lives became stricter after the revolution, it was in the late 1980s that women took a prominent role both behind and in front of the camera for the first time. It is demonstrated here that such shifts were due to several factors, including factionalism within the Islamic Republic, shifts in the Iranian film industry, and the emergence of a group of highly educated film production teams, in addition to the fuller integration of women into the film industry, which is analyzed in particular detail. This study explores a number of representative female-centric films, with a focus on their cultural, social and cinematic contexts. Discussing these films with respect to the representation of women, it uses textual analysis as its base methodology. Interviews conducted with filmmakers and people active in the industry also serve to place the films into their historical, social, and political context.

farabi fundation, 2016

The main target of this study is the analysis of the filmic representation of Iranian women in a time span of almost 40 years based on a feminist viewpoint with the main focus being laid upon the Post-Revolutionary cinema. The core of the discussion is the examination of an essential historical paradox, where a supposedly liberating revolution creates many kinds of strict limitations, which could not in turn eliminate women but to some extend transforms filmic representation of Iranian women. The clashes of tradition and transformation create an atmosphere in which the discursive and filmic representation of women changes during time. Additionally, this study analyses the way by which the patriarchal power structure genders women to frame the concept of an ideal woman, while women‘s resistance against this power poses serious question to the patriarchal hierarchy of society. The final findings indicate that while female characters of Post-Revolutionary films are empowered, they are still silent and unable to reverse the patriarchal structures. In order to demonstrate a historical shift in representation of women in the mentioned time span, four films of Post 1979 revolution are analyzed from a socio-political and historical point of view: The Mare (1984), Sara (1993), Gilaneh (2005), and Final Whistle (2011). Keywords: Iranian Cinema, Feminist Film Studies, Women Representation, Tradition, Power and Patriarchy.

2012

This dissertation analyzes the change in the representation of women in Iranian cinema since the 1990s and investigates the motives behind it by looking at the overall history of Iranian cinema and those active in its production. Iranian cinema, both before and after the Islamic Revolution, has been closely watched by the ruling powers and one way or another has been utilized to relay messages that comply with the dominant order. But this has not completely shut down all the efforts of the filmmakers striving to convey a more meaningful message. The Iranian cinema industry has been the arena of an elite intellectual group of people; only following the 1979 Revolution and the “legitimization of cinema” by the Islamic order did it become a widely accessible industry to the general public, who tended to ignore or oppose it prior to the Islamic Revolution. This thesis pays close attention to the changing roles of women in film production and representation. Although aspects of women’s l...

Journal of international women's studies, 2018

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Journal of Media and Communication Studies, 2010

Mass media has had a significant role in today's Iranian society. The presence of active artists and their features is also very important in this era. Presently, the presence of women as actresses or film producers has been a significant factor in the Iranian cinema. Throughout the pre-revolution era, cinema had treated women more like objects or commodities and because of this, they disappeared from cinema during the few years following the revolution. The role of women before the revolution was very limited and unnoticeable and they merely played the role of mother or wife. A comparison of their role back in those years with the roles they play presently is quite worthy of mention. The importance of women in Iranian cinema can be traced to various cultural and social circumstances, which are known also as: (1) The social, economic, political and developmental programs in Iran have enhanced the educational and didactic levels, and the public are more literate than before hence, social knowledge has increased. This has been among the issues considered after the Islamic revolution, (2) Because of the enhancement of the level of religious teachings following the revolution, women are now more able to participate in social affairs and fewer prohibitions are enforced on their presence in social arenas. This has made it easier for them to perform their roles as social actors in the religious cinema and films made on the Iran-Iraq war, commonly called the "Sacred Defense," and to face fewer negative reactions from their families. Thus, they have had an equal chance as compared to their male counterparts to perform in these films. (3) The present article studies the position of women and the attitudinal changes that have occurred in Iranian cinema following the revolution (especially the cinema during war). The method used in this study is based on the competence of women's presence in Iranian films throughout time. For this purpose, the women presentation's level, their roles, the disputes and negotiations throughout time has been compared with men (Since the Islamic revolution). This article compares two movies, with results demonstrating that women have emerged as active participants in this art form after a period of silence and estrangement from cinema and the Fajr (war) movies. This reproducing of role creation has transformed the religious cinema and movies on the sacred defense and also the political ones. In other words, Iranian women have had an opportunity to prove themselves in the religious and epic cinema as well as family centered cinema, where as in both marginal and central roles.

2021

The way working women are portrayed in Iranian media is one of the social and cultural factors that influence traditional gender stereotypes about women and their occupation. This can contribute to changing cultural perceptions about women’s employment. The main objective of this research is to examine the portrayal of working women in Iranian cinema after the revolution (1979) and present a comparison in different political periods of postrevolution. In order to achieve this goal, prominent films produced in each period (focusing on women’s employment) were selected and analyzed. In the theoretical part of this study, the representation theory of Stuart Hall is used. The research methodology is the semiotics of John Fiske. The results of the study presented that the modern working women, contrary to traditional female stereotypes, had the power and were more independent from their husbands. In most of the films dealing with professional women, the directors have tried to criticize ...

Ucla Center For the Study of Women, 2009

Three decades after the political revolution of 1978, the figure of the woman remains a pivotal point in the Iranian public discourse. Furthermore, with the persistent "fight for democracy" squeezing down on the geopolitical body of Iran (in Afghanistan and Iraq), "the war against terror" has once again put the condition of Iranian women firmly on the global agenda. Against this background, the emerging image of Iranian women in film has been particularly an important mediating tool for socialization of a diverse audience to contemporary gender issues, as well as creation of a spectacular model for limitations and articulations of the feminine body in Islamic Iran. This paper aims to offer an anthropological analysis of the figure of the woman as it appears in the contemporary Iranian cinema, with intended audiences both domestically and in the global market. As a critical exploration of the Iranian visual culture, this writing is enhanced by several core questions, including: How does the figure of Iranian woman resurface in cinematic productions, as a sign of social and epistemological change during the era of political reform? What idealized models of femininity and masculinity are constructed through these diverse film productions of the last decade? How does the new wave cinema in post-revolution Iran address the seemingly tenuous relationship between religiosity and piety with articulations of gender? What roles have the revitalization of women's social movement of the past decade had on the representation of the image of Iranian women?

The present treatise aims at analyzing1 the scene pictured by Iran's post-revolution cinema for its audience. How the gender inequalities would arise as actors and actresses interact in post-revolution cinema is the body of the main question. The theoretical frame of this research is greatly indebted to Goffman's theoretical approach to the gender display in visual media. The research findings depict the ritualized gender displays in post-revolution cinema and reproduction of traditional gender patterns and norms in Iranian cinema. Ritualizing the subordination, the films produced thereafter confirm and demonstrate the traditional gender values and norms.

Journal of Middle East Women’s Studies, 2018

A striking number of the films coming out of Iran are preoccupied with women as the bearers of cultural signification. I was surprised by this common theme that emerged from the seventeen films I viewed at the 2016 Fajr Film Festival in Tehran. In contrast to the Western gaze that looks to Iranian women to explain the oppressive Islamic system, these films cast women as signifiers of the modernization and feminization of society. Even when the films were reactionary, their depictions of girls' and women's subjectivity and agency challenged the traditional patriarchy. The films reflected how, despite legal and social limitations, women are more involved in the public and private sectors than ever before in Iran. More women than men attend college, and in cinema more women than ever are protagonists and directors.

Camera Obscura: Feminism, Culture, and Media Studies, 2005

A rare glimpse of Tahereh's face in Through the Olive Trees (Zire darakhatan zeyton) (dir. Abbas Kiarostami, France/ Iran, 1994). Courtesy Artifi cial Eye This article addresses the entwined issues of gendered and cultural representation in contemporary Iranian cinema. One of the remarkable features of recent Iranian film is its allegorical use of gendered tropes, in particular the (in)visibility and (im)mobility of women in social space. The female body, which has been defined in historically charged and culturally assertive terms, is constantly reinvested thematically and technically. In Iran, as in more conventionally "postcolonial" sites of knowledge production, 1 the relationship between vision and embodied, gendered objects is both culturally specific and informed by cross-cultural encounter. This article urges continued attention to the import of female representation in relation to a film's reception both within and outside of the national viewing context. I assess the implications of verisimilitude in three films: Abbas Kiarostami's Through the Olive Trees (Zire darakhatan zeyton)