Who Run the World? Feminists! Islamic feminism in the films Circumstance, Persepolis and Women without Men

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Who Run the World? Feminists!

Islamic feminism in the films Circumstance,

Persepolis and Women without Men

Maite Regout

10016686

Supervisor mw. dr. B. Joret

2

nd

reader mw. prof. dr. P.P.R.W. Pisters

Master Thesis: Film Studies

24 June 2016

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Abstract

Islam is a religion that has sparked many debates over the past years, regularly having to do with the position of women within the Islamic society. Subsequently the movement of Islamic feminism came into being. To see how Islamic feminism is disseminated in Iranian cinema, I will analyse three films and look at how this dissemination can create a link between the West and Middle East. Various theoretical concepts appear in the films, the most important ones being the (male) gaze, veiling and (in)visibility. The first movie I analysed,

Cirsumstance (Keshavarz, 2011), accurately shows the interaction between the gaze and veiling in such a way that veiling often has the upper hand when it comes to sexuality, sexual objectification and surveillance. Persepolis (Satrapi and Paronnaud, 2007) shows the

spectator many instances of symbolic feminism as a way of discussing Islamic feminism as a latent subject. Women without Men (Neshat and Azari, 2009) uses the invisible gaze of one of its main characters and a visual way of storytelling to disseminate its Islamic feminist message. A link between the West and the Middle East can be created by utilizing Islamic feminism in films to display among others the various similarities there are between these seemingly opposite parts of the world.

Key words: Islamic feminism, gaze, veiling, visibility, surveillance, censorship, sexuality, implicature

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Introduction

“Als ik minister van Binnenlandse Zaken ben, zou ik het verbod op hoofddoekjes de dag na mijn installatie nog laten ingaan. En laat daarna de hoofddoekjes maar wapperen op het Malieveld. Ik lust ze rauw.” (Wilders qtd. in Niemöller).

Dutch politician Geert Wilders uttered the above-mentioned quote in 2004 in magazine HP/De Tijd. It can be loosely translated to: “If I would be Minister of Internal Affairs, I would make sure that the ban on veiling of any kind was going to start the next day. And let them flutter on the Malieveld (field often associated with protests and riots). Come and get it.” What this quote proves is that some people have a slight hate for those people and traditions that are unknown to them. This citation targets the Islam, more precisely the concept of veiling within the Islam in the Netherlands. Islam has been a much-used topic of discussion in recent years. In the Netherlands, the topic of veiling is very present within society. Many will argue that the tradition of veiling has been invented as a tool to give power to the men and as a way to oppress women. This subject is of course much more complex and there is a wide variety of approaches to it that should be taken into account before an exhaustive conclusion can be made. Some people who do this focus mainly on the female side of this discussion and look at the ways in which the act of veiling on the one hand does in fact oppress women, or on the other hand rather gives them power. Another aspect they might look at is how veiling upholds the still present inequality in many of the Middle Eastern countries. For example, according to Nancy J. Hirschmann veiling is believed as a symbol for the oppressive practices and gender inequality in Islamic countries (Hirschmann 345).

The people who dedicate their time to attempt to diminish this inequality and oppression of women, among others, are part of a movement entitled Islamic feminism. Many authors have previously written about this movement, yet there is one that defines the meaning of the movement in an unambiguous way: Margot Badran. Her article “Between Secular and Islamic Feminisms: Reflections on the Middle East and Beyond” is the starting point for the theoretical background of this thesis. Another author of utter importance as theoretical support is Haideh Moghissi. In her article “Islamic Feminism Revisited” she gives an account of Islamic feminism with regards to street protests in Iran and makes an

exceptional point about the fact that Muslim women are often seen as one big

indistinguishable group (Moghissi 11). To make a comparison between Islamic feminism on the one side and Islamic feminism on the other, I have utilized an article by Betty Friedan entitled “The Problem that has no Name”, in which she examines the rise of various waves

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of feminism in the West. The concept that will bind these two sides of the world together, metaphorically, is the concept of the gaze, which builds on earlier psychoanalytical theories from Jacques Lacan (1901-1981), who was a psychoanalyst. Subsequently, Laura Mulvey comes into the picture, for her concept of the male gaze is applicable to both Western feminism and Islamic feminism and can be noticed at many instances in films from the Middle East.

The incentive to do this research stems from the fact that there are still a lot of different cultures to be researched profoundly as well as their accompanying features. As I will assert, the way to do this is to find a point where there is common ground. Feminism is a movement that does this, for it connects the West and the Eastern part of the world through its shared values and goals. By analyzing films set in the Middle East, in this case Iran, and attempting to find aspects of Islamic feminism in either their subject matter, the mise-en-scène or even in almost unnoticeable symbolic acts, these shared values and goals might become more visible. The research question for this thesis is therefore: In what way does the dissemination of Islamic feminism in the films Circumstance (Keshavarz, 2011), Persepolis (Satrapi and Paronnaud, 2007) and Women without Men (Neshat and Azari, 2009) create a link between the West and the Middle East?

To give a thorough answer to this question, I will use two methods: first of all, I will do a literature study of the texts that have already been written on the subject of feminism, Islamic as well as Western, feminism in film, film theory and feminist film theory. Secondly, I will alternate the theoretical parts of the chapter with close analyses of the three films, which are enclosed in my corpus. Throughout the theoretical parts of the chapters I will incorporate small examples from films to substantiate the arguments. The structure of this thesis is as follows: the first chapter is called “Western feminism” and first gives a history of how feminism came about in the Western world. This is then connected to the concept of the gaze, including others that have been helpful in the rise of feminism: interpellation, feminist surveillance, feminist film theory, sexuality, sexual objectification and subjectification. The chapter concludes with the close analysis of the film Circumstance. The second chapter is called “Gazing at the Veil” and gives a detailed explanation of the concept of Islamic feminism and connects it to the concept of the gaze. Following this, I will discuss the different aspects of Islamic feminism nowadays and in doing this define the following concepts: equality, censorship and the private sphere. The following subchapter is a close analysis of the film Persepolis that will put these concepts into use. After a small subchapter on the visibility of Islam, which includes the concepts of storytelling and consciousness raising, I conclude with the last close analysis. This one pertains to the film Women without Men. In chapter three I will take a step back and look at the bigger picture. The first

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researches the act of seeing between the lines, which means giving an extra, personal meaning to an image. The third subchapter is about the concept of censorship and the last small section looks at the human rights situation in Iran. In the conclusion I will give an answer to the main question of this thesis and substantiate this with arguments gathered through the analyses of the films.

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Chapter 1: Western Feminism

"Students joked about it during classes, calling me a man-hater and warning that radical, hairy-legged feminists were going to take over the school and make all the boys their slaves" (Erica Gilbert-Levinqtd. in Sowards and Renegar 540).

1.1 Western feminism and the Gaze

The citation mentioned above proves that there are still many misconceptions on how feminists all look the same, as well as ignorance regarding what it means to call oneself a feminist. For this reason Western feminism is a concept or movement I will expound in this first chapter. After first briefly illustrating its general history, the concept of interpellation will be analysed. This concept also relates to the subchapter regarding feminist film theory. In the last part of this first subchapter the concept of the male gaze is touched upon, but the more general concept of the gaze, as portrayed by Jacques Lacan1_{, is the main focus. The}

general theme in Western feminism as expected has to do with overcoming the patriarchy that has long time been rooted in culture. It is conducive to now look at the way it originated, as I will do with my study on Islamic feminism. The analyses of both feminisms and their origins will highlight the differences as well as the similarities between them. Likewise, it will relate the concepts of the gaze and the veil with each other; concepts that have to be scrutinized profoundly, for they have a big influence in the field of film.

Within Western feminism there have been three different waves. First-wave feminism took place at the end of the 19th_{century and beginning of the 20}th_{and primarily consisted of}

“extreme feminists, those primarily concerned with women’s rights, and ‘social’ feminists, those who became preoccupied with reform and wanted the ballot chiefly to implement other legislation” (Bacchi 576). At first, there were only those who were interested in gaining equal rights and who had a focus on gaining voting rights for women. The second group dropped their demands for equal rights and started to focus even more on the voting rights, mainly to stop “in particular the influx of immigrants and the rise of labour” (Bacchi 577). This wave of feminism was successful in the sense that in most Western countries women obtained the right to vote, in various degrees, around 1920.

However, from then onwards until the 50’s, the marriage age started to drop, fewer women went to college and the ones that did, did so to find a husband. Birth rate was rising

1_{Jaques Lacan (1901 - 1981) was a French psychoanalyst and psychiatrist. Within the context of this thesis, his}

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dramatically and a family of six children was not uncommon. At this time women started to ask themselves: “is this all”? Betty Friedan calls this “the problem that has no name” (Friedan 57), meaning the dissatisfaction of women that were married, had children, but were not challenged anymore and felt like losing themselves in their daily suburban lives. At first the problem was thought to come from the fact that too many housewives were

educated. Subsequently, it was said that high schools should focus more on workshops that would prepare women for married life and that universities should not accept women

anymore. However, all this sparked the debate on whether or not the relationships between men and women should be the norm. By doing this, the once ‘natural’ relationships between men and women were replaced by politicised relationships, which made the women’s interest better represented (Holmes 237). And so second-wave feminism arose.

Third-wave feminism came about during this second wave, because certain ideas or movements within the second wave received resistance. Women of colour and ethnicity were the first to have these critiques and subsequently were the ones to first coin the term ‘third wave’ (Mann and Huffman 59). One of the most considerable critiques was that the second wave did not acknowledge the differences between women. By not recognizing the differences between women, second wave feminism was guilty of doing exactly the thing they were opposing: putting all women under the same umbrella indiscriminately. Rebecca Walker was the first to utter the term third wave feminism in her essay called “Becoming the Third Wave” published in 2001. She describes her infuriation when hearing a couple of men talk about women as if they were objects for them to use and when she responded to them by saying that it is not appropriate to talk about women this way, they dismissed her

argument by saying to not “play that woman shit over here cause that’s bullshit” (Walker 79). This inspired her to not just read about feminism, but to actually undertake action herself. So, as was said earlier, third wave feminism deals more with the differences between women, with the marginalized issues and also with the concept of sexuality. Third wave feminists might see sexual subjectification, a concept that I will discuss in chapter 1.3 on feminist film theory, as a tool for female empowerment.

Now that the waves of feminism are more clear, a leap can be made to a film

theoretical concept that was made popular by Laura Mulvey: the male gaze. Mulvey argues that “the unconscious of patriarchal society has structured film form” (Mulvey 833). The way film is made up now is thus a consequence of the patriarchy and for this reason she states that is necessary to analyse it critically. The male gaze has always been the one that is passive: the man is looking and the woman is to-be-looked-at. The female character in a film does not have a gaze of her own; the man’s look is the gaze of himself, of the camera and of the spectator. As soon as the female character enters the screen, the time of the film pauses for a second for some “moments of erotic contemplation” (Mulvey 837). Cinema thus has the

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power, in contrast to for example theatre, to aim the look into the direction of the woman and in this way transforms looking at her into a scopophilic spectacle (Mulvey 843). This is what the male gaze implies. Looking at this from a woman’s perspective, it is only logical that Mulvey resists this and tries to break down this male gaze, exactly by writing about it. This is why it is crucial to make films that try to focus more on the female perspective. These films in turn will also make more visible that the male gaze, in general, has the upper hand. The concept discussed in the following subchapter can lend a helping hand in directing people’s, or the spectator’s view in the case of film, to the necessity of converting the male gaze.

1.1.1 Interpellation

Interpellation is a crucial concept in just about anyone’s life, perhaps without people noticing. A classic example of interpellation is the American poster saying: “We want you for the U.S. army!” In this example is becomes clear that the subject of this speech act is the person who reads it. Louis Althusser (1918 - 1990) - the philosopher who is most generally mentioned with regards to interpellation - describes it “as the process of being hailed by an authority figure (a capital-S Subject) so that an individual (lowercase-s subject) becomes intelligible in a way that conforms to dominant ideology” (Althusser qtd. in

Beins 301). The U.S. army poster thus makes clear that the Subject, namely the U.S. army, wants the subjects, namely the civilians, to join the army, because in doing this they are fulfilling their duties, which is the dominant ideology (see fig. 1). Films can have the same interpellating effect in the sense that they have the power to make the spectator look at the filmic events in any way they, the films, want to. This connects to the concept of the gaze, which I will explain in the next subchapter. The spectator still has the final interpretation though, partly because of his or hers unconscious deciding the meaning. However in choosing what is and is not shown the film (makers) have initial power. This is one of the reasons why film can have a persuading effect on its spectators and why it can be used as a compelling weapon in the feminist struggle.

A crucial aspect of the women’s movement and its feminism is that it is considered a sisterhood. This idea of sisterhood made women think they were part of a

community and this is why interpellation has a well working function in for example feminist film or posters. An example

Fig. 1. The U.S. Army poster

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of a poster from May 1973 is imaged in Agatha Beins’ article and it starts with the words “Dear sisters” (Beins 302). Upon reading these words, women could feel an immediate connection to other women and to the feminist community (see fig. 2). Another meaningful element of this poster is the concept of consciousness raising. This is a practice that feminists started to use in the 70’s and grew on until the third wave feminism. However, in the beginning its use was more face-to-face. In contemporary feminism the media, whether it be social media or film/television, have given this concept new platforms to proliferate. Its first goal was to reach the masses, but it has the means nowadays, through these new platforms, to reach individuals on a big scale. This means that much more people can be reached, however each one individually. In the very beginning consciousness raising was just a small group of women coming together to discuss experiences. However nowadays third wave feminists “have used public venues and mass media outlets to address diversity issues within feminism, which would not be possible in the same way within a small group of people who share a particular geographic proximity” (Sowards and Renegar 547). This is of utter importance for this thesis, because when used in this way, consciousness raising can also be used as a tool to highlight the differences as well as the similarities between the issues in Western and Islamic feminism. For example the analyses of various films from different time periods and regions/countries/continents and the way they try to raise their spectator’s consciousness regarding feminism, says a great deal about how far along in the process these areas are and what needs to be done to further them.

In the following subchapter I will take a step back to look at the concept of the gaze again. At this point, however, I will make a necessary link between the gaze and the concept of veiling.

1.1.2 Lacan and the Gaze

The concept of the male gaze, coined by the earlier mentioned Laura Mulvey, has come to life through rethinking Jacques Lacan’s concept of the gaze. Mulvey’s famous article about visual pleasure received a lot of commentary and criticism, for example in 1980 when Kaja Silverman stated, “that Mulvey leaves unchallenged the notion that for the male subject pleasure involves mastery” (Silverman, “Masochism and Subjectivity” 2). Lacan argues that the gaze is already there before patriarchy and that it is part of our primitive subjectivity. It has to do with the ‘real’ being there before the symbolic and imaginary, and this real

“explains the power of the eye, the idea of “spectatorship,” and the visual nature of “agency” (Manlove 84). For Lacan the gaze is all about seeing oneself and being aware that you are being seen. This all starts in the ‘mirror stage’ when a child first sees itself, perhaps through the eyes of his or her mother. Only when looking at oneself a second time will the subject of the gaze see that it is in fact his or her responsibility to control the gaze (Silverman,

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“Fassbinder and Lacan” 56-57). The gaze is however something ungraspable: it is not something material like the eye. The eye can function as a replacement for the gaze, but it can never reach the level of the gaze. Being immaterial but at the same time being present, gives the gaze a ghostly ambience. For feminism it is thus crucial to see who has the authority of the gaze, because this gaze can also be seen as a panopticon gaze2_{in which it}

is necessary to find the all-seeing eye to try and oppose it. Even some authors, like Joan Copjec, argue that any resistance to this panoptical power is useless, because this has already been calculated into the model (Krips 94-95). This is where the concept of veiling might come in. Western feminism does not have to deal with the concept of veiling the same way as Islamic feminism would. It could however be said that if a woman wears a veil, she actively hides parts of her body, which makes her authoritative gaze stronger and the imposing power of other people’s gazes weaker. Western feminists do however take part in the discussion about veiling in another way. Nancy J. Hirschmann writes about Westerners joining the discussion on veiling in her article “Western Feminism, Eastern Veiling, and the Question of Free Agency.” According to her, veiling is believed as a symbol for the

oppressive practices and gender inequality in Islamic countries (Hirschmann 345). Western feminists thus feel the need to help women in Islamic countries as well, perhaps because of a feeling of lingering imperialism and a sense of having a big enough voice to make a difference in this discussion.

1.2 Feminist SurVEILlance

In this section I will continue talking about a concept that has some similarities with the panopticon gaze: this gaze corresponds with what is referred to as feminist surveillance in a book by Rachel E. Dubrofsky and Shoshana Amielle Magnet, aptly called Feminist

Surveillance Studies. Surveillance links very well to the notion of the veil and the gaze. It is a concept that is relevant nowadays, for it is commonly known that we are all being watched most of the time, whether it is through camera’s on the street or through the tracking of our phones3. Surveillance overlaps in certain aspects with sexual objectification as well, as it could be done not only for watching persons for the purpose of keeping them safe, but also either to get some sort of sexual gratification out of it or to keep track of someone who is

2_{The panopticon is a prison system invented by Jeremy Bentham. It is constructed in such a way that it is}

possible at all times that the prisoner is watched by a guard, but the prisoner does not know when. This has as a consequence that the prisoner behaves all of the time. A panopticon gaze is thus the idea of someone always secretly watching you and in this way controlling what you do.

3_{“Location-tracking of customers by mobile telephony providers via GSM and later GPS enabled services}

generates a need for addressing privacy issues in relation to the building of location based technologies and services” (Barkuus and Dey 1). The fact that people who own a phone with GPS can be constantly traced, calls for the question of this is a violation of privacy. This constant surveillance, in a panopticon way, is something that should perhaps be agreed upon before happening.

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considered potentially dangerous. In their book on feminist surveillance Rachel E. Dubrofsky and Shoshana Amielle Magnet argue, “surveillance is inseparable from what feminist theorist Sherene Razack (1998) calls interlocking oppressions, ones that are often integral to the structures that underlie our culture” (Dubrofsky and Magnet 3). Within the area of feminist surveillance, the issues of Muslim bodies in the West and Islamic feminism in the East thus makes an appearance as well, for these issues are a few of the underlying frameworks in todays culture. These issues both have to deal with the question of who can be surveilled and why these specific people or groups of people have no right to privacy? Is it because a woman wearing a veil is a bigger threat to the well being of civilians than a man wearing a sacerdotal vestment? No, it is because they are made more visible:

“State surveillance practices, which we might simply call state practices (since surveillance is so seamlessly embedded), are processes that are simultaneously about seeing and not-seeing – that is, some bodies are made invisible, while others are made hypervisible” (Dubrofsky and Magnet 7).

So people within communities of colour are purposely made hypervisible, because it is considered normal to have an increased amount of violence in these communities. The violence in white communities on the other hand is seen as extraordinary and for this reason these bodies are made invisible. Muslim bodies in the West are an example of these

hypervisible bodies. In this case the woman wears the veil not as an object that has to with her choice of blocking the gaze of others, but rather as object that draws even more

unwanted attention to her body than before. When looking at depictions of Muslim bodies in Western films, it can be said that a great number of these films depict these bodies or characters as having no agency. The reasons behind their actions often remain unclear. Examples from Hollywood include Zero Dark Thirty (Bigelow, 2012) and American Sniper (Eastwood, 2014). In both films the protagonists are from the United States of America, which means that the film’s perspective is as Western as can be. Middle Eastern countries and their citizens are presented as one general enemy, which has as a consequence that Muslim bodies will be made even more hypervisible in surveillance.

When looking at films from the East in relation to surveillance, a storyline from the film Women without Men (Neshat and Azari, 2009) comes to mind. This film contains the stories of four women who eventually come together. One of these women is called Munis. She is under constant surveillance of her brother. He does this because he thinks he knows what is best for her: he wants her to marry a successful man as soon as possible, someone who can take her in and “protect” her like he has done. She, however, refuses his need to protect her. This need of his is conceivably created by the structures that underlie their

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culture. What might seem normal to him, could be viewed by others as oppressive in many ways. Munis then escapes this oppression by committing suicide and then returning as a ghost, invisible to the men protesting outside in the Coup d’Etat happening at that time and to the men sitting in the bar where she normally would not be allowed. In this respect she is the one with the gaze. Sitting in bars without wearing a veil and fighting in the streets like she does can be seen as an instance of Islamic feminism. These kinds of images are what got the film’s director, Shirin Neshat, banned from Iran. This shows that these are sensitive situations to talk about in Iran and the ones who do are regularly punished in various ways. The surveillance happening in Iran is not one that can be considered as beneficial for all of its inhabitants, but for only a number of them. Islamic feminism is therefore a way to counter this one-sided surveillance.

1.3 Feminist Film Theory

Feminism is a well-known concept throughout the world. Its exact meaning is however not always clear. For this reason the component of feminism concerning film will be discussed. The preceding history and broader parts of feminism within specific places in the world will be discussed in the following subchapters. What is of interest here is in what way earlier authors have discussed feminist aspects within film and the way in which a theory engages with the films that will be analysed in this thesis.

Mary Ann Doane is one of the earlier authors that are crucial in this discussion. She is a psychoanalyst and attempted to change the way in which the spectator was always seen as a male, no matter what gender he or she had (Davidson 367). So Doane is a film theorist who focuses predominantly on the spectator as both the one looking at the film, but also the subject of the film, for the spectator becomes the image. This means that the spectator is drawn into the film up until the point they actually partake in it. To understand Doane’s thoughts, a short explanation of psychoanalysis is needed. Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939) is the instigator of psychoanalysis. Briefly said, psychoanalysis entails that a person’s

consciousness is often caught by surprise by his or hers unconscious and in this way the unconscious in most cases has a certain power over the conscious. Additionally, Freud was also an expert on what can be called castration, which has to do with the mother’s lack of a phallus. Connecting this to psychoanalysis and its condemnation of the visible as not being the most decisive element in film, it can be concluded that the visible does not always show everything and that it indeed lacks something as well (Doane 45). This is where the

unconscious comes in, with which one can read between the lines. For this reason the focus on the spectator is of importance, because there is not one ready-made way to look at a film. Because of the fact that the spectator becomes the image, every different spectator has disparate interpretations. Back to Doane, whose chapter “Veiling over Desire” in the book

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with the same title will be employed extensively. She considers the face as one of the most revealing parts of a woman’s body (47). In a visible way this is detectable through

recognizable facial expressions. However, unconsciously, the thoughts of a particular character can be picked up on by the spectator by looking closely at their face. For this reason, Doane devotes a part of her chapter to the close-up. The close-up can thus be seen as a powerful tool to convey thoughts without actually expressing them in words. With regards to feminism an example of the close-up that has a lot of power, is a close-up of a woman wearing a veil of some sorts. This in itself is not often recognized as a feminist image (even though it could be4_{), but the woman taking the veil off, as a sign of protest or for some}

other reason, is conceivably a sign of feminism. Lifting the veil and revealing the face can be seen as the woman taking back the power over her own body and reclaiming her right to chose what to do and what to do.

1.3.1 Sexuality

“The veil functions to visualize (and hence stabilize) the instability, the precariousness of sexuality” (Doane 46).

Sexuality is an evident topic of discussion within feminism and feminist film theory. The representation of sexuality in film differs enormously. Next to the multiple ways of showing sexuality, there are also numerous underlying reasons for showing or not showing certain types of sexuality. Within the scope of this thesis, people might not want to address sexuality for religious reasons. There was a time when the concept of sexuality was equal to

heterosexual masculinity. However, this changed when questions arose about masculinity and the idea came about that masculinity might be a social construct (Rahman and Jackson 45). This, of course, meant that heterosexual masculinity as the main sexuality lost its dominant position. The path was cleared for other sexualities to come into the picture. The lesbian and gay minorities challenged the rigid ideas of masculinity (and femininity) and attempted to show that other “options” are possible. Because the intrinsic essentialism5_was

challenged, it is now feasible to determine one’s social standing without taking physical characteristics or reproductive organs into consideration. This means, in effect, that a person can choose who he or she is physically attracted to as well as his or her own gender. In relation to feminism this could lead to a deterioration of viewing men as the stronger and

4

Lara Mazurski discusses the politicization of the burqa and veiling in her PhD Thesis and concludes that this is a powerful tool, because it conveys a lot of different meanings amongst different people. For some the burqa signifies threat or weakness, but for others it might convey strength and feminism (Mazurski).

5_{Essentialism states that all humans have an ‘essence’ that defines who they are way before the social comes}

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superior gender, because of masculinity losing its meaning more and more. The essentialist way of thinking therefore lost some of its power. All of this took place in the 60’s and 70’s. As a consequence, film also played into the changing nature of sexuality. A famous example is Ingmar Bergman’s Persona (1966). Persona is a film in which the two main female

characters almost become one and in which a lesbian undertone is present. Both characters have difficult relationships with their mothers and for this reason in this film “feminine

sexuality winds around matricidal desires” (Oliver 530). Because everyday culture has such a strong influence on the meaning of these social issues, this film could be seen as one of the many examples of the intricate nature of sexuality. It shows that sexuality can be

displayed through something seemingly opposite: matricidal tendencies, meaning the desire to kill one’s mother. In this way it demonstrates the need for

taking sexuality, and female sexuality, seriously. For when it is ignored, there can be grave repercussions. Persona is also a film that disseminates the strength of the close-up. Ingmar Bergman uses long and thorough close-ups for showing emotions, feelings and the blending of the women’s identities (see fig. 3 and 4). I will discuss the concept of the close-up further, also with the help of the previously mentioned Doane, in the second and third chapter.

Another example of the representation of female sexuality and also of feminism is the recent film La Belle Saison (Corsini, 2015). This film features an avid feminist, Carole, who falls in love with Delphine, a farmer’s daughter who moves to Paris in the summer of 1971. Many different feminist aspects can be seen in this film: First of all the way that Delphine seduces Carole. She does not take no for an answer and

when looked at this through the eyes of the dominant view in the time the film is set it could be concluded that the way she does this is very masculine. By showing the seduction this way, the film plays with gender roles and empowers women’s abilities. Secondly, the fact that Carole is part of a women’s group that fights for their right to have an abortion or to take the pill amongst others. But the most effective

way this film shows feminism is the way in which it depicts Carole telling her husband she wants to have a relationship with Delphine, subsequently letting him know she is falling for Delphine and lastly leaving him for Delphine. This is noticeably an image of a woman standing up to her man, taking control over her life and more importantly realizing what her

Fig. 3. A close-up within the filmic story of Persona

Fig. 4. Another close-up towards the end of Persona

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own sexuality is, one that has been suppressed by dominant forces in society and in her private life. Finally, expressing this sexuality is a crucial part of what feminism is about.

1.3.2 Sexual Objectification and Subjectification

“Objectification is not just ‘in the head’; it is actualized, embodied, imposed upon the objects of one’s desire” (Stock 192).

Having now examined sexuality, sexual objectification is a concept that demands a separate discussion. Its meaning can be predicted quite easily, for it “involves (at least) treating people as things” (Stock 191). Whether these people are men or women is not specified in the concept. In this part of my research, however, I will look specifically at the sexual objectification of women. Sexual objectification of women has to do with the previously mentioned power relations between the dominant masculine and the oppressed feminine. Looking at the reference at the beginning of this subchapter, sexual objectification gives the person who is looked at additional, non-existent factors. This is what adds up to the gaze of the person who is looking. This can be linked to the previously described relation between the conscious and the unconscious. In this case, the way a man looks at the objectified woman is not the way she is in reality, but the way a man’s unconscious moulds her. In recent years, however, there has been a visible rise in what Rosalind Gill calls sexual subjectification. As Rahman and Jackson wrote:

“She identifies new forms of sexual subjectification of women in advertising that – in direct opposition to the portrayal of women as passive sexual objects discussed earlier – suggest female empowerment and sexual agency through the figures of the fun, sexually fearless (heterosexual) female” (Rahman and Jackson 150).

Thus, this means that by overdoing and intentionally exaggerating sexual objectification, it actually cannot be seen as something feminism opposes, but as a response to feminism. At first, Gill sees this in her article as a “shift in which women are presented as knowing and active sexual subjects” (Gill). However she then goes on to a more pessimistic note and states that only a certain type of women is portrayed in the media as this active and sexually self-confident creature. In her words, “only young, slim and beautiful women” (Gill) can be the bearers of sexual subjectification. However, I will argue this is not always the case. This might be the situation with the majority of the representations in the media; there however have been some cases in recent years that completely oppose her remarks. A couple of examples include: Amy Schumer’s film Trainwreck (2015) in which Schumer plays an (by objectifiying standards) overweight woman who (by conservative standards) is floozy. How to be Single (Ditter, 2016) in which Rebel Wilson also plays an overweight, humorous

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woman who has the power to seduce a lot of men. These examples prove that there are in fact (a few) instances in which non-traditional pretty-looking women can help alter the way women in general are looked at.

1.4 The Circumstance of sexuality

The main characters of Circumstance are two adolescent girls, Atafeh and Shireen, who are growing up in modern day Tehran. They continuously have trouble with the way they are told to behave and resist this more and more throughout the film. On the surface it can be noted that they rebel in multiple ways: they start up a romantic relationship with each other, they drink alcohol and party, they take a car and drive off somewhere. However, in analyzing the film more comprehensively, I witness more large-scale phenomena, having to do with sexuality, sexual objectification and surveillance. The very making of this film is itself an instance of revolt and Islamic feminism, because its director, Maryam Keshavarz,

presumably knew beforehand about the consequences of making this film. Her predictions came true as she was not permitted to enter the country of Iran again and the film was banned.

The first actual images the spectator sees are already a fitting example for the rebellious nature of the rest of

the film (see fig. 5 and 6). Slow close-ups are shown of a belly dancer’s body, while the voices of two girls speak in the

background about one of them having a career in singing and the other one being the manager. The

spectator later finds out these are the voices of the two main characters. These close-ups in the beginning thus immediately set the tone for the rest of the film with regards to sexual objectification, because the act of

belly dancing can be seen as a scene with the specific objective of visual pleasure for the male viewer. On top of that, the very image of a close-up of a bare belly bears the feeling of wanting to escape to a Western country.

So what is striking about this act is that belly dancing “has become especially trendy among

Fig. 5. Uncovered belly in the opening sequence

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non-Arab women across the United States since the 1990s” (Maira 317), which thus means that in showing it at the beginning of the film, the filmmaker immediately opposes the Iranian culture in the sense that there is a growing tension between the culture of the United States, or Western culture, and the Middle Eastern culture. These dances are often seen as “Arab”; however, dancers in the United States are often the ones performing them. The displaying of this belly dancing thus presents this small part of the Westernization of Middle Eastern culture as something powerful.

Another noticeable element of this opening montage is the fact that the girl who is belly dancing, Atafeh, is not wearing a veil (see fig. 7). Her friend, Shireen, is not wearing a veil either, which is striking, because they are visibly in

a public area. This can be seen as a first instance of Islamic feminism in this film. Sunaina Maira states about belly dancing with regards to sexuality that:

“Belly dance creates in the public sphere the image of the exotic Arab/Muslim female whose sexuality is potentially liberated through the preservation of

belly dancing in the West, but who must remain shrouded in a timeless Orient that can become “free” and “democratic” only through Western intervention” (Maira 340).

The voices in the opening montage speak about where they would want to be if they could pick anywhere in the world. Concurring with the statement by Maira, belly dancing suggests a more Western country or region, also having to do with the freedom of choosing or living according to your own sexuality. Having seen the entire film, spectators know that the couple wants to move to Dubai, which can be seen as one of the most Western areas in the vicinity of Iran. One last aspect of the opening is that it is a dream or a vision of Shireen and Atafeh, which links back to the discussion on the conscious and unconscious of Sigmund Freud. Seeing as the unconscious always has a slight upper hand, this introduction is an indication on the events and themes of the film.

The first instance the spectator gets a glimpse of an image having to do with surveillance is when the girls are at school and they are filmed through a security camera (see fig. 8). Shireen has just had a conversation with the head mistress of her school, because she has not handed in her tuition money on time. At the moment the girls are filmed, Shireen is walking with her head bowed down. Presumably she does this because of

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the tuition incident, but it also announces in a way the bowing down, or better said the

submitting to the kind of

surveillance they have to face in society, purely because they are women. With regards to the statement by Dubrofsky and

Magnet I discussed in chapter 1.2 about certain bodies being invisible and others being hypervisible, this is a suitable example. The identical clothing and veils the pupils wear at the school do a good job at making them allasinvisible as possible. Shireen, however, is

immediately recognizable through the position of her hands and her hunched outline. The spectator’s gaze is drawn towards her in this way. In translating this visual element to its figurative meaning, Shireen is observed and surveilled as a body that is potentially threatening to the state practices that Dubrofsky and Magnet talk about. These state practices remain conspicuous throughout the whole film, as the normal camera shots are alternated with these kinds of CCTV (Closed-circuit television) images of the two main characters. The reasons for installing CCTV systems are usually crime or terrorism related, or have to do with the conservation of public safety (Surette 153). The CCTV images usually appear at moments when they are going to engage in acts the state practices would not agree with, to say the least.

The concept of sexual objectification returns in the filmic story at the moment when Shireen and Atafeh go to an underground party. The spectator knows it is underground, because upon entering Atafeh says they are there for a sewing class. The moment they enter the party, they go to their male “friend” who instantly brings another man to them and tells him “protection is in the drawer.” Shireen is effectively used and becomes an object for the men to do with as they please. Moments later the spectator sees a shot Atafeh and her friend dancing together, in which her friend evidently tries to kiss her (see fig. 9). She, however, turns her head to the other side as a sign of disapproval. This is an instance of the woman standing up for herself and

her wishes in this society in which men are dominant, with regards to the power relation between them. This happens on another

occasion, when Shireen has a suitor – a man who wishes to

Fig. 8. Shireen being hypervisible

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meet with her to see if he wants to ask her hand in marriage. After Shireen brings him and her uncle and grandmother a cup of tea, she sits down and as soon as he looks at her, she turns her head to the other side (see fig. 10). The turning of the head in itself is again a sign of disapproval, but additionally the veil she is wearing, is used as a tool to block the man’s gaze. Effectively blocking his gaze and taking away the sexual pleasure, this man does not ask for her hand. By doing this, she takes the choice that usually has to be made by her male caregivers, into her own hands. A scene that is crucial for the film’s discussion on the topic of sexuality is the one in

which the main characters and their two male friends are dubbing the film Milk (van Sant, 2008) in Iranian (see fig. 11). The

characters are seen from behind and only the outlines of their heads

and bodies are visible. At the same time the main character from the film Milk, Harvey Milk, can be seen giving a speech using a megaphone. He is giving a speech to the people of San Francisco about how he is also mad. He is mad because of the way the gay and lesbian people were treated at the time of

the film. Harvey Milk was a gay rights activist. This is why this scene is an essential one: Milk is speaking to a big crowd in San Francisco, however his placement in the frame makes it seem as if he is speaking to the characters in

Circumstance. His speech is the first instance in which it might seem as if Shireen and Atafeh will gather the courage to come to terms with their sexuality. This turning point is however interrupted by the

ever-returning CCTV images, this time even from within the building. The following shot starts of not showing anything specific, however there is a sound bridge, so the sound from the first

scene carries on into the second. As the camera slowly pans to the right, the face of Mehran, Atafeh’s

Fig. 10. Shireen blocking her suitor’s gaze

Fig. 11. The four friends dubbing Milk

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brother, appears (see fig. 12 and 13). At this point it becomes clear that he is the one, together with the spectator, who has been looking at the CCTV images and effectively has been stalking his sister and her friend. This is an instance in which a link between the male gaze and

surveillance is implied. The reason behind his initial surveillance of the girls remains unclear, though it becomes apparent that eventually his obsession with Shireen drove him to invade their privacy in this way. His actions are not meant to protect the girls, but are rather selfish, for he wants to make sure that only he is possible to be with Shireen and no other man, or woman for that matter. His gaze has a power over him in the sense that he starts to only see him with Shireen and she actually has no say in this, corresponding with Mulvey’s concept of the male gaze. Instead of just keeping with his male gaze, he also takes action and

persuades Shireen to marry him. What this says is that the male gaze can have as a

consequence that the free choice of a woman is diminished, as soon as the man acts on his gaze.

Lastly, I want to look at a scene in which the police are questioning Shireen and Atafeh. This happens after they are stopped while driving a car and drinking. Following a couple of hard to watch shots of Atafeh getting a physical examination, she is questioned by two unrecognizable women. One would think that these women have a sense of how Atafeh is feeling and are more easily

empathetic towards her than the men. Still, this is not the case. What the policemen did to her physically, the women are doing to her mentally (see fig. 14). This scene in which she is being verbally abused and is called a filthy whore among others,

perfectly embodies the reality of Islamic feminism: for the really big changes to occur within a country, the state practices have to be diversified as well. This has to happen with regards to all the concepts I have mentioned in this subchapter. The state surveillance practices are making sure that women are “kept in line”, just as much as the surveillance in the private sphere does. The sexual objectification of women is considered as undeniable, for as soon as the veil is taken off in Circumstance, in many cases, the women are either told to put them back on or they are being taken advantage of by men. The concept of sexuality is, in

Fig. 13. Mehran’s face appears

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my opinion, the most crucial theme in this film. The lingering feeling after watching

Circumstance is one of disappointment and perhaps even of melancholy, for the two main characters have no way of expressing their sexuality, either in the sense of making their own choices regarding their sexual acts or in the sense of them being in a same sex relationship. What this film thus disseminates regarding Islamic feminism is that there need to be changes made in the way that women are treated regarding these three concepts and it shows that Westernization in relation to these topics is a desirable occurrence.

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Chapter 2: Gazing at the Veil

2.1 Islamic feminism and the Veil

“Almost two decades after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, against the deepest fears of many of the secular feminist activities of the revolution, not only have women not disappeared from public life, but they have an unmistakably active presence in practically every field of artistic creation, professional achievement, educational and industrial institutions, and even in sports activities” (Ahmadi 37).

As the citation above describes, women in Iran have taken their lives into their own hands. By doing this they oppose the dominant forces within their culture that mostly wish for them to act the way they are told to act. By not just obeying the set of rules they have been given, these women carry out the message that is central to this thesis; that of Islamic feminism. At first sight, this concept raises a lot of questions, for example: Does Islamic mean that it only applies to followers of the Islam or does it apply to every inhabitant of an Islamic country? Does it use the Qur’an as its main guiding object for oppositionor does it look at the

implementation and the everyday practices of this religion in everyday life? To answer these complicated questions, two main authors shall be used; Margot Badran, known for her work on gender and women’s rights in the Middle East and Africa, and Haideh Moghissi, who has an interest for Islam and gender and human rights. What Badran puts a lot of effort on at the start of her article, entitled “Engaging Islamic Feminism”, about Islamic feminism is

countering the idea that feminism in general is a movement that originated purely in the West. This, however, is not the case, because it started simultaneously in the West and in the East, which means Muslims and others (Badran, “Engaging Islamic Feminism” 25). This is an important fact in order to see that Islamic feminism did not arise from another form of feminism. Seen from her perspective, Islamic feminism came to life around 1990, which is around the same time that Rebecca Walker first articulated the term third wave feminism in the West. She, and a group of other scholars, discovered that some Muslim women were working on trying to subvert the patriarchy in Islam and were rereading the Qur’an in order to accomplish this (Badran, “Engaging Islamic Feminism” 26). It was in this way that Islamic feminism came to life.

This form of feminism, to answer the earlier mentioned questions, can be applied to both religious Muslim feminists as well as secular Muslim feminists, for the ones who tried to disseminate the messages of gender equality and social justice within the Qur’an were religious and the ones who started to notice this and put the name of Islamic feminism on it

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were Muslim secular feminists (Badran, “Engaging Islamic Feminism” 28). The outcome of these rereadings and of Islamic feminism in general is more noticeable in the public sphere than in the private, in the secular public sphere rather than the religious. This kind of

feminism does indeed use the Qur’an, but it also looks at everyday practices within the realm of religion. Haideh Moghissi makes a point about this in her article “Islamic Feminism

Revisited.” In the Qur’an it is said that women are supposed to wear veils and cover their body to make them be and feel more humble. This has however changed and is nowadays even seen as a tool of female empowerment and also something that protects women against sexual harassment (Moghissi 83), as Moghissi explains. Ghada Karmi makes a point about the contradictory nature of some verses, which in this case have been used a long time as a tool to instill the necessity of the veil upon Muslim women. However, these verses should be looked at in their social and historical context and not as a statement that is eternally applicable and unchangeable (Moghissi 82-83). So, what is said here is that commandments, or orders in a way, that were written around 1400 years ago and were interpreted in a certain way at that time, by any means do not have to be interpreted currently in the same way. This is one particular aspect of Islamic feminism that, in the context of this study, is of utter importance to realise.

It is clear that one can look at the concept of veiling in many different ways, as is the case with the previously described male gaze. These different ways are not about what is good or bad, but about how these concepts work and what kind of meaning can be derived from them. In this way both veiling and the male gaze can be put to use in favour of the cause of Islamic feminism. As I argued before, the veil can function as a means for a woman, religious or not, to defend herself from the vulnerability of her own and others sexuality. The veil, in “all instances of concealing, covering, hiding or disguising, is characterized by its opacity, its ability to fully block the gaze” (Doane 48). Here the two concepts are in conflict. If this were a game of rock-paper-scissors, veiling would overtake the gaze, for it is not only very hard, some might say impossible, to watch a hidden person, it also takes away the sexual pleasure of the visual that Laura Mulvey talks about. When interpreted this way, it becomes clear that, instead of what is usually the consensus in the West – the veil being seen as a tool for men to oppress women –, it can in fact be the opposite: a simple garment to provide a mechanism for women to effectively block the male gaze and in this way give them back a small part of the power over the interaction of

sexuality.

One question is left: in what manner did Islamic feminism come about? Why did it start and what was the reason behind it? Aspects of feminism have always existed over the course of the years; however Islamic feminism as it is seen nowadays is a recent

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her faith and vice versa. This changed in 2009 when a movement was started called “Musawah”. Elizabeth Segran states in her article “The Rise of the Islamic Feminists” that this movement began to make the case that women can fight for justice and equality from within Islamic tradition (Segran). According to Fereshteh Ahmadi, women in Iran have actually taken up the task of trying to “prove themselves against all odds” (Ahmadi 37). This is an extraordinary phenomenon, seeing as there was a general fear back in 1979 – when the Islamic Revolution took place in Iran – that women would fade away from the public space. With respect to the public space and domain there has been a group of nascent Islamic feminists who think that it would be a good idea to start broadening the scope of feminism and to go more public with their activism (Badran, “Engaging Islamic Feminism” 34). This aspect of Islamic feminism has a lot to do with film amongst other things, because film is one of the most public events in which ones voice can be heard. The previously mentioned director of Women without Men, Shirin Neshat, actually went public with her films and for this she was banned from Iran. This shows that there is still a long way to go. The freedom of being able to create your own work in the way that you want to is one of the changes necessary to improve the possibilities of Islamic feminism within the area of film. It is conceivable that not every filmmaker in Iran who agrees with Islamic feminism is willing to be thrown out of the country for his or her beliefs.

2.2 The composition of Islamic feminism nowadays

Considering Islamic feminism nowadays, there is one apparent misconception a lot of people have: Muslim women are often seen as one gigantic crowd, in which everyone looks the same, thinks the same and acts the same. The equivalent is happening when looking at Middle Eastern countries in general, in which Islam is thought to be the one defining factor. Even if this were the case, there are also different kinds of Islam, which are not studied equally. What is meant with the “studying of Islam” has to be unambiguous, as Moghissi explains as well:

“Do we mean “Islam” as a medium uniting women and the supposed cosmic power, in response to personal, gender-specific needs, or does the term instead entail a prescribed set of ideas, teachings, and texts as applied to women, indeed an entire pre-established moral and legal order?” (Moghissi 82)

A clear distinction must be made between Islam as a legal and political system and Islam as a spiritual and moral guidance. The focus is regularly on the latter and hereby the sharp edges of the former are softened (82). What this means is that the focus in general is more on the spiritual aspect than on the legal aspect, which has as a consequence that the rules

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regarding the legal side are often blurred. This becomes apparent in the concept of veiling, which I discussed previously. If this would be looked at legally, one might say that women should have the choice in whether or not they want to wear a veil. In the verse of the Qur’an where the question of veiling comes up, the area on the body that must be covered ranges from the bosom to the whole body except for the hands and face. This verse, 24:31 in the Qur’an, entails only the part where the bosom has to be covered:

“And say to the believing women that they should lower their gaze and guard their modesty; that they should not display their beauty and ornaments except what must ordinarily appear thereof; that they should draw their veils over

their bosoms and not display their beauty except to their husbands … and that they should not strike their feet in order to draw attention to their hidden ornaments. And O you Believers, turn you all together towards Allah, that you may attain Bliss” (Sound Vision).

It is also debatable whether the veiling was only meant for Muhammed’s wives or for all Muslim women (Killian 569-570). The main point is that women should be modest and a veil is just one way of doing that. Another point to make against the adopted meaning of the veil is that it has its origins long before the Islam came into place. It used to be a sign of wealth for women to have their complete body veiled, whereas women who had to work, wore either no veil or an adapted one (Killian 570). Surely, it is possible to give another meaning to an already existing custom; however the impact it makes on some Muslim women makes it a questionable practice.

Thus, what is the one main issue that Islamic feminism has to deal with most? Unsurprisingly, at least from the perspective of my thesis, it is one of the issues/discussions that are also taking place in Western feminism and the Western world in general. This issue has to do with gender inequality and discrimination and how the basis of these concepts is not found in an essentialist, naturalist or metaphysical way of thinking. It can instead be found in the social realm (Moghadam 1144). So by rereading the Qur’an and looking at why particular laws are in effect, different conclusions regarding the way of life for women in Iran might come out. Many women had thought that under the Islamic state their lives would improve; however, the return to a Sharia law has as a consequence that men are free to divorce and to take other women when they please (Moghadam 1145). This constitutes the irony of calling it a family law, if all the law does is impose a male perspective and in this way only improve the patriarchy within the family, instead of the woman’s perspective. To further analyse the way Islamic feminism is made up, it is practical to look at the specific parts of it, which are suitable for this thesis.

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2.3 Different types and aspects of Islamic feminism

Which different aspects of Islamic feminism are crucial to know about when looking at Iranian films and are there specific types of Islamic feminism that have to be dealt with before doing analyses of these films? These questions will be answered in this subchapter. First of all, there are three concepts that need to be discussed: equality, which already has come up before, censorship and the private sphere.

With the coming of the revolution in Iran in 1979, the monarchy in Iran changed to an Islamic Republic. This also meant that a lot of changes were made in the daily life of the female inhabitants of Iran. The Islamic Republic of Iran:

“banned women from serving as judges, discouraged women lawyers from practicing and other women from becoming lawyers, and excluded women from many fields of study, occupations, and professions. It repealed legislation, known as the Family Protection Act of 1967 and 1973, which had restricted polygyny, raised the age of marriage for girls, and allowed women the right to divorce” (Moghadam 1137).

All of these prohibitions and annulments of previously established acts facilitate in a large way the inequality in this country. Reversing rules that previously made it better for women might feel as an even bigger stab in the back than just instating new rules. The need for equality thus was heightened. From the beginning of the Islamic Republic there were four women in parliament who continued to request more equality. Equality and inequality are thus two crucial concepts, situated at the starting point of Islamic feminism.

This tightening of regulation and laws regarding women also goes hand in hand with the concept of censorship. In Blake Atwood’s journal article on censorship the author states that the deputy prime minister said that there is a difference between censorship and inspection (Atwood 39). He argued that censorship has to do with oppression within and throughout society. Inspection however, according to him, has to do with the preservation of the well-being of this society (39). What is crucial in this statement is the factor of “well-being”, for this concept is very arbitrary. Thus, for one person to make a decision for a whole country regarding their well-being, could be defined, by the standards of the deputy prime minister himself, as censorship. Censorship in Iran at the moment has a “lack of specificity” (Atwood 39). The arbitrary nature of well-being continues along these lines into the realm of film in Iran. This means that filmmakers do not have clear guidelines as to what can and cannot be shown. However after they have actually made their film, the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution (SCCR) has the power to disallow the film, as a cause of their vague

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conditions. Because of all the harsh restrictions for women it is thus a challenge to represent them according to the SCCR’s rules.

The ever-returning concept of veiling is a phenomenon that mainly deals with the public sphere. Islamic women are allowed to remove their veil once they are inside of their house, in the private sphere. In this respect the private sphere could be seen as a place of (some) freedom. However the previously mentioned changes the Islamic Republic made, constitute the taking away a big part of this freedom within the private sphere. For one, the exclusion of women from many fields of work and education forces them to stay at home, which in turn converts the private sphere into a private prison. Secondly the reinstating of polygyny6_{, lowering the marrying age for girls and taking away a woman’s right to divorce}

expropriates what little free choice women had in the private sphere and makes them pawns in the men’s game. This reversal of freedom within the private sphere, along with the

inequality and censorship, make for excellent reasons to rebel in whatever way possible against the system that made them brought them into being.

2.4 Censorship and Persepolis

Persepolis (Satrapi and Paronnaud, 2007) is a film about Marjane Satrapi, or ‘Marji’, who grows up in Iran in the 1970’s. As a little girl she experiences the Islamic Revolution of 1979 first-hand. At first she, her parents and her grandmother were looking forward to the changes that were going to be made as soon as the Shah was defeated. However, it turns out that the country became a tyranny soon afterwards. Her parents send her to Vienna, in an attempt to give her a better life. She discovers that adapting to life in Austria is not going as well as expected and upon eventually returning to Iran she learns that her home country has also changed a lot. She does not feel at home anymore and eventually leaves again,

because she cannot live with the new oppressive rules and regulations. With regards to this film a number of concepts I have previously discussed, will be applied. The first one is veiling.

In one of the first scenes of the film the spectator observes Marjane at the airport in Paris. The reason why she is here is unclear. What is clear is the fact that she is not wearing a veil in the first shots, but goes to the bathroom in the following shots, to put on her veil. When in the bathroom, a woman is seen putting on lipstick while looking in the mirror. Marjane walks towards the mirror next to this woman and proceeds to put on her veil. The woman glances at her sideways. When Marjane walks away, the woman’s face changes from a neutral to a disapproving expression, signifying that she most certainly has an opinion

6

Polygyny is a form of polygamy, only concerning a man marrying not only his first wife, but also a second and third and so on (Higgins 480).

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on the fact that Marjane is putting on her veil (see fig. 15 and 16). This resembles the point I made earlier about the fact that Westerners often have preconceived ideas about veiling. However, in this case the woman might be right to judge the veil that Marjane puts on. It is in fact an omen for what is to come, or better said, what has already happened. The spectator finds out that the first scenes are in the present and that the following scenes will take place in the past. They depict the life of little Marjane, who does not wear a veil - until a certain point, that is. The first time small Marjane is seen veiled in the flashbacks to the past, coincides with the outbreak of the Islamic

Revolution in Tehran in 1979. Marjane’s voice-over speaks about the repressive regime and about how the “face of the city” changed. She then goes on to say that their own faces changed as well. At this point the spectator sees Marjane and a big group of other girls, all wearing veils (see fig. 17). In this particular shot the spectator sees the group of girls as one big mass in which their faces are definable,

but they are all meaningless. They appear as one mass, because besides their faces they have no own body. The reason for this is that they are now obliged to wear a veil. This makes them all look the same. Different than what was the case in Circumstance

(Keshavarz, 2011), in this film the obligation

of veiling is one of the main consequences of the Islamic Revolution and perhaps the most prominent symbol of the oppression carried out by the people in power. This is thus again an instance of wearing a veil, because there is no choice. It does not have to do with for

example women having power over their own sexuality, but with the rulers having power over the women. It is difficult to form another opinion, when young girls are taught that their veil is a sign of freedom, but they have no choice in wearing it or not. This is done from when the girls are young, so one might say that in general they have not yet developed a tendency

Fig. 15. Marjane has put on her veil

Fig. 16. The woman judges Marjane

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to be critical of this. However, Marjane is very critical. A situation in which this is visible to the spectator happens during a scene shortly after the schoolteacher has told the children about the martyrs and how they suffered for the country. The group of children and the teacher walk back into the school building and since they are all

wearing exactly the same and only their outline is visible, they appear to be one single moving entity(see fig. 18). Marjane, however,

separates herself from the group and starts performing a sketch about the previously mentioned martyrs (see fig. 19). Same as in Circumstance, this makes her stand out and can also be seen as a sign of Islamic

feminism, for she is not willing to just accept everything that she has been told. Being critical of the norm is one of the most crucial

aspects in feminism; recognizing that the way it is now, is not the optimal way for everyone. This is where the second concept regarding this film, censorship, comes in. The deputy prime minister’s comments on censorship and inspection that I mentioned in the previous subchapter, take form as well in this film. There are multiple instances in which it becomes apparent that the rules instated by the government do not sit well with all the civilians. Persepolis gives the spectator a clear-cut image of the contradiction between those who do stick to the imposed rules and those who oppose them, in whatever way possible. An example of this is when the young Marjane goes to buy an illegal CD of Iron Maiden on the streets and afterwards walks away. She is stopped by two women wearing long, black veils (see fig. 20). They forbid her to wear the sneakers that she is wearing and the jeans jacket with a Michael Jackson badge on it. They also tell her to lower her headscarf, because her hair is visible. What is striking

about this is that the controlling women are presented as big black blobs, which appear to have no arms or legs. These women could be seen as a symbol for the censorship that they are imposing on

Marjane, because the rulers took away their

Fig. 18. One big moving entity

Fig. 19. Marjane performs a sketch

Who Run the World? Feminists! Islamic feminism in the films Circumstance, Persepolis and Women without Men