Veil, repression and women’s representation in ‘the Day I became a woman’

Autumn 2010

Women and repression have a long history. Cinema especially, Iranian cinema, has dealt with this topic recently. Women’s repression has always been related to Islam and veil (Naficy 1995, p.548). It is worth to mention that there is no clear verse in the Holy Quran which forces women to wear hijab or to punish those who do not wear it (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). As I mentioned above, Iranian cinema has dealt with this sensitive issue recently (Naficy 1995, p.548). In general, the first Iranian film was produced in 1901 (Naficy 1995, p.548). This shows that Iranian cinema is not new. The Islamic revolution in 1979 has been a boundary for Iranian filmmakers as cinema is considered a harmful source for the Iranian society according to Muslim extremists (Naficy 1995, p.548). Moreover, cinema was viewed as a type of westernization in Iran (Naficy 1995, p.548). As a result, cinema has started to be unwelcome in the Iranian society (Naficy 1995, p.548). Moreover, the Iranian government has tried to Islamize the Iranian cinema and bring cinema under the government’s control (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). Films after the Islamic revolution in Iran have attracted many critics to talk about (Moruzzi 1999, p.52). On the other hand, some Iranian leaders such as, Khomaieni, support cinema in Iran but those films which show the right Islam (Naficy 1995, p.548). Concerning women, Filmmakers after the Islamic revolution tend to ignore women in their films to avoid controversy as it is believed that women are the source of troubles (Naficy 1995, p.550). This has been the image of women in most societies. However, in the 1980s, women have returned to be the main issue in films (Naficy 1995, p.550). Women’s veil and enforcement of hejab on women are two of the most important topics that Iranian cinema has dealt with recently (Moruzzi 1999, p.52).

In this essay, a detailed discussion of the film ‘The day I became a woman’ would be the main point which raises critical issues about women in Iran.
As an introduction to the issue of veil and Islam nowadays, this is a brief background about this issue. Veil among Muslim women has become the news for a while. This might be because of “ Islamphobia” (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). People have started to view Islam differently especially after 9/11 incident and Danish cartoons about prophet Muhammed and how Muslims react violently to those events (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). European world has changed their image about Islam and started to relate violence to Islam (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.2). This image has been promoted by media such as TV and cinema (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). As a result, women’s veil has been related to Islam and violence. This has raised the question of why is veil only related to Muslim women when other women from different religions such as Christianity and Judaism wear the veil. (Macdonald 2006,p.7). The answer would be media and especially American media and cinema which promote the negative image of Islam (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.3). In addition, there are no enough films which show the Muslim’s point of view (Gottschalk& Greenberg 2008, p.1). For example, few Muslim directors make films about women, veil and Islam until recently when the Iranian cinema has started to produce films such as “The day I became a woman” and “Beneath the veil”. The previous point might lead to the most important point which is to which audience the film is made for? It is very important to know to whom the film is made as every audience would read the film differently.

After giving a brief introduction about the issue of veil and Islam, ‘The day I became a woman’, would be discussed in detail. The day I became a woman is an Iranian film which discusses how Iranian women are controlled by norms, religion and customs of the Iranian society (Russell 2001). The film is about 3 women from different generations, Hava, Ahoo and Hoora (Russell 2001). The three women share one thing which is how they are suffering from repression and control from the patriarchal society (Russell 2001). In this essay, the focus would be n the stories of Hava and Ahoo.

The first protagonist in the film is Hava, a little girl who just turned 9-year old. In this story , issues such as childhood vs. womanhood, the significance of time, segregation between boys and girls, Iranian society, norms and customs and finally its relationship with Hava’s veil. The focal point or main scene in this story of ‘The day I became a woman’ is when Hava is forced to wear the veil by her family and banning her from playing as she is a woman now. According to the Iranian society and as they claim according to Islam, Hava is ‘a woman’ at the moment her 9th birthday has come (Russell 2001). Accordingly, Hava is not allowed to play with her male friend, Hasan, as she is ‘a woman’ now. The most interesting thing in that moment is how Hava does not understand why she can’t play with Hasan or why she should be covered! The only thing her mother and grandmother tell her that she should not play outside or stand in the roof of the house as she is ‘a woman’ now. The phrase, she is a woman now, has been repeated so many times in the film and neither Hava’s parents nor Hava know what being a woman means! This is a fact as in the film no one has talked about the meaning of being a woman or how a girl could turn to be a woman in an hour! This raises the issue of how conservative societies just follow the norms and customs of the society without explaining (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Also, grandmother and mother just don’t explain to Hava why she should be covered. This is the same idea as in the film, At five in the afternoon, when the father communicates with the horse more than communicating with his daughters as he feels that females can not be communicated with. As a result, the old guy considers the horse, his male friend or son, and talk with smoothly. In my opinion, this really expresses how women are not respected and repressed in conservative communities. In addition, this shows how such societies are male dominated as they repress only women. Although the previous point might be true that the Iranian society is patriarchal, in the day I became a woman, especially in Hava’s story, there are no male characters to show that men are the ones who force women to wear hjab or repress them! In my opinion, this is interesting as this proves that even if men are not visible, they have the power to affect the society and lead old women to believe repressive action like enforcing Hava to be covered is the right thing to do.
After tackling the notion of womanhood vs. childhood in the case of Hava, another related issue is raised from her story which is the significance of time. Hava in the film has only one hour left to play and act as a child .After convincing her grandmother that her birthday has not come yet, her grandmother allowed her to go and play with her friend but she should be home when its noon as at that time, she would be a woman. I think this is unrealistic as time decides whether Hava is a woman or not by playing at 11 am but not 1 pm as she is a woman at that time. This again shows how grandmother and mother don’t understand what it means to be a woman and care only for covering Hava and most importantly how the society view them. For example, “People’s judgment matters”, one of the Iranian girls said when asking about wearing veil in a research conducted on Iranian women in 2005-2006 (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). This shows how norms and tradition in the Iranian society is very important (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). Also, it affirms what women should do and should not in the Iranian society. Furthermore, Hava has to check when she has turned to be a woman when carrying two sticks and checking the shadow of the sun. This action shows how parents of Hava are concerned with shallow stuff about womanhood and time. Hava in the film is really concerned about when the sun is going to disappear to return home; this is because she should follow what her family told her to do not to be punished.

In addition, Hava only cares for playing with her male friend whom she is not allowed to play with as girls and boys should not mix. This really shows how some societies think and want to separate girls and boys even if they are only children. This is another sign how conservative societies encourage segregation among boys and girls. For example, in Saudi Arabia, there has been a law which separates boys and girls even in schools for non-Arabs (Al Hakeem 2006). This expresses how the Saudi community also shares what the Iranian community believes in. Additionally, this shows how such communities encourage segregation among boys and girls even in that early age.

Another significant scene in the film is when two boys are trying to set their ship and need a piece of clothes for their sailing so they ask Hava for her scarf and give her a fish as a price. Using Hava’s scarf in sailing shows it is not that important for her and she only cares for playing as any child.

The final issue the film raised through Hava’s story is how veil is a barrier for girls. The scene when Hava’s mother always tries to cover her and Hava is concentrating on playing demonstrates how veil is considered a barrier for girls. In the case of Hava, she wears the veil only to satisfy her family but again she is not convinced with what she is wearing. In a website called About.com , a girl called Huda asks about what age girls should wear veil in Islam, the answer is that every girl should be convinced with the idea of veiling not forcing her (At what age are Muslim girls expected to start wearing the hijab?). This is not what most families in conservative societies such as the Iranian society do with their daughters.
In addition, another image of veil and how it is a barrier for women is the chadori vs misveiling. The misveiling concept is common in Iran where some women only cover their hair and not covering their whole bodies like the case of Chadori where the whole body is covered except the hands ( Sadeghi 2008, p.251). Some misveiled women claim that wearing what it is called “misveiling” is a representation of refusal of covering the whole body and be free with relationships with boys (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). “Being misveiled generally means to feel more relaxed in relationships with boys.” One of the misveiled women said (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). This obviously means that women feel they are sexually repressed when they are covered. On the other hand, chadori women who cover themselves choose to wear the chador to be sexually protected from any attacks from boys (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). According to a research conducted by an Iranian researcher in 1997 on 60 Iranian men and women, 55% of men believe that when they need to have a sexual relationship, women are automatically exposed to these needs (Sadeghi 2008, p.255). This obviously shows that women are viewed to be ready to what men want to do with. That’s why in my opinion, women should be covered as to protect themselves from any male desires as Chadori girls expressed before.

Additionally, to prove that women wear veil to satisfy the society, I conducted a research on young Egyptian women to examine their veiling and whether they wear it for religious reasons or social and cultural reasons (Alsheikh 2008, p.3). The result has shown that most young women from private and public universities in Cairo wear veil for social and cultural reasons as they do not want to be different in the society and as a protection (Alsheikh 2008, p.3). This shows that wearing veil is for social and cultural reasons more than religious as many assume and as Chadori and misvelied women claim.

To conclude, in the case of Hava, the grandmother and mother are convinced that Hava should cover her hair and separate herself from boys so the society would not criticize her.

The second protagonist in ‘The day I became a woman’ is Ahoo. Ahoo is the story of a young lady who challenges her family, society and customs and participates in a bicycle race in Iran. The film is showing how young women are getting ready to the race but Ahoo’s family starts to follow her and try to stop her. The story of Ahoo raises various issues such as the notion of women and sports, good vs. bad women and other issues.

The first issue which this story discusses is the notion of women’s participation in sports. First of all, physical differences between men and women have led people to believe that women are disabled in terms of sports (Prakash 1990, p.WS19). This shows that women are not able to play sports and it is not their place to do so. For example, in the day I became a woman, this is the case as Ahoo should not ride a bicycle as she is a woman! Moreover, women are not allowed to watch or play sports in some societies as it is a kind of leadership and women can not occupy such a position (Prakash 1990, p.WS19). This shows that women can not play sports in order not to be in a powerful position (Prakash 1990, p.WS19); another example which might proves this point is the film ‘A question of silence’ where women are not allowed to occupy a powerful position simply because they are women. In my opinion, this is the case in most patriarchal societies. For example, this is obvious in the film, the day I became a woman, when Ahoo was riding the bicycle but her husband divorced her for refusing to get off. In addition, It is believed that sports is harmful for women’s health and their reproductive activity (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). This shows how patriarchal societies discourage women from playing sports in order to protect the reproduction’s process (Prakash 1990, p.WS20). Again, women are not important and if sport is not good for reproductive activity, it would be harmful and bad for women to play. In 2006, Iranian women were not allowed to enter football stadium to support their national team although there is no law about that thing (Iranian women are not allowed to enter the football stadium). The same thing happened in Saudi Arabia where women were not allowed to enter the stadium to support the Saudi team (Iranian women are not allowed to enter the football stadium). These two examples express how women not only are not allowed to participate in sports but not to watch as well.

It is worth to mention it is proved that sports has no bad effects on women’s reproductive process and there are no any biological facts which might stop women from playing sport (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). Banning women from playing sport is all about socially constructed reasons (Prakash 1990, p.WS22). This again proves that it is not about biological reasons but how the patriarchal society reads it and to dominate and control women. Moreover, Participation of women in sports arena would be competitive to men and would encourage women to enter the fields of health and science which might change some facts in favor of women (Prakash 1990, p.WS23). This is another sign of how men do not want women to play sports in order not to be powerful and gain their rights.

The second significant issue the story of Ahoo raises is the notion of good vs. bad women. Categorizing women as good or bad is something critical and can not be measured. However, the older generation in some societies, such as the Iranian society, believes that by wearing “hejab”, good women would be recognized from the bad ones (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). New generation believes that being good or bad has nothing to do with veiling unlike parents’ generation (Sadeghi 2008, p.257). For example, in the film, At Five in the afternoon, the old guy is surprised from seeing some girls unveiled in Afghanistan. The old guy believes that good women wear hejab while only bad women do not wear it. This shows that women are judged from their appearance and what they wear. “Female goodies dressed modestly — at the time, this meant they wore a chador — and the baddies wore miniskirts” (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). This quote again shows how women are represented in films not only the Iranian ones but also in Hollywood films when women should be whether good or bad such as in the film ‘Fatal Attraction’.

The previous point leads to the idea of women and working. Good women do not work and stay at home under the male supervision while working women are the bad women (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). For example, in the film, At five in the afternoon, when Noqreh is taking a photo for herself, the photographer tells her that the right place for women is the house. This scene proves two points; first, most conservative societies such as the Iranian and Afghani share the same point of view of how women should stay at home for their own good and to be ‘good women’; the second point is such societies are dominated by male members and women have little voice in such societies (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.675). Also, it is always shown that women who stay at home are the good ones while those who work are the bad ones. The wife in Fatal attraction is an example of that while the woman who works, the lover, is the bad one.

As it is shown above, the bad woman is the one who works, goes out and rides a bike like Ahoo. Also, bad woman is considered a bad woman when she disobeys her family and husband as Ahoo. The Husband of Ahoo follows her and demands her to get off but she disobeys so he directly divorce her. Some might read the scene when the husband divorced Ahoo a liberating point as she liberated herself from dominating men. However, at the same time it shows how men have the power to divorce women anytime they want.

Ahoo’s story also raises the issue of misveiling and the right code of clothing for women. The Iranian government as Taliban government set what women should wear (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). For example, in the film, At five in the afternoon, women should wear hejab and are not allowed to be educated only because they are women (Sadeghi 2008, p.250). This expresses how women are restricted to wear specific clothes and if they violet that, they would be punished. For example, in Sudan, Lubna Hussein, a Sudanese journalist is at risk of getting 40 lashes because she wore a trouser in public which is considered indecent according to Sudanese’s law (Copnall 2009). This shows how laws are unfair to women as indecent clothes are not specific and officials might consider what they want indecent. “It is not about religion, it is about men treating women badly.", Lubna said (Copnall 2009). This quote really expresses how some people misuse the religion for their own benefit and to control women as it is true that there is no verse in the Quran saying that women should be flogged for what to wear and not to wear!
Also, the film has raised the issue of veil and male gaze. For example, for both groups of girls, chadori and misveiled, they wear the veil according to the male gaze or how men view them (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Hava’s example of veiling proves that she needs to be covered according to how society views her and most importantly how men see her.

Ahoo’s story also discusses the struggle between tradition which is her family’s opposition and modernity which is riding a bike. To start with, the Iranian old generation is more traditional than the new generation. According to a study conducted on young Iranian generation in 2005 and 2006, the new generation would be less religious and traditional than the old generation (Sadeghi 2008, p.251). As a result, being religious is related to being traditional and being modern means to be unreligious. This point is very important as veil is linked to being not modern and backward and this is in my opinion as a result of media’s image especially in films. The main problem of women and representation in films is the struggle between modernity and traditionalism (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Both groups want to be dominating in the society so people especially women are the victims of this war (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). Also, Women especially the misveiled are blamed for the bad situation in the Iranian society (Sadeghi 2008, p.258). This shows that in any case, women are the ones to blame for anything even if the society is the problem. For example, in ‘Beneath the veil’, when Afghan women are dying because there are no female doctors as Taliban has banned girls from education, women are blamed for that not Taliban or any male groups.

The final issue that Ahoo’s story has raised is women and public vs. private space. According to Ahoo’s case, she violates the norm by riding the bike in public. It is believed that the right place for women is to stay home as good women stay at home as mentioned before (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Staying home is a private space and that’s women’s place (Sadeghi 2008, p.252). Furthermore, as the Iranian government has put restrictions on young people’s sexual relationships, young people have turned their relationships to private places so they could be free to do what they want (Sadeghi 2008, p.254). For example, in the documentary ‘Beneath the veil’, although it is about Afghan people, it is applied to Iranian women as they tend to do everything privately especially under Taliban’s regime. For example, women tend to go to schools but privately as they were not allowed to be educated under Taliban’s regime. Accordingly, people tend to move their activities to be private such as relationships, education and even sports. The previous point leads to a very important point which is how conservative societies affect people’s behaviors and lead them to do everything privately instead of publicly as they are afraid of the officials and sometimes do stuff as a resistance to the society and government.
As I mentioned above, people tend to do everything private when they are banned to do some stuff publicly especially those who are not that religious who tend to have affairs, drink alcohol and listen to music privately instead of publicly. (Sadeghi 2008, p.255). For example, in the film, the day I became a woman, Ahoo did ride and participate in a cycling race which is something public and that’s why her family was against her. This has led many Iranians to live a double standard life as they shift from public to private and public to private which can create double personalities (Sadeghi 2008, p.255).

In addition the notion of public vs. private space leads to the point of passivity and women. Women are always viewed as passive persons (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). In films, this notion is very common in Hollywood and other films. For example, in the old Iranian films such as The lor girl, made in 1933, women were viewed active while women in most other films were shown as silent and passive (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.673). This illustrates how Iranian women were active in the period of 1930s as films show that unlike today when women are viewed in films as passive. On the other hand, Iranian films nowadays concentrate on how women are repressed and need to be liberated as shown in the film, the day I became a woman where most women are passive and have no opinion and only follow what the society wants. At five in the afternoon and beneath the veil deal with Afghani women but the director is Iranian and show how Afghani women are repressed as well and suffer from the same problems that the Iranian women face. Back to the film The lor girl where main female character has become very famous after this film because she broke the rules of passive women in love and was active (Mir-hosseini 2007, p.674). Nowadays films such as at five in the afternoon and the day I became a woman encourage women to ask for their rights and be active members in society as they can take Ahoo for example as a model even if in the end of the films, her family stops her from riding the bicycle.
To conclude Ahoo’s story, the focal point of this story in my opinion is the end when Ahoo’s family forces her to stop her bike. I think this scene is very critical as first; it puts an end to Ahoo, as a heroine, and a resistant to norms and culture of her society. The end takes the audience to reality and what really happens in such conservative societies like the Iranian one. Second, it leads the audiences to wonder what is going to happen to Ahoo after her family forced her to get off. Is Ahoo going to be punished or what? The end is very interesting as it is open and different audience might read it differently. Moreover, the girl who kept watching Ahoo from far away is interesting as first she couldn’t do anything to stop Ahoo’s family and secondly she is also curious to know what it is going to happen to Ahoo. In my opinion, the director puts the girl at the end to represent the audience. The conclusion for Ahoo’s story is that norms, customs and tradition would win at the end.

In conclusion, the topic of veil, repression and women is critical and needs to take attention from filmmakers and critics. Women are still suffering from repression especially in some Islamic countries. In my opinion, such societies are dominated by customs and beliefs which encourage repression against women. Unfortunately, such repressing actions are justified by saying it is Islam and its rules. A good example which proves the previous point is how people interpret the Holly Quran according to their benefits. Although Iranian films are not that popular among large number of people like Hollywood or Bollywood films, films like at five in the afternoon and the day I became a woman can be the beginning to talk about sensitive topics and Islam.


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