Mini-Skirts And Hijabs: After A Rights Crackdown, A New Look At Iran, Through Its Movies at the Museum of Modern Art in New York
New Age
Islam News Bureau
07 October 2023
·
Mini-Skirts
And Hijabs: After A Rights Crackdown, A New Look At Iran, Through Its Movies at
the Museum of Modern Art in New York
·
Afghan
Women Refugees Report Mistreatment And Police Torture In Pakistan
·
Muslim-Majority
Country Considering Restrictions On Hijab
·
Israeli
Propaganda On Muslim Womens’ Rights
Compiled by New Age Islam News Bureau
URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/mini-skirts-hijabs-iran-museum-new-york/d/130849
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Mini-Skirts And Hijabs: After A Rights
Crackdown, A New Look At Iran, Through Its Movies at the Museum of Modern Art
in New York
A Scene from
'Dear End', and Iranian movie from 1977
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7 Oct, 2023
Kim Hjelmgaard
There were nightclubs and bars. People
mixed freely. Women could dress however they wanted: tight jeans, mini-skirts,
hair loose. The king drove around in a luxury Cadillac, appeared to have a soft
spot for Ray Ban sunglasses and wanted to modernize just about everything.
But this Iran that existed before the
Islamic Revolution of 1979 was also a deeply traditional place, divided between
oil money and poverty, with few social advancements for most people. It was a
place where the ruling royal family held absolute power, There were abuses and
political repression, including, for a time, with assistance from the U.S.
government in the form of the CIA.
A look at this era in Iran's history
will be on display at the Museum of Modern Art in New York for six weeks
starting Oct. 13. The Museum will screen more than 70 Iranian movies from 1925
to 1979 and offer, according to the program's lead curator, Ehsan Khoshbakht, a
view of the "many Irans": complex, diverse, caught between competing
impulses. And in many cases, in love with American culture.
It is a look at a U.S. adversary that
often makes headlines - because of prisoner swaps, protests over human rights
abuses, jailed Nobel Peace Prizing-winning activists and on-and-off nuclear
negotiations. And it is close at heart to the estimated 620,000 people of
Iranian ancestry who live in the U.S.
In recent days, rights groups have urged
Iranian authorities to explain how a 16-year-old girl named Armita Geravand
fell into a coma after an alleged encounter on a train with Iran's so-called
morality police - evoking comparisons with Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who
died in police custody last year after being accused of violating Iran’s hijab
rules, which require women to cover their hair. After Amini's death, Iran
passed a new "hijab and chastity" law that comes with fines and lengthy
prison terms for breaking it.
This is an edited version of an
interview with Khoshbakht about what the museum describes as "the most
comprehensive survey of Iranian pre-revolutionary cinema ever assembled in
North America."
What do these movies say about Iran?
"Imagine someone watching all these
films back-to-back,'' Khoshbakht said. "The conclusion could be something
like this: The country starts to grow. It marches toward modernization. It's
exciting. And as it progresses, many contradictions appear.
Then this thing - this massive machine
that's been moving forward - it starts to crack and break down and suddenly it
explodes in 1979.
In these films you see a country that
still preserves its very old ways of life in the 1920s. Then, after World War
II, you see how much has changed; how modern or modern-looking it has become.
In the 1950s, you see the optimism. The desire for change. You see an
Americanized vision of life, where Iranians drive American cars, subscribe to
magazines and drink coffee. Gradually, a middle class is being formed.
But the films are also ahead of society.
They create dream visions of that middle class life for Iranians. They are
feeding into the imagination in terms of how life in Iran could be. But they
also see the dark side of this progress, those contradictions. Girls in
mini-skirts who are also wearing chador (a body-length cloak that covers the
hair and body, worn especially by Muslim women) - and you ask yourself: Who are
we? Are we modern or traditional?
I'll give you a good example. At a time
when the Shah of the Pahlavi dynasty (Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, Iran's last
king) was promoting the idea of progress - of Iran's bright future - a short
documentary is made called The House is Black (1963, directed by ForughFarrokhzad).
It's about a leper colony that is an allegory for Iranian society. It features
the under-represented, the under-class. It asks: Why if Iran is building so
many hospitals, schools, universities, public television, why is there also so
much poverty and illness?"
What was censorship like for Iranian
movie directors before the revolution - and what is it like now, in modern-day
Iran?
"Censorship has been part of
Iranian cinema since its inception. Both censorship of foreign films to be
screened in Iran and productions made domestically. Of course, censorship
reached an unprecedented level after the revolution but it is important to
emphasize it did exist before the revolution, too. It started to tighten its
grip in the late 1950s when SAVAK, the Shah's secret police, became more
powerful and extended its influence over different aspects of Iranian life and
culture. SAVAK, for example, forced director Masoud Kimiai to shoot a
completely new ending for his movie The Deer (1974), a tale of a former sports
champion turned junkie who reunites with a leftist classmate and is redeemed by
revolutionary anger."
Yet even films by directors who were
relatively close to the Pahlavi regime were censored. The best example of this
from the time is South of the City (1957, directed by FarokhGhafari). It was
completely mutilated by censorship because it was one of the very first films
in Iran shot on location showing the true conditions of the people - the
poverty, gangsters, crime, prostitution. It showed how Tehran really was.
Today, young Iranian filmmakers have the
possibility to self-produce their films by using digital technologies. They can
send their films to international film festivals without involving the state.
Of course, if they want to shoot and screen their films in Iran they still need
permission. They are subjected to censorship and state control. But it seems
that many directors are even abandoning the idea of domestic release, so they
can say what they want to say without censoring themselves. Some seem willing
to risk arrest to do this."
Will some of these movies seem familiar
to Americans?
"For Western viewers, especially
American ones, there's likely to be a deep familiarity about some of these
films. There are many Iranian directors who were influenced by American cinema
and do their own versions of Americans films. For example, Samuel Khachikian
(Anxiety, 1962; Strike, 1964) has been dubbed Iran's Alfred Hitchcock. His
films are very much in the style of American film noir and crime thrillers from
the 1950s. They are extremely enjoyable to watch. The lighting, acting and
editing techniques are those of classical Hollywood.
There's another film in this series
showing at MoMA (Reza Motori, 1970, directed by Masoud Kimiai) that is pretty
much a straight homage to Easy Rider (the 1969 American road movie starring
Peter Fonda and Dennis Hopper). The American influence is very visible and
beautiful in an exhilarating way."
What do you think Americans will find
surprising about these movies?
"Many Americans who see these
movies will be surprised to learn that there's not just one Iran. There's many.
The sun-drenched Iran of the south. The green Iran of the north. The ancient
central Iran. Different climates, different complexions, different moods,
different types of music, different languages, backgrounds. Directors of Jewish
origins like GorjiEbadia (The Girl from Saari, 1963), directors of Armenian
origins like Khachikian, Muslim directors - it's a real melting pot. It can
change someone's perspective just to look at these films.
It's the shock of discovery. It can be
very rewarding.
I also think that by watching these
films you are able to see and discover some of the factors that contributed to
the Islamic Revolution of 1979. As they move from the late 1950s to the 1970s,
in particular, you get a sense, bit by bit, of how these films are mirroring
what's happening in Iranian society. You see signs of the revolution to come.
This, for me, is the greatest aspect of these films: they were already aware of
the change that was going to happen. There's an increasing sense of angst and a
blind violence. That hopelessness and pessimism often appears in the stories of
revenge and rebellion. Films by Kimiai are good examples. Other films like
Chess of the Wind (1976, directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani) also that have that
premonition of the revolution to come."
A scene from "Chess of the
Wind," a 1976 movie directed by Mohammad Reza Aslani.
What happened to all these movie
directors after the revolution?
"The majority of the directors who
were still alive and working in 1979 they found themselves out of work. Many of
them, especially the art house directors, went abroad to America, Canada,
France. Some never returned. Some returned, cautiously. People such as Naderi,
Abbas Kiarostami, Bahram Beyzaie and DariushMehrjui. These were the directors
who planted the seed for a rebirth of Iranian cinema after the revolution.
State institutions such as Iran's
National Television, Kanoon, the ministry of culture, organizations that all
backed films through financial aid and were all the creation of the Pahlavi
era, these were not immediately demolished after the revolution. The knowledge,
expertise and technology to make films - some great, fascinating films - was
still there. Naderi's The Runner (1984), produced by Kanoon, became the first
major Iranian film in the post-revolutionary period that had a long festival
run all around the world. But it was directed by a man who before the
revolution made gritty crime films. After relocating to the U.S., Naderi made
A, B, C…Manhattan (1997), Marathon (2002) and Sound Barrier (2005). (Set in New
York, they all deal themes of isolation and alienation)."
What is the connection between the
portrayals of Iranian women in these movies and the 'Woman, life, liberty'
protests in Iran?
"The majority of these films show a
victimized image of women. But toward the end of the 1970s the films of Aslani
and Beyzaie in particular show an alternative image of women that is dazzling,
feminist and was truly shocking to Iranian audiences at the time. The Stranger
and the Fog (1975, directed by Beyzaie) is a film that shows how victimized
Iranian women in the 1970s could take charge of their own destinies.
The Ballad of Tara (1979, also by
Beyzaie) is like a feminist manifesto. It ends with a woman armed with a sword
fighting against waves that roll in from the sea on a beach. It's one of the
most powerful endings in the history of cinema. In the taking up that sword,
there is a rejection of the patriarchy and one can't help but think of the
"Woman, life, liberty" protests in Iran (sparked in September 2022 by
the death in police custody of Amini, who was detained for "improper"
hijab-wearing).
It is about empowerment and emancipation
being crushed by the most brutal state violence imaginable. When the actor of
Tara, Susan Taslimi, gazes into the camera she puts forward the question
Iranian women today have started to answer in a loud and clear voice: the
oppression is the crushing wave she fights with her sword. Now women choose
their own destiny and appear not in chador or mini-skirt, but as they are: free
and determined."
Source: usatoday.com
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/world/2023/10/07/iran-movies-human-rights-crackdown-woman-life-liberty/70967889007/
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Afghan Women Refugees Report
Mistreatment And Police Torture In Pakistan
Several
immigrant women have reported experiencing mistreatment and, sometimes, even
police torture during their brief stays in Pakistan.
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Fidel Rahmati
October 6, 2023
Several immigrant women have reported
experiencing mistreatment and, sometimes, even police torture during their
brief stays in Pakistan.
The Pakistani government’s decision to
expel Afghan refugees due to the ongoing mistreatment towards migrants has
sparked international condemnation.
Recently, reports of mistreatment by the
Pakistani police towards migrants have surfaced, and at least three immigrant women,
including a journalist, have confirmed that they have experienced mistreatment
and, in some cases, torture by the Pakistani police.
Samia, a woman with two children in
Pakistan, is following her asylum case, and despite legally entering Pakistan
with a valid visa for her stay, she has been threatened by the Pakistani
police.
She told Khama Press News Agency, “I
experienced [police mistreatment of migrants] myself a while ago, but I have
heard from my friends that they are now harassing migrants a lot.”
About a month ago, Samia faced a police
raid on her home while having dinner. The police examined all her documents and
then, in a threatening tone, told her to leave her residence.
Since then, Samia has lived on the
outskirts of one of Pakistan’s cities with her two children. She fears that the
mistreatment by the Pakistani police may prevent her from pursuing her case.
Marziya, a 17-year-old girl whose father
and brother were first detained and then expelled by the Pakistani police, now
lives in Islamabad with her mother and younger sister.
Marziya says, “Everyone has experienced
or witnessed at least one case of torture or mistreatment by the Pakistani
police.”
For her, it is still unclear why the
Pakistani police expelled her father and brother because their visa had two
months left before expiration.
Freshta Azizi, an Afghan journalist,
also confirmed two cases of mistreatment by the Pakistani police against
herself. She, too, faced a late-night police raid on her home, and all her
documents were scrutinized.
Freshta told Khama Press News Agency
that the situation for women and girls in Pakistan is not great. However, she
emphasized that immigrant men and boys in this country experience much worse
conditions and are at risk of forced deportation.
Source: khaama.com
https://www.khaama.com/afghan-women-refugees-report-mistreatment-and-police-torture-in-pakistan/
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Muslim-majority country considering
restrictions on hijab
7 Oct, 2023
Kazakhstan may ban the wearing of
Islamic headscarves in public, Culture and Information Minister Aida Balayeva
said during a press briefing in Astana on Friday.
Balayeva said the authorities would
revise and update current laws, which she said do not provide enough tools to
tackle religious extremism and “non-traditional religious movements.”
“The existing laws don’t even contain
the term ‘destructive religious cults,’” she said, as quoted by news agency
Kazinform.
Asked if the government would ban the wearing
of Islamic headscarves and other religious garments, Balayeva replied: “We will
definitely examine and propose such norms, at least for public spaces. Such
[regulations] are practiced all over the world because it is a question of
national security. It is very difficult to identify [people] in public spaces
where the faces are covered.
“The ministry will work on the
tightening of regulations in this field,” Balayeva added. The minister said the
measures would be devised in consultation with NGOs and experts, including
religious scholars.
Speaking in front of a group of teachers
on Thursday, Kazakhstan President Kassym-JomartTokayev stressed the importance
of secularism enshrined in the country’s constitution. “This principle must be
strictly upheld in all spheres, including education,” he said.
Roughly 65% of the Kazakhtan’s residents
are Muslims and 20% are Orthodox Christians, according to the 2021 census.
Debates over religious clothes have
arisen in several countries in recent years, including Britain, France and
Germany. Last month, France’s top court upheld a ban on the abaya – an Islamic
robe-like garment worn by women – in schools.
Source: rt.com
https://www.rt.com/russia/584211-kazakhstan-might-ban-hijabs/
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Israeli Propaganda on Muslim Womens’
Rights
October 6, 2023
RamzyBaroud
A new trend is emerging in the Israeli
hasbara discourse targeting Palestinians, Arabs and Muslims: women’s rights.
The word “new” is not exactly accurate.
The misuse of the genuine struggle for women’s rights in the Arab and Muslim
world is only new insofar as the increasing reliance on the tactic within the
larger Israeli propaganda discourse.
This was demonstrated in a most bizarre
way during the speech of Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi on Sept. 19 at the
78th Session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
The story was orchestrated by Gilad
Erdan, a mediocre Israeli diplomat and Tel Aviv’s U.N. ambassador.
Erdan’s real strength comes from the
fact that he is supported by the same Western governments that continue to fund
and defend Israel’s war machine and military occupation of Palestine.
Naturally, he is also given a
disproportionate amount of media coverage by corporate Western mainstream media
when compared to any other U.N. diplomat.
Erdan’s work is predicated mostly on a
single tactic: If he is not pleased by the conduct of his peers at the U.N.
General Assembly, he simply accuses them of being “anti-Semitic,” as a matter
of course.
At times, the entire U.N. political body
is accused of being anti-Israel and anti-Semitic.
This Israeli strategy — defaming truth
sayers as anti-Semites — only succeeds because it is part of a massive
political and intellectual discourse that is constantly fed by the media and
accepted as a fact by Western politicians.
Indeed, if Erdan is judged as a
diplomat, completely independent from the unquestionable support he receives
from Western media and governments, he would have been forced to find another
profession altogether.
His recent conduct at the UNGA was a
perfect illustration. In a terribly choreographed gesture, he began walking up
and down the Assembly Hall, raising a photo of Mahsa Amini, who died in Tehran
last year. The placard said: “Iranian women deserve freedom now.”
Consistent with the rules of the U.N.,
Erdan was eventually removed by security, which he must have anticipated.
Iran’s President Seyyed Ebrahim Raisi
addressing the 78th U.N. General Assembly on Sept. 19. (UN Photo/Cia Pak)
For him, however, his charade was a
success, as it created the needed distraction, not only from the speech of the
Iranian president but in the coverage of Raisi’s speech altogether.
Though some have suggested that Erdan
had humiliated himself, namely because of his removal from the UNGA hall, I
wonder if he was, in any way, surprised by the outcome of his behavior.
He wanted to be a star, at least for
like-minded anti-Iranian governments and organizations; he wanted the conversation
to shift from the rights of the Palestinians to that of Iranians. For him, the
mission was accomplished.
Israel’s War on Palestinian Women
The “No Man’s Land” in what Israel calls
the buffer zone along the Gaza-Israel border, 2008. (KashfiHalford, Flickr, CC
BY-NC 2.0)
Of the many articles and news coverage
that followed Erdan’s display, few, even in the Middle East, spoke about
Israel’s war on Palestinian women: the killings, imprisonment, torture, denial
of freedom of movement, daily humiliation, denial of life-saving medications,
and much more.
According to the United Nations, at
least 253 women were killed in Gaza in the 2014 war alone.
These numbers are only the tip of the
iceberg, as every single Palestinian woman living under Israeli occupation,
anywhere in East Jerusalem, the West Bank, and Gaza suffers daily. These women
are hardly removed from the collective struggle and suffering of all
Palestinians.
Erdan had no signs prepared for those
women; neither do many mainstream, supposedly feminist organizations that
continue to rally in solidarity with Iranian women while ignoring the pain and
humiliation of Palestinian women at the hands of the Israeli military and
government.
Sadly, little action followed a damning
report issued by Israel’s rights organization, B’Tselem, on Sept. 5, where
Palestinian women from the Ajlouni family were humiliated and paraded
completely naked in front of their children. This episode took place while the
Ajlouni’s boys and men were handcuffed and blindfolded and while Israeli
soldiers stole the women’s gold and money.
This is, of course, the norm, not the
exception. It seems that whatever Israel does to Palestinian women, little
action, aside from that organized by Palestinians and their supporters, ever
follows: No placards at the UNGA, no U.S. State Department-led campaigns, no
unique hashtags, no mass protests, nothing of the sort.
Donate to CN’s Fall Fund Drive
When advocacy for human and women’s
rights only applies in situations where the culprit is an enemy of the U.S.,
one must question if human rights have anything to do with the discussion
altogether.
The irony is that Israel has been one of
the main political forces behind the deadly U.S.-Western sanctions imposed on
Iran for years, which devastated Iranian society and families – women and men
alike.
That, too, was another missing context
from the coverage following Erdan’s U.N. act.
But Erdan is not alone. Sheltering
behind women’s rights in the Middle East is now the go-to tactic in many public
conversations, conferences and media coverage of Israel and Palestine.
Even if the tactic fails to strike a
major shift in the perception of the Israeli occupation and apartheid in
Palestine, at least, in the minds of some, it does create a distraction.
I have personally experienced this
during many of my tours in various parts of the world, from Vancouver, Canada,
to Madrid, to Nairobi. Sadly, often well-intentioned people engage in the side
discussion, either defending Middle Eastern societies, or nodding in agreement
with the self-proclaimed women’s rights “activists.”
U.S. Propaganda About Women in Iraq
& Afghanistan
But Israel did not invent the
“liberation of women” as a strategy aimed at deflecting or justifying its own
war crimes against civilians. The U.S. used it as the backbone of its massive
propaganda that preceded the Iraq and Afghanistan wars.
And, of course, once the invasions and
subduing of these countries were completed, Iraqi and Afghani women disappeared
from media coverage.
In both cases, tens of thousands of
women were killed, raped and tortured by the U.S. military. As for those
‘activists’ who had originally joined the initial U.S.-championed women’s
rights campaigns, they often disappear when women become victims of the U.S.,
the West and Israel.
While Arab and Muslim societies have
their own social and political struggles, we must be wary not to allow Tel Aviv
and Washington to hijack these struggles for their own politically sinister
reasons.
It does not follow that, for women to be
‘freed’ from one society, the women of another society would have to live in
perpetual bondage of permanent occupation and racist apartheid.
This logic should apply to all
situations of inequality, injustice, discrimination and racism anywhere in the
world.
And, a defender of war crimes, like
Gilad Erdan, must not be allowed to serve two roles: an apologist for the
mistreatment of women in Palestine and a freedom fighter for women anywhere
else.
Source: consortiumnews.com
https://consortiumnews.com/2023/10/06/israeli-propaganda-on-muslim-womens-rights/
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URL: https://newageislam.com/islamic-world-news/mini-skirts-hijabs-iran-museum-new-york/d/130849