After her marriage, Zhāle’s husband became the master of her life, due to the norm of husbands being “the God of Women”. In Iranian society, women were expected to be subservient, “an acquiescent effigy”, whereas their husbands were supposed to be the “boasting sculptor”. This traditional social and legal convention caused Zhāle to despise her life with her husband. Her marriage was mismatched as she was a sensitive soul who yearned for love and affection whereas her husband was the leader of the bakhtiari tribe, a stern man who had taken a wife to fulfill typical household duties. Her relationship with her husband was the subject of many of her poems as she used negative imagery and metaphors to describe him. For instance, Zhāle compared …show more content…
She chronicled her journey as a young girl living in her father’s andarun until her escape from Iran after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. Sattarah’s account offers an important perspective of the pressures she encountered from her family to conform to the mold of being an ideal wife. Furthermore, it provides an insightful perspective as to why she was able to escape social conventions. Sattarah was raised to believe that marriage and bearing children was what gave women value, standing and respect. Her father, Shazdeh, believed that women, being the weaker sex, or zaifeh, were ruled by ungovernable passions and as a result needed to be protected from themselves and strange men by fathers, brothers and husbands. Sattarah noted: “A woman by herself was nothing, a nonentity, a creature who without a father, brother, husband, or son to guide her was incapable of making important decisions, looking after herself properly, or even leading a moral life.” The supposedly weak state of the female mind was the reason why her mother, Khanom, always thought women should be submissive and obedient. In order to find Satti a husband, due to her weakness, Khanom had to ensure she was conditioned to behave like a “proper” woman. Due to her families conservative opinions, it seemed as though Sattarah’s future as …show more content…
As a child, she considered herself as an equal to her brothers and was their playmate in the biruni. Furthermore, her father “had long entertained the highly unorthodox notion that education made women better wives.” Therefore he ensured that all his daughters received the a proper education, similar to their brothers, by attending school six days a week and being tutored in mathematics, reading and poetry. This was in addition to their traditional female education which included household management, sewing and religion. Essentially, the purpose of educating women was to prepare them to be better wives. Yet this education caused Sattarah to think independently and to challenge traditional values. Essentially, educating Satti, caused her to pave a life path of her own instead of conforming and getting an arranged marriage. It fuelled a desire to learn more and help others which ultimately led to her leaving Iran. However, her desire to “do something with my life” was met with an important obstacle. When Khanom mentioned Satti’s request to study abroad to her father, he refused by saying: “She is a woman. A woman will be nothing.” In his opinion, a zaifeh was incapable of living without the protection of a husband. Since her life was in the hands of her father, Sattarah was forced to comply with his demand to marry any man he chose for her. However, before he found her a
In the sixth century B.C, the land that we now call Iran was the center of the largest empire in the world. The kings of Ancient Persia( such as Cyrus the Great) were the leaders of a great civilization that made amazing advances in laws, goverment and communication. Founded in 550 B.C by King Cyrus the Great, the Persian Empire spanned from Egypt in the west to Turkey in the north, and through Mesopotamia to the Indus River in the east. Unlike most empires at that time, the Persian kings were benovelent rulers, and allowed a diverse variety of diffrent people with diffrent ethnic backgrounds. The Persian empire was split into three diffrent empires with three diffrent time periods but the first empire was called the Achaemenid Empire. It began with King Cyrus the Great and ended with King Darius III.
Literature is the key to our world or language. Many writers have emerged from this subject such as Homer who wrote The Odyssey and Euripidies who wrote about the evil Medea. Also mentioned in this paper are the Thousand and One Arabian Nights which is a collection of folktales and stories that are compiled into one. Each of these works of literature has a woman character that has many similarities in solving their problems. In The Odyssey the woman character that will be in comparison is Penelope which is Odysseus’s wife. In the story of Medea, Medea is of course the character we will be discussing and Shaharazad is the woman character from the Thousand and One Arabian Nights that will also be in comparison. Each of these women find themselves in a particularly “sticky situation.” However, Penelope, Medea, and Shahrazad are three strong women whose perseverance and cleverness help them to attain their goals.
Literature shows us the changes of our society from time to time. It also gives us an idea about people, culture, politics, gender traditions, as well as an overall view of previous civilizations. As a part of literature, poetry introduces us to different cultures with different perspectives. Ancient Egypt and ancient China may differ in terms of culture, politics, economic stability, tradition, or even in religious belief. However, in poetry, especially in love lyrics both Egyptian and Chinese poems portray common area of describing women, social attitudes toward love, sexuality and the existence of romance or selfishness in relationships. . If we look at the Egyptian poem “My god, my Lotus” and the Chinese poem “Fishhawk”, we will see both poems have similarities in describing relationships. Also, they have the similarity of imagining the lovers and their expression of love toward each other. However, both poems have some significant differences in terms of representing female sexuality, gender disparity and the display of love.
In the Middle East it was male-dominant, male’s had all the control in the family. Women’s rule in life was to give birth too many children to continue the family blood line and take care of them, while the men go to work and come home find something for them prepared to eat. Men were the head of the house, whatever they said, had to be obeyed. Women were limited in their rights, even in marriage they weren’t asked for their opinion, “Would you like to marry this guy?” But rather they were forced by their family members to participate in arranged marriages. In this story we see that the slave woman had no rights, this woman obeyed them without saying a word. In addition, to this she was a slave, and slaves had no rights when it came to their master’s commands. She didn’t have a choice but rather obeyed what the master said even if she didn’t agree. Women were mistreated sometimes by men. "Bring the mule’s nose-bag along with you," he added to the groom; "she has not finished her feed, I think; when we get to the palace, put the bag on her again—she can eat the rest of her fodder while I am with the caliph. “Hear and obey," said the groom "(Portland, Maine: Wheelwright, 1955, p 310-313). One can see in this quote that they placed a bag over the girl and limited to when should she eat. The woman was treated as if she was a toy, played with for a while and then placed to the side when they were
Written around 978 by Murasaki Shikibu, The Tale of Genji, regarded as the world’s first novel, is an excellent source describing the ideal woman and man during the Heian period. Life in the Heian period revolved around the court and the social hierarchy that came with it. Thus it is completely understandable that one of the most important characteristics of an ideal man or woman was the person’s ranking. For most women, especially those in the lower ranks, to be able to give birth to a son whose father was of high rank would up her own status. Note however, though that she did not need to marry the father, and this was indeed the case for many women. The main reason for this is because men, especially those with high ranks like Genji and Tõ no Chujõ had affairs with many women regardless to who they themselves were married. Genji and Tõ no Chujõ both knew that because of their high rank, they could for the most part, get any woman they wished. Yet, it is because of this that in The Tale of Genji, they could actually seriously consider various characteristics that they feel represente...
One of the most famous contemporary ethnographic studies of women and gender within Islam is Erika Friedl’s Women of Deh Koh, in which her main concern seems to be providing he...
This time, she used a new medium, the feature-length film, to express her feeling of Iranian society, and she declared that the film is telling a story rather than conveying a concept (754). In this way, the film Women Without Men tells four women’s story in islamic society, and Neshat tired to use these four emotional and sad stories to reflect women’s status in islamic society. Shirin Neshat separated the film to different sections, and each section tells a single story of each woman (754). All of them are from different social classes and backgrounds, and they meet each other in a garden where they try to live safely during the difficult time in 1953 coup (754). Zarin is a young woman from the lowest social class who is unwilling to be a prositutue, and her struggle was shown when she lost herself in brothel (754). Munis and Faezeh represent two positions of women in middle class; Munis cares about political events, however her brother always prevent her from participating in political events (Danto 223); in this way, Munis’s struggle emphasize a gender issue in Islamic society that women has to right to participate in political events. On the contrary, compare to Munis, Faezeh is a very traditional woman, however, this character in the film reflects a serious issue in Islamic society, which is sexual assault (215). Unlike other
The emotive language used throughout her memories, show direct contrast to her present situation, as well as her reasons for leaving home. The use of personification, in text such as ‘ the sea roared like an angry beast’, provide emphasis of emotive language, used in describing the estrangement felt. The language is so eloquent, conjuring such engagingly vivid images, of Ziba’s emotions, particularly as she feels the ups and downs of the unforgiving ocean. Through figurative and evaluative language, Ziba is able to depict her past and present feelings and memories. The strong connection between sensory experiences and memory is sophisticated and crisp, making the text straightforward and resonant. The author uses simile’s such as, ‘thoughts of home washed over Ziba like the surge of sea washing over the deck’, linking past and present, creating feelings of loneliness, whilst reflecting on her once peaceful home. The effective use of noun groups - laughter of children, cool mountain air, rich spices of the evening meal - alongside side a number of sensory verbs - thought, felt and smelled - assist and connect the reader to Ziba’s thoughts. Furthermore, the use of repetition in the first and last page of the text, places emphasis on the unstable state of their emotions, the uncertainty of what’s to
When the Islamic Revolution begins, Satrapi utilizes comedy to highlight different aspects of Marjane’s naive personality in relation to the serious conflicts in Iran. Moreover, Satrapi incorporates comedy into her character’s provincial personality to emphasize the limited
The context of the birth of Islam provides important insight into the position of women in the religion. Pre-Islamic Arabia was largely nomadic and violent. Tribes often raided other tribes, taking with them food, tools, and women. These captu...
On the outside you look, talk, and act like a man, but on the inside you are a young girl. There is a tradition in Afghanistan culture that was gone on for centuries called bacha posh where young girls grow up as men in a culture bound by women oppression. In Jenny Nordberg’s book The Underground Girls of Kabul she explores the Afghan culture and tradition on bacha posh. The bacha posh tradition is often seen as a practical to solution to women oppression that can lead to female empowerment and a higher family social status; although it can also leave negative psychological and mental affects that lead to issues later in life.
According to Persepolis the British convince the shah to be the next emperor, using him as a Holy symbol to unify the country. The fact that the law promotes more insecurity, injustice, and inequality than stability, gave rise to some of the ideas of Marxism and liberalism. Although religion and woman roles were related in Iran culture, when Satrapi was young, she did not fell oppressed or discriminated religiously wise. For her, to be a woman was not an impediment for anything. However she still wanted equality in a very Marxist way. She read "the dialect of materialism."(Satrapi 12) she wanted to be a prophet. She wanted to change the world, as a woman, and as socialist. She, as an innocent child did not see any limitation on was a prophet while been a woman. she wanted her maid to eat with them. She wanted for everybody to have Cadillac. She did not want her grandmother to suffer pain. She wanted to be a prophet so she could fix things that she sees that her society does wrong. She wanted a better world to live
First we have Marjane Satrapi in Persepolis. She does not have any self control. She speaks her mind and does it with rudeness. Her culture is to listen and obey as well as marry the traditional standards of an Iranian. These traditions are not for her. She had her own way of doing things, and it set in at an early age. Tehran being in the war zone, has a lot of changes to the rules, especially for the women, namely no makeup, jewelry, parties, smoking, drinking and public display with boys. Additionally, she must wear a veil at all times. The rules made her more untamable. At the age of fourteen she became a rebel because she says, “After the death of Neda Baba-Levy my life took a new turn” (143). She feared nothing anymore. Marjane would do anything to get attention from her parents. The first sign of her rebellious side came after the death Neda Baba-Levy; she wore jewelry and jeans to school. The school principle yelled at her for wearing the jeans and jewelry. Marjan...
In recent modern times, the Islamic faith and culture has been scarred by bad publicity and criticism worldwide concerning terrorism, fanaticism, and the treatment of women. All these issues have existed in most religions throughout time, but the treatment of women is different in which most other cultures and religions have minimized the issues and Islam, under its attempts to also end it, has failed to create a society in which the treatment of women is equal to that of men. The treatment of women, beginning from the time when they are born, to the time of their marriage, to the moment of their death, has not been equal to that of men despite the actions taken to end the injustice.
...es based on their desires instead of the desires of their male counterparts. As the women age, they take on new names to represent their physical and emotional changes. Naseem gains power as a married woman and becomes Reverend Mother while Mumtaz acquires power through the realization of her reproductive abilities. These women have varying degrees of power over their lives but it is limited to the value Indian society places on the domestic sphere and the importance of a woman’s place in this sphere. A married woman will garner more respect and have more of a voice than an unwed daughter living within her father’s household, while motherhood is regarded as one of the most important roles for a woman and given special considerations. Rushdie portrays ascension to power within the realm of the home and family by to show how power is passed between social boundaries.