Gender & Film

The rubric is dedicated to research in film theory. Every month we will publish the most interesting scholarly articles, which were presented at the film studies conference in Minsk on March 13, 2020, with the support of the Short Movie Club. This time you will find a paper devoted to gender issues in movies. This time it’s about the female representation narrated by Iranian women directors.

IRANIAN WOMEN CINEMA: THE FEMALE REPRESENTATION NARRATED BY IRANIAN WOMEN FILMMAKERS

by Negar Sadeghian

Abstract. Twenty-three years: from 1910 to 1933. That was the period that marked the beginning and the end of the first feminism activity in Iran. From the first journal of women, Danesh; until the dissolution of the last feminist association by the government of Pahlavi I: the movement of women’s rights has continued covertly between censorship and criticism. Those were the years that began with the emergence of the first journal of women, Danesh; until the dissolution of the last feminist association by the government of Pahlavi I, to lead the movement for the rights of women in a covert to escape censorship and critical level.

Iranian women have been at the center of social and political changes and challenges before, during and after the Islamic revolution in 1979. In recent years, however, the new generation of Iranian women is negotiating the notions of “femininity”, sexuality and modernity with the core of power in Iranian society. Along with this negotiation, Iranian cinema, as the screen of the visual reflection of Iranian culture and society, has recently represented an unprecedented representation of women on the big screen. This study approaches the works of some of the important women filmmakers of Iranian cinema like Milani, Derakhshande, Banietemad and some others who after the revolution, decided to make films more related to women’s rights creating the new “New Iranian Cinema” as a paradigm of a new national identity. [Read the full article…]