Women According to Men

Before the Islamic Revolution in Iran, women’s lives were strongly determined by two contradictory factors: the traditional patriarchy and the shah’s modernisation policies. This film-excerpt collage starts in 1932 – the year the first Iranian film with sound was made – and ends in 1979 revealing how, during this period, women were depicted by generally male film directors.

Melodramas on love and deceit, arranged marriages and polygamy alternated with thrillers about independent women, social dramas that critiqued the degradation of women and moral comedies in which, for instance, amended family laws that gave women the right to divorce their husbands drove the plot. The compilation ends with images of a strong, combative woman from The Ballad of Tara by Bahram Bayzai, which was released in 1979 and immediately banned.

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