Award-winning writer Ezzat Goushegir discussed the positive role Iranian women have played in film, despite oppression by the Iranian government and cultural institutions, on Sunday, at the Evanston Public Library, 1703 Orrington Ave.
Goushegir — a professor of creative writing at DePaul University and University of Chicago — briefed the crowd of about 30 people on the history of the women’s movement in Iran, highlighting three periods: mid-19th century, the 1960s and modern Iran, post-Islamic revolution.
Goushegir began his brief history with a look into the life of Tahirih, an Iranian woman thinker and philosopher who fought for equality between the sexes. Tahirih was executed in 1852 for defiance of social and governmental law.
“The liberty of human beings is like a bird, one wing is like a man, one wing is like a woman,” Goushegir said, quoting Tahirih.
At the turn of the 20th century, women grew more organized, but still faced difficulty gaining rights, Goushegir said. She highlighted the works of Forugh Farrokhzad, an influential poet and filmmaker.
“She was, I think, a warrior,” Goushegir said of Farrokhzad.
Farrokhzad’s film, “The House is Black,” was the birth of Iranian women filmmaking, according to Goushegir, who earned a master’s of fine arts in playwriting from the University of Iowa.
The Islamic revolution in 1979 — which transformed the country from a monarchy to a theocracy — drove filmmakers out of the country, and forced those who remained to find new venues for their art, Goushegir said.
“The censorship at that time was enormously harsh,” Goushegir said.
Women in movies had to be veiled at all times, even if they were shown in their homes within the context of the film. Scenes of women singing and dancing were excluded. Romantic scenes, even between husbands and wives, were omitted. An older man playing the role of a father also was unable to touch a young female playing his daughter.
Later, the audience was given a glimpse of Iranian filmmaking. Goushegir showed the crowd various clips from popular films, including Marzieh Meshkini’s “The Day I Became a Woman,” a three-episode movie portraying childhood, young motherhood and old age, from a female perspective.
She also showed a clip from “Divorce, Iranian Style,” a movie about the Iranian courts that reveals the injustices women face when they petitioned a divorce.
“It was refreshing to see all these people come out and see Iran be cast in a good light,” said second-year McCormick graduate student Bita Yektashenas.
The fight for women’s rights in Iran still continues, and the youth also must struggle for rights, according to Evanston resident Manij Marashi, 59, who is from Iran.
“They (Iranian youth) said we are tired, we want peace, we want freedom, we want love for all over the world,” Marashi said.
Although some men are open to tolerance of women’s rights, many remain reluctant to discuss it openly, said Iran-native and Chicago-resident Narimon Safavi, 43.
“I think Iranian men sometimes don’t want to acknowledge their (women’s) contribution,” Safavi said.
Reach Lensay Abadula at [email protected].
