Both Reading Lolita in the Tehran by Azar Nafisi and The Underground Girls of Kabul by Jenny Nordberg are works of nonfiction documenting the lives of women in the turbulent political environments in the Middle East. Being a woman, particularly an educated one, during the 80’s and 90’s in Iran meant a drastic limitation of personal freedoms and expressions through self image and art, a concept demonstrated through how Nafisi recalls her experience as a literature professor at the University of Tehran and how her students perceived the books she taught. Nordberg similarly expresses the sexual discrimination in the Middle East through her documentation of young girls as they search for a way to achieve personal freedoms by cross-dressing as the liberated sex in a post-Taliban Afghanistan. Through her interviews of Kabul’s Bacha Posh population, Nordberg establishes for the Western reader how the maltreated young girls Afghanistan constantly dream of an elusive freedom granted to their brothers, fathers, and husbands, and how few establish the otherwise unattainable by presuming the role of a boy for their adolescence. Nafisi’s demonstration of similar sexual oppression is related as a memoir of her students where she utilizes their interpretations of 20th-century western literature to serve as a reflection of the lives of her student through sexual oppression and conflicting political and religious factions. Nordberg’s The Underground Girls of Kabul employ the use of
During the reign of the Taliban, women were subjected to silence while injustice flared through the Middle East. Forced to stay submissive to their superiors, women had no rights nor freedom to surpass society’s upbringings. The main intention of the three novels eliminates the withholdings of education from certain groups. Without these fundamental regulations in women’s favor, the value of peace is threatened.
Growing up and living in Afghanistan as a woman has its challenges. Parents choose who can marry you and they choose everything for you. In this book, Laila and Mariam both show the struggles it is to be a girl, and how much disrespect they get in Afghanistan. Both Mariam and Laila are married to the same man, and he is abusive to both of them. They also live under Taliban rule, and the rules that they set are very unfair for women. In Khaled Hosseni’s novel, he has many different themes but the most prevalent one is of woman inequality, and that is shown through multiple accounts of abuse, disrespect, and unfairness.
Abayas, shailas, burkas, and chadors: all are forms of veiling in the Middle East, and all are perceived as symbols of oppression and patriarchy by the West. The veil worn by a Middle Eastern woman is striking and beautiful in its simplicity and elegance. The hijab, the most common form of veiling, leaves only the face visible with the neck and hair completely covered. Onlookers are in awe at the mystery and symbolism associated with the many veils created out of fine, exotic silk. But such notions of oppression and patriarchy often associated with veiling are not only inherently biased and ironic – it would be interesting to explore the symbolism behind a mini-skirt or a pair of five-inch heels, no? – but they are also inaccurate. Although veiling has most definitely been used in the Middle East as a “mechanism in the service of patriarchy, a means of regulating and controlling women’s lives” (Hoodfar, 5), it has also been used as a mode for rebellion and self-expression. Marjane Satrapi, an Iranian woman who grew up during the Islamic revolution, resisted the regime and the universalizing nature of the veil in the hope that she could maintain her individual identity whilst communicating her political ideologies. By examining the way in which the veil is represented in Satrapi’s graphic memoir, Persepolis, while also considering the history of veiling in Iran, it will become evident that the veil is not just a political tool used by male chauvinists; it also presents an
A Thousand Splendid Suns, a book written by Khaled Hosseini, gives us a unique and informative glimpse into life in Afghanistan in the early 1960’s to the 2000’s. In it we can see many different political and social issues ravaging the country, with the most evident being gender inequality. Though many diverse groups of people were being discriminated against at the time, most of the subordination fell onto women as they had more and more rights taken away from them when various ruling powers took control. The author relays this information to us and educates us as to what happened through compelling and thought-provoking literary devices such as symbolic characters and objects, and allusions. By using these
The theme of males dominating the course of Nana’s life is one that she passes down to her daughter, Mariam, the moment she was conceived. Although Mariam is only five years old and has difficulties understanding the way of the world, her mother’s piece of advice foreshadows the events of her own life. From Jalil making the decision for Mariam to be wed against her wishes as a means to erase his past, to her abusive relationship with Rasheed in which she is always at fault in his eyes, Mariam’s life revolves around men’s inability to recognize and take responsibility for their own shortcomings. Hosseini’s depiction of Mariam’s inability to escape the tyranny of sexism paints a picture for readers of the lifelong struggle that than millions of Afghan women face to this day.
In this novel the author, Hosseini, uses a powerful bond between the two main character to give a reader a deeper understanding about the way women are viewed and treated in Afghanistan. These two main characters are used to represent the different perspectives from which women in are viewed. The first character we meet is Mariam, a woman from an unloving and poor past. She portrays the old ideas of abuse and mistreatment towards women. Conversely, the other main character Laila, a young woman who came from a more modern and loving family, is used to represent progress towards the equal treatment and education of women. These two women obviously come from different backgrounds but are brought together through
Afghanistan has long been a war ravaged country, split by civil war and religious divide. A country ruled by harsh Sharia law and warlords. A country in which young girls are subject to child marriages and repeated beatings. The cultural identity of Afghanistan discriminates against women. In Khaled Hosseini’s, A Thousand Splendid Suns, Mariam’s moral traits and desires are shaped by the lack of gender equality and the poor, unforgiving environment in which she was raised Mariam’s desires were developed from her surroundings in Afghanistan.
For three and a half decades, the Islamic lifestyle has evolved to become the cultural norm of what used to be the Iranian Kingdom (Parvaz, 2014). Muslim political commanders have persecuted the human rights of liberty and justice inherent in the Iranian nation (HRW, 2014). The freedom of women to express themselves culturally, socially, and politically has been, and still is, neglected within the Islamic society due to the radical ideology held by the fundamentalists of the leading regime (IranHumanRights, 2015). Culture, gender and political factors principally comprise the distinctive work of Shirin Neshat, as her desire and concern is to, “inspire, provoke, mobilize, and to bring hope to” the people of her homeland (Neshat, TEDtalks, 2011).
Although this movement has been one of the most important movements for change in Islamic societies, it has not been accurately portrayed in the West (p169). Western imaginations of Iran portray a much more conservative country, an image exemplified by events following 9/11 including Bush’s axis of evil speech, making it easier for Western Governments to criticize Iran. The reality is in Iran women are becoming more and more active in NGOS and in high-powered positions in society. Povey very unsettles binaries of a progressive West and conservative Iran, and points some blame towards the West for female subordination in Iran in their inaccurate portrayal of women in
In the past there were certain expectations that were to be met by men and women, but as society evolved those expectations were challenged. Where women were once expected to take care of a household and just listen to the man, they were no longer under the controlling hand of men. In Leslie Bell’s “Selections from Hard to Get: Twenty-Something Women and the Paradox of Sexual Freedom”, she talks about how women explored their freedom without the instructions of a man. This relates to Azar Nafisi’s “Selections from Reading Lolita in Tehran: A Memoir in Books” because the women in Nafisi’s reading group are doing what they want by creating a secret reading group without anyone’s approval. Both these stories relate to the destructive atmosphere
The main theme in the book Opium Nation: Child Brides, Drug Lords, and One Woman’s Journey Through Afghanistan the author discusses how, Opium Nation' joins the individual and the political with the characters of people and the personalities of countries utilizing journal and profoundly looked into reporting in a story that hopscotches around the globe to spare a kid in the present as it follows Nawa's youth and her outings to her country in the present day. Her own particular story is sufficiently frightening. As a young lady in a working class family in Afghanistan, she saw one of her colleagues slaughtered by a Soviet bomb. Her grandma evaded being shot by insignificant inches, and in the 1980's, the family fled conveying what they could on two jackasses over the Iranian fringe.
The fictional accounts of women’s experiences in Fadia Faqir’s, Pillars of Salt, illustrate issues articulated by women’s rights activists in the Middle East. Traditional roles of women and men and a mythology of femininity and masculinity are juxtaposed with the disparate realities of the characters. The damaging forces of colonial rule, war, and Westernization are also exposed.
In the development of the Middle East, there has been a constant constriction of women being political prisoners in their own countries. Within a male hegemonic society, women became the first vast target of political and social suppression. The development of a new age has implemented the animation of feminism within society, where women break their position of being prisoner to the male force. Over time women resisted the views upon them, using art as a medium for expression, therapy, and a way to allocate to the western ideas of the Middle Eastern woman. These women have created a crying outpour of their ordeals through painting, music, film, photography, and installations available to a global eye. Not only are these women’s works
Curiosity is the basis of learning. Many countries don't allow curiosity because with curiosity come awareness, and they don't want their citizens to question the government's ways. In Reading Lolita in Tehran, the quote “Curiosity is insubordination in its purest form” that Nabokov said means that curiosity is awful, and relates to nafisi’s memoir because the women don't have a lot of freedom and no one can speak their mind. The quote justifies the Islamic communitie’s limitation on curiosity and free speech; since curiosity is bad then no one will want to learn new things and no one will question the government.
“The Woman’s Silent Voice toward Patriarchy’s Handcuff Reflected in Atiq Rahimi’s The Patience Stone” is a thesis by Rizki Putra. He discusses the representation of the silent Afghan women toward oppression. In addition, it explores the main problem that faces women in Afghanistan which is patriarchy. From a feminist perspective, the thesis conveys an analysis of The Patience Stone’s main characters’ actions and reaction regarding to the antecedents they have involved in. The writer has established a good understanding of the women status in Afghanistan regarding to the social, economic and cultural perspectives. Furthermore, he deeply explores the reasons behind women’s obedience and silence even though they are under constant oppression caused by the dominant male. This thesis will enhance my study through the interpretation of the effects of patriarchy on Afghan women. Also, it shows how patriarchy is constructed in Afghanistan and how this confines women’s freedom.