Women in Middle Eastern Film - Part One

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Critical debates around women and gender politics in the Middle East are increasing and increasingly stimulating. This is particularly due to the expanding interaction between scholars’, critics’ and filmmakers’ writings and works from Western perspectives and from within Middle Eastern countries. This dialogue between the East and the West is also the centre of attention as far as writings on World Cinema and gender politics are concerned. There is growing interest in the cinema of countries far beyond Hollywood and away from Europe, both in geographical and metaphorical terms.

It is clear that in producing works about their own cultures, narratives and societies or their views on the West, filmmakers from the Middle East have never been so successful. Turkish filmmaker Nuri Bilge Ceylan’s success with Three Monkeys in 2009 and Iranian director Abbas Kiarostami’s achievement with Copie Conforme at the 2010 Cannes Film Festival are good cases in point. Hollywood, then, may have been the carrier of ideologies and images of the East, but with the increased number of films produced from within Middle Eastern countries and/or filmmakers of that origin, previously absent images are now present. It is for this reason that focusing on Middle Eastern film in general, and women in it in particular, is significant. As far as ideas about transnational cinema and effects of globalisation on cinema are concerned, filmic representation is affected too. With more films from the East, and with more women directing them, change is inevitable: the existing and stereotypical images are shaken up as images of women of the Middle East originating from the East travel around the world.

Contemporary films from Middle Eastern countries build and reflect upon the plurality of thought and the potential offered by cultural exchange with and by women, films and cultures brought together within this spatial configuration. There seems to be three recurring themes central to the discussion of women in Middle Eastern film: the relationship between women and Islam; the concept of violence that resonates across multiple layers of reference (physical, emotional, political, economic, clandestine, sexual, military); and finally the idea of presence and absence both at the representational level on the screen and in regard to the existing and emerging women filmmakers.

Honour killings, women’s chastity, adultery, virginity and sex are topics which have a considerable impact upon women’s lives and experiences in countries where Islamic patriarchal regimes exist. There are certain expectations in the West about approaches to women in the Middle East informed by religion. Islam and tradition, in this sense, are depicted in film as the reasons for women’s oppression, as well as being presented as topics of criticism – particularly in films that have a feminist standpoint. A good example of this is Shirin Neshat’s 2009 film Women without Men, which offers a view of Iran in 1953, when a British- and American-backed coup removed the democratically elected government. Adapted from the novel by Iranian author Shahrnush Parsipur, the film weaves together the stories of four women, whose experiences are shaped by their faith and the social structures of a patriarchal regime. Neshat explores: “the social, political, and psychological dimensions of her characters as they meet in a metaphorical garden, where they can exist and reflect while the complex intellectual and religious forces shaping their world linger in the air around them.”3 Alternatively, take Eran Riklis’ Lemon Tree of 2008, the story of a Palestinian widow who must defend her lemon tree field when a new Israeli Defence Minister moves next to her and threatens to have her lemon grove torn down. The vulnerability of a widow, and the land as embodied within the woman’s body, is the focus of the film. Another film that is worth considering here is Syrian filmmaker Diana El-Jeiroudi’s Dolls (2007), produced by Proaction Films, the only independent film production company in Syria that is in operation today. This documentary film explores the significance of the ‘Fulla Doll’, the veiled version of the American Barbie doll, whilst at the same time asking questions about women’s identity and their place in a society where Islam is the dominant religion. As Shohreh Jandaghian’s interview with the director states: “With her first feature documentary, Dolls, El-Jeiroudi attempts to reveal a trend towards the commercial appropriation of a female model that limits the mind, soul and body of a young generation, into one approved set of social and religious frame of choice.” [...]




[*] Parts of this blog entry has been published in Near East Quarterly, Issue 1, 2010. http://www.neareastquarterly.com/index.php/2010/08/04/representations-and-or-interpretations-women-in-middle-eastern-film/

‘On Turkish Television Women Face Life and Death’: Confessions on reality TV and ‘feminist’ nightmares

In late 2010 Robert Fisk wrote (in The Independent) about honour killings, under the title of “The crimewave that shames the world”: ‘In Jordan a man raped his own daughter. She got pregnant… When he found out he accused her for having affairs with people and killed her to save the ‘honour’ of his family… A Turkish father and grandfather buried a 16-year-old girl alive for ‘befriending boys’… In Somalia another woman was stoned by 50 men for adultery… In Pakistan a young woman was axed to death for having an illegitimate child…’ This list continues. The reasons for honour killings differ but it was the first time a woman was shot to death for appearing and voicing her concerns on television when, in May 2005, after fleeing her abusive husband, Birgul made her way the television show “Woman’s Voice”’s colourful set, in Istanbul. According to press reports when she sought help from the police previously, she was directed to the TV channel and to this particular program. During the live show Birgul told of being forced to marry her husband some 20 years ago. Her husband, she said, had had two previous wives, both of whom he allegedly also abused. Host of the show Yasemin Bozkurt demanded protection for Birgul in her hometown during the live show. However, on her return, as she got off the bus, she was shot five times in the head and chest by her 14 year-old son, who, according to a news report entitled ‘On Turkish TV women face life and death’, yelled: "You went on television and disgraced the family!" Her son got arrested along with his father who was accused of sending him out on the murder mission (wenews.com).

Since the 1990s there have been significant changes in the Turkish television programmes that target women. The shift is from shows that teach women domestic duties (cooking, child caring, cleaning) which all refer to the domain of the home, to shows that focus on overtly feminine issues but with a sensationalist approach. These programmes are introduced as and pride themselves for being ‘the voice of women’. This is apparent in their titles. Your Voice (Flash TV), As We Discuss (Channel 7), From A to Z (Channel D), Let’s Not Talk About That (Star TV), Adams and Eves (TRT-1), Between Us (Show TV), You Are Not Alone (ATV). Issues that are regarded as private are talked about in these shows with stories including rape in marriage, adultery, sexual problems, divorce and violence. In fact, dominance of sexual themes, citing frank and open discussion of sexual practices, orientations and deviance has never been discussed on Turkish television in such way before. With the explosion of the private in the public these talk shows offer entertainment through the discursive construction of the victim, within a space full of intimate confessions.

In a statement Channel D’s management (Murat Saygi) (Sabah, 18th May, 2005) said they cancelled the show because it was becoming a ‘social problem’. In a response to this, the co-founder of the Istanbul-based Women for Women’s Human Rights, also a feminist academic, Pinar Ilkkaracan said: “The major social problem is that these women get no help; they have no other place to turn. I think these programmes have come into being because of what’s happening in the field. Women wanted to speak out, they wanted help.” The host of one of the talk shows, Aysegul Yazici, (ATV, You’re Not Alone) said she was getting around 300 enquiries every day from people who wanted to appear on the show: “The main objective of my show is to tell women that they should not remain silent, that a solution will come if they raise their voice, and take steps to address their problems. I’m trying to show women their way out.’ Interestingly, along with women fleeing an abuse home, Woman’s Voice also featured women and men looking for dates and marriage. So there is an underlying task here: to reaffirm patriarchal structures through marriage.

The idea of ordinary people speaking about their experiences is culturally significant. But do these talk shows refine gender politics and how? Do they raise any form of consciousness on women’s human rights? Sadly, it is hard to argue that they provide women (as audiences and citizens) with the knowledge of basic laws and information on the way in which political system functions or other help mechanisms (if at all available). More importantly, they hardly ever regard women’s issues as social problems. Instead these problems are individualized and do not go beyond sharing sensational experiences on the small screen. Women become constructs of commercialism and are framed as victimized individuals – hence television in Turkey ends up melodramatizing the issues which have political resonance.