Oscar Hernandez

In the book Women and Politics in Iran:Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling. Sedghi, Hamideh. Sedghi rejects the term feminist because it makes it sound like women are all the same. However Sedghi seems to lump all men in Iran together.In order to correct this misconception, I took on the role to research on how men in different social classes are different from each other through Iran cinema. I observed and carefully dissected two films in which each have different class men. In these two films we can see how men from different social classes are different from each other, and that this difference affects how they treat women. 

Some might say that these films are biased and produced by men however these two films that I’ve critically reviewed are both directed by a female named Rakhshān,Bani Etemad.Therefore these films won’t be trying to protect the image of men because they are created by a woman.Others might say that these movies are unrealistic and that they don’t show how men are truly are from different classes,that these films don’t portray real men in Iran.However Rakhshān is a middle class women and creates her films based on people’s daily life experience and life. So her films are made by how people in different class,however we will be focusing on men in different classes to prove that men from different classes are not the same.

In a film named Nargess which is the first film Rakhshān ever. It talks about a low class criminal named Adel who falls in love with a woman named Nagress and tries to change the way he lives just to be with her. However Adel is already married with a middle aged woman and his crime partner named Afagh who despite knowing he loves another woman, she does everything she can to help Adel get Nargess and poses as her mother to help him. However despite Afagh helping Adel, Adel treats her horrible by screaming and telling her to keep her mouth shut. The important thing to notice in this film is how quickly Adel married Nargess and how poorly he treats Afagh. Another thing to notice in this film is how everyone supports him getting married and not many that oppose this marriage. 

In another film called The Blue Veiled, it’s about an upper middle upper-class elder man named Rasul who falls in love with an employee named Nobar. Rasul was married but his wife died and he was left alone.Even though having kids, his kids grew up and each of them were left him to have their own family or to study. However Nobar is a low class woman who has to take care of her family and is single.Even though she doesn’t have kids, she has a hard time taking care of her family because she is the only one able to work. One thing to notice in this film is how long it takes for Raful to marry Nobar and how well he treats all the women despite having money. The important thing to notice in this film is how well he treats the female employees and how long it took him to marry Nobar.Another thing to notice in this film is how the children of Rasul are against Nobar and don’t like her.

Many will say that there are many differences for each of these men and that these differences will have no impact on how they treat women. However the most important similarity in these two films is how both young women in the films are low class and are not married. Another similarity is that both of these men fall in love with a low class women and that the women take care of the family.

Although having these similarities, both of these men treat women differently.While carefully dissecting these two films you can see why and how the men are different from each other. Raful is a middle upper-class man which means he has workers.This is important to take in because this helps us understand why Raful treats women so well.He has female workers which means he is close to women in his everyday life and communicates with them.He also treats women well because he has daugthers who are also females and even though he was married he never practiced polygamy.On the contrary Adel practicd it by having two wifes and trying to hide it. By hiding that he was married, he had a lack of communication with both women and wasn’t really able to understand them. This is one way that men are different and how it affects how they treat women differently.

Now another difference in these two films is how each man tries to help the women they love.Raful tried helping Nobar by getting her to marry another man so she can have a roof to live in and to be able to be taken care of. Raful humility is a key factor to this difference because he wasn’t selfless and tried every possible way to help her. He is a selfless person because the last thing Raful wanted to do was marry Nobar. On the contrary, Adel was a selfish person.He married the woman he loved and instead of helping he harmed two women his life by hiding the truth.Adel was selfish because he did everything he could to marry Nagress and didn’t try to secure a job first so that he can help her and able to maintain a stable income.

Now these differences between the Adel and Raful is able to conclude one thing.That the higher class men tend to respect women more and treat the properly.Because they have daughters and most likely work with women,and are able to support women.On the other hand a low class man is more likely to disrespect women and treat them badly.Because they are unable to support them and most likely don’t work with many women.