Two women

Two Women

Director –Tahmineh Milani

Tahmineh Milani – “I try to show our society, what is going on in women's heads, what are their hopes, what they want and love.”

Two women

The movie “Two women” is a critique on marginalization and systematic subordination of women.

She enunciates what Virginia Woolf spoke about in her book “Three Gunieas” which says that sexual difference for her is not laid down by ‘nature’ but is shaped by the society and the experiences that a woman goes through and the opportunities that is available to her. The identity of a woman is shaped by cultural differences in a society that is dominated by men.

The power relations that exist between men and women are also explored here. The two faces of power relations are shown and contrasted. Roya’s marriage where there is an equal footing is shown as a happy marriage where there is scope for self-expression, sharing of ideas and companionship where as Faristeh’s marriage where the husband is shown as domineering, egoistic, hierarchically oriented and power-hungry and faristeh is expected to be nurturing, child-bearing and domestically inclined is full of grief and neither of them derive happiness from this equation.

The movie also shows highlights another aspect called “representation”. Women are portrayed to be meek, extremely dutiful, conservative, intellectually inferior, dependent and helpless. In this movie Tehminah critiques this kind of representation by showing the lives of two women. Here Farishteh, an ambitious, bright woman is caught up in the maze of systematic oppression where she is forced to give up her education and into a marriage with a man she does not love where she is constantly reminded of her “position” as a woman. He scorns at her idea of “equal companionship”, suspects her of infidelity, confines her to the house, restricts her movements and interactions with the outside world and isolates her from everything that she holds dear. In contrast, Roya a spirited woman who imbibes the lessons of freedom, liberty and education from Farishteh is a successful civil engineer, a woman in a male dominated profession. Roya has a relationship based on companionship and equality with her husband. She enjoys a good rapport with her husband who supports her and her vision. These contrasts bring forth the fact that when the society that is so male dominated oppresses women it leaves them unsure, insecure , disillusioned and helpless whereas when it encourages them women appear to be strong, decisive, confident and more than capable of taking on any kind of challenge posed. It is a transformation from poverty, derision to intellectual freedom and liberty from unreal/enforced loyalties. This contrast shows hope in the light of despair.

Here Tehminah also explores the “patriarchal basis of life” where men shape the structure of the society.

Level One

As a growing girl Farishtesh is oppressed by the father who believes that education is wasted on women and does not take pride in the fact that his daughter has not only earned her right to education by working and paying back her fees and more but also has excelled in her academics. When she is stalked by a man, who threatens her and traumatises her mentally, instead of being supportive he blames it on her “womanhood” and what shame she has brought to him. When she gets involved in an accident trying to escape her stalker he seems devastated by the fact that his stature in the society has been “tainted” by her though he knows the fact that it wasn’t her fault.

Level Two

She is then forced to marry a man whom she doesn’t love. Though the man promises that he would encourage her to study when the universities open up, he brow-beats her into accepting the fact that she is now a mother of two kids and her “loyalties’ lies to her family and nothing else matters. He mocks at her desire to study and yells at her in front of her kids and tries to demean her status in the family. He curbs her right of self-expression, isolates her from the outside world, treats her like his property and her spirit suffers the consequences of these oppression. She is left helpless and lost. The suffering of the human spirit is portrayed in her helplessness caught in this ridiculous labyrinth of enforced loyalties, social stigmas and complete male domination.

Level Three

The society that allows for these heinous acts lays out its traps to marginalise and trivialise her sufferings. When she approaches the court for a divorce, the judge refuses to accept “verbal and mental torture” that she has been subjected to by her husband as a strong ground for divorce and dismisses her plea without due consideration.

Culture and here Islamic culture also imposes rules on women like dress code, sings the praises of the male child, doesn’t attach importance to women’s education and imposes double-standards is also a level of oppression.

But then there is hope that comes through both farishteh and Roya. Faristeh’s spirit might have been bound and curbed by all the atrocities but her desire to learn and educate herself is never lost. Even when she is in a state of despair she looks towards educating herself to raise her two kids on her own and seeks to liberate herself from her sufferings through education. She never gives up reading and even points that fact to her husband that no one can stop her from acquiring the knowledge that she craves for. Roya’s character signifies hope that if the various levels of oppression can be overcome then life can be so much more beautiful for women.

Other insights:

1) There is also a reference to the Iranian revolution. The universities were being shut down and the women’s rights were curbed. The students -men and women alike suffered as a consequence.

2) Censorship in Iran is the limiting or suppressing of the publishing, dissemination, and viewing of certain information in the Islamic Republic of Iran. The majority of such censorship is implemented or mandated by the Iranian government.

Censored content often includes information that relates to women's rights, freedom of speech, democracy, pornography, certain news sources, certain religious content, and many websites.