Narges Kiani wrote in Hamemehan: A look at the new statement of the Director General of the Office of Cinematography Organization.
What is happening these days in the streets of many Iranian cities and also about the demands of women, raises the question of whether in the near or distant future, we will see a change in the rules of hijab in Iranian cinema and TV series or not. Laws that we have witnessed some directors trying to make changes to since the years after the revolution. Among these efforts, it is possible to point out the use of hats or shaving women’s hair. Kholagis, which banned Kianoosh Ayari’s “Couch”, but in a double standard in the “Gando” series, was broadcast on TV. What Ruhollah Sohrabi, Director General of Cinema Organization’s Film Distribution and Screening Office, said in an interview with Mehr News Agency about the movies “Couch” (2015) directed by Kianoush Ayari and “Kathil and Savage” (2018) directed by Hamid Nematullah. These efforts have been made. In an interview with Mehr News Agency, he said: “The issue of these films is the issue of compliance with the rules and regulations approved by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance and compliance with the hijab, according to the laws, and a sovereign decision should be made about it.” Finally, a decision must be made in this context, whether it is possible to show a woman’s hair in a movie with this condition or not.” A question that still has no answer.
The first attempts with the hat
One of the first attempts to make the covering of female characters look natural in movies and TV series was in “A Thousand Hands” by Ali Hatami, which, although it started when the hijab was not compulsory in Iran, a major part of it was filmed at the beginning of the 60s. became. The main female characters of this series wore hats and some minor characters wore hats. The use of a hat instead of a hijab, which was actually the first measure to avoid the usual hijab, has been seen many times in historical films whose story takes place before the revolution, and among its examples, we can mention the series “Shaherzad” and “The Riddle of the Shah”.
Men in the role of women
In the first years of theater entering Iran, the lack of female actors in the theater was compensated by male actors. These actors and their roles were called “Zenpoosh”. After the revolution and due to religious and customary restrictions that created obstacles to the naturalization of women’s roles, the use of female actors in cinema and theater came up again; This time with a different purpose. The first time that a man played the role of one of the main female characters in an Iranian film after the revolution was in “The Peddler” by Mohsen Makhmalbaf in 1366. In one of the three episodes of this film, Makhmalbaf depicted an elderly woman without a hijab, whose role was played by Mahmoud Basiri. The next most famous female character of Iranian cinema was formed in the movie “Snowman” by Daud Mirbagheri, where Akbar Abdi played half of the movie with clothes, make-up, and a female voice. The presence of this character was the most important factor that caused the film to be banned for several years. Akbar Abdi also played the role of a woman in several other films, including “I dream” by Reza Attaran and “Sleeping” by Fereydoun Jirani.
Wigs
Over the years, it has always been heard that the headscarf cannot be a trick to bypass the hijab, but the number of films that have used the headscarf instead of the hijab has not been few. Mohsen Makhmalbaf put a hat on Fatemeh Motamedarya’s head to recreate the role of Ler’s daughter in the movie “Naseruddin Shah, Cinema Actor”. Although he later said, in order to get a license for the show, he had to show in a scene where Ghais’s hat falls from Motamed Aria’s head and she wears a hijab underneath. In the series “Youssef the Prophet”, by Farajollah Selahshor Kolahgis, the female characters were chosen in such a way that it is clearly obvious that they are artificial. In the movie “Lollipop” it was written at the beginning of the movie that the two actresses of this movie have used hats. This film was released without any problems, and yet the same Kholagis blocked the way for Kianush Ayari’s “Couch” to be released. Wigs were also used in the “Gando” series, and by the way, they brought the reaction of critics such as Hoshang Golmakani. He asked during the airing of this series: “There is nothing wrong with wearing a hat for the actor of the series “Gando”, but it is not allowed for “Couch” Ayari?” In response to this criticism, Korosh Kamreei, the advisor to the director of Se Sima, said: “The actor of this sequence is Armenian and the filming location is Turkey.” And Golmakani further asked: “If the actor’s non-Muslimness is a license to use the wig, could Kianush Ayari have used some non-Muslim actors to play the roles in his film and there would not be a problem in that case?” However, this verbal argument never came to an end and the task of “couch” remained unknown.
shaved head
The directors who shaved off the hair of the female characters in their films in order not to wear headscarves were another example of trying to make women’s clothing look natural in movies. “Lead” was one of the first prominent films in which the actress was portrayed with a shaved head. Farimah Farjami played the role of a woman who was suffering from typhus and had to shave her hair in this Masoud Kimiaei movie. Years later, the presence of a female actress with the same image in “Quarantine”, made by Manouchehr Hadi, became controversial. The female character in this film had cancer, lost her hair after chemotherapy, and appeared without a hijab in most of the film’s scenes. This also happened with “Shiftagi” by Ali Esmati, and the condition of the film’s release was the use of a digital hat for Roya Timuryan. Also, in one of the episodes of Abbas Kiarostami’s movie “Ten”, one of those riding in the car was a woman who had shaved her head. The scene was cited by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance as one of the reasons for banning the film. “Killer and Savage” was the last example of shaving the head of the main female character of a film, which brought the work to the verge of banning.
Foreign actresses
Although in recent years, the use of non-Muslim actresses without hijab has become unhindered, provided that the film was filmed outside of Iran, one of the first cases that became controversial in this regard was the film “The Book of the Law” by Maziar Miri, which was released in 1378. Was made. In this film, Parviz Perstowi, in the role of an Iranian employee, went to Lebanon for a mission, and there he fell in love with a Christian girl. The girl, who was not veiled in Lebanon, became a Muslim by marrying an Iranian man and came to Iran and wore a hijab. The example of other films in which an Iranian man fell in love with a non-Iranian girl abroad was repeated many times in the following years, and in most of them, the main character of the woman appears without a hijab while she is abroad, and examples include the films “I’m not Salvador” and “Hello Bombay” he pointed out. Another case in which a foreign actress played without a hijab in an Iranian film was “Extradition” (produced in 2010), directed by Ali Ghafari. The difference between this film and other similar examples was that this actor played the role of an Iranian character, and the director dubbed the voice of Elisa Kucher, an actress from Belarus, to avoid tricks such as hats and hats. The most recent example of using foreign actresses without headscarves in an Iranian series was the appearance of Aysel Kaplan, a Turkish actress, in the series “Unfinished Secret” directed by Amin Amani, which was broadcast on Channel One.
Hats, hats, shaved heads, men in the role of women, and the use of foreign actresses instead of Iranian women, although there have been strategies that have come to the minds of Iranian directors to show women with natural clothing in all these years, we have to wait and see the recent events. Can Iran lead to a change and make these directors unnecessary to use such tricks?