Veil for the Legs: Place Identity & the representation of women in Iran

Place I d e nti t y & th e rep res e ntat i on o f wo m e n i n I ra n S a d af Po u rza n d 2 9 th A p r i l 2 0 1 4

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U rba n Des i g n: Deve lo pm e nt Identi ty by Des i g n / P 3 2 0 8 1

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traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.

e traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet: to observe the hijab. noun

traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.

e traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet: to observe the hijab. Chador oun

he traditional garment of Muslim and Hindu women, consisting of a long, usuallyblack or drabcolored clothor veil that envelops the body from head to

jab oun a traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover the hair andneck and sometimes the face. the traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for thecovering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet: toobserve the hijab.

anteaux oun

cloak worn by women

o foot and covers all or part of the body

Chador Noun The traditional garment of Muslim and Hindu women, consisting of a long, usually black or drab coloured cloth or veil that envelops the body from head to foot and covers all or part of the body Hijab noun 1. A traditional scarf worn by Muslim women to cover the hair and neck and sometimes the face.

2. The traditional dress code of Muslim women, calling for the covering of the entire body except the face, hands, and feet: to observe the hijab.

Manteaux Noun A cloak worn by women

(http://dictionary.reference.com/)

Essay Structure 1.

Introduction into the aim of the essay

(Watson et al, 2007; Hague et al, 2005; Rose, 1995; Govers et al, 2009; Horton, 1996)

2.

Brief summary into the history of Iran and the political identity of

women in the country

(Gabriel, 1998;

Richani, 2006;

3.

Majid Karimi

4.

Neda Azadikhah

5.

Author’s Individual Response

6.

Conclusion

Arjomand, 1988; Eyerman, 2013;

Bakhash, 1989;

Mahdavi, 2003;

Shahidian, 2002;

McIntyre, 2014)

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1.

Introduction

(Watson et al, 2007; Hague et al, 2005; Rose, 1995; Govers et al, 2009; Horton, 1996)

In many parts of the world, people feel that any place should have its own special identity to be distinguished and recognised from other places (Watson et al, 2007). The understanding of a place is a complex theoretical and experimental task that requires a range of techniques and methods of investigation. Places are infused with meanings and feelings; through ‘place-identity’ a place is distinguished from the more abstract and functional notion of ‘space’ (Hague et al, 2005; Rose, 1995, P88).

Place-identity includes unique characteristics or set of meanings that exist in a place and its culture at a given point in time; it is important to understand that identity is subject to change with time and may include various fragmented individualities (Govers et al, P18). Place identities are constructed through historical, political and cultural characteristics and values (Govers et al, P52; Morgan et al, 2011, P62). Issues of political identity have become a highly central, as well as extremely controversial feature of contemporary social life in the world (Horton, 1996). This essay aims to investigate the political identity of women in Iran, emphasising greatly on silent political artworks by Majid Karimi and Niyaz Azadikhah as well as looking briefly at author’s personal view on this subject.

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2.

History of Iran and the Political Identity of Women

(Gabriel, 1998; Arjomand, 1988; Bakhash, 1989; Mahdavi, 2003; Shahidian, 2002;

Richani, 2006; Eyerman, 2013; McIntyre, 2014)

In the 1960s and 1970s Iran was seen as one of the most modern countries in the world where there was freedom of speech and women were equal to men (Gabriel, 1998; Smith, 2004). With its rich history, Iran became a popular tourist destination and in the 1960s in conjunction with the countercultural movement of the Hippies, Frank Crowninshield, Vogue editor, harnessed the place identity of Iran as a background to create iconic compositions exposing the identity of women (Figure 1) (Illugadottur, 2012). Gender segregation in the pre-revolutionary Iran in public places was invisible (Figure 2). One of the most dramatic changes in government in Iran’s history was seen with the 1979 revolution that resulted in the formation of Islamic Republic of Iran. Despite the economical growth, there was much opposition against Mohammad Reza Pahlavi thus he was overthrown and replaced by Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder of the Islamic Republic (Gabriel, 1998; Smith, 2004).

Iran’s religious leaders considered themselves to be engaged in a unique experiment to create an exemplary Islamic state (Bakhash, 1989, P55). With the introduction of the Islamic Law, the identity of women began to change creating a significant impact on women in the built environment (Bagheri, 2013). Women were no longer equal to men (Figure 3); traditional places became completely male dominated excluding the presence of women (Bagheri, 2013). Consequently 3

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Figure 2 - Pre-Revolutionary Iran; image showing the streets of Iran Figure 1 - Iran before the chador; image showing a photoshoot for before the 1979 revolution, a group of young women and men sitting Vogue magazine from 1969 taken before the dark revolution at the together famous Persepolis in Iran.

Figure 3 – Inequality in Iran; image showing a woman during a protest fighting for equality. Text on her hands read: Women=Men

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ownership of modern developments began to be women orientated enabling them to feel a sense of place (Figure 4) (Bagheri, 2013). Veiling became mandatory amongst many other practices or laws which limited a women’s participation in public life, relegating her to the home and her “natural” role as housewife and mother (Bakhash, 1989, P55; Mahdavi, 2003, P697).

Figure 4 - Male domination; image showing how many traditional places in Iran, such as tea houses became male dominant spaces.

In Iran, there is a strong a relation between the imposed veil and women’s identity deconstruction in public places. The Islamic state attempted to reconstruct a new identity for women according to Islamic definition of righteous women. The aim of this uniformity (figure 5) is to destroy the individuality of women, making them 7

Figure 5 - Post-Revolutionary Iran; image showing the streets of Iran after the 1979 revolution where women have covered up head-to-toe in the black chador. This is the preferred look by the regime of Islamic Republic of Iran where through hijab; women’s identity is ignored and condemned by the dominant Islamic culture in order to decrease the women’s independence.

eviscerated thereby having no sense of individual identity (Shilandari, 2010).

However many young women in Iran have started a silent revolution by refusing the veiling imposed by the regime (figure 6). The government has been employing coercive measures to Islamicize gender in public and private, to restrict male and female interactions, and to promote “Muslim womanhood” as the model for all Iranian women. People have to abide by these measures in public; yet many remain opposed to these laws and avoid them in private; creating a fractured sense of place (Shahidian,

2002, P270). To create gender segregation in public places the regime has created many “Islamic” laws where women are separated from men in public places. Since the 1979 revolution women are no longer accepted to attend any male sporting events (Barzin, 2012) and separate entrance and access to some public spaces has been created to divide men and women from interacting (figures 7 and 8).

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Figure 6 - Post-Revolutionary Iran; The Silent Revolution - image showing the streets of Iran where young Iranian women carry out a silent revolution by dumping the preferred black chador look by wearing bright and fashionable coloursdominant Islamic culture in order to decrease the women’s independence.

The Islamic Revolution sought to supress all forms of artistic expression and freedom of speech particularly for the women in Iran, figure 9 represents a protest for freedom (Richani, 2006). Artists within Iran began to respond to political pressures and lack of freedom of speech through the diverse and rapidly growing art scenes. With the current political issues it is believed that almost every form of art in Iran is a form of protest (Eyerman, 2013; Morgan, 2010). Theodor Adorno, a German philosopher, famously stated that “all art is an uncommitted crime” and therefore all art is political (Eyerman, 2013). Art is a visual metaphor and is endlessly versatile. Artists can invent their own codices of symbol and viewers will interpret them entirely independently, in ways that mean something to them personally (McIntyre, 2014, P89).

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Figure 8 - Gender Segregation; image showing Iranian underground where carriage doors are used to separate women and men from having contact with each other

Figure 7 - Gender Segregation; image showing Iranian underground where carriages are divided to separate women and men.

Figure 9 - Freedom; image showing a woman during a protest fighting for freedom

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3.

Majid Karimi

(Karimi, 2013; Watson, 2008; Pourvaziry, 2008; Karimi, 2008; Khosravi, 2008)

Majid Karimi, a Tehran born architect artist has been using different mediums to express his art; Karimi stresses the contrast in approach to development, industrialism, modernism and communication eras (Karimi, 2013). Majid Karimi uses multi-media and photographic artwork to explain historical, cultural, architectural and urban design richness of Vali-Asr Street in Tehran, where both exterior and interior spaces showcase contrasting urban form patterns and a variety of lifestyles of the city’s many neighbourhoods. Both the interior and exterior spaces are shaped by modern design solutions which place Tehran into a global system of urban form production (Watson, 2008).

Today’s urban space is filled with difficulties; there are many definitions that reflect the diverse perspective of people in relation to life and culture. The diversity in perspective varies from the collaboration of cultures, to cultural clash and conflicts. The cities are the main place where these perspectives are put into process (Pourvaziry, 2008). The limitations of the new era in Iran have caused people to create fantasies about phenomena that they have never fully experienced. People in the East are projecting their own definition and understanding of what is a “Western and modern” lifestyle. The western influence has had a negative impact on society in which individuals are trying to break the post-revolutionary limitations causing conflict between the civilisation and the government and between different generations (Karimi, 2008). Figure 10 shows a 12

Figure 10 - Western Utopia; veiled woman fantasising of the possibilities and opportunities in the western world

veiled woman staring into the western utopia and fantasising of the possibilities.

Stood behind the barrier she is unable to reach for the western lifestyle. This further emphasizes the contrast between the public and private spaces in which interior spaces are free to be westernised. There has been a significant impact on the built environment in regards to these political issues. Figure 11 shows how the identity of the place has transformed to portray the governments detest of the Western world in an attempt to influence the views of society.

Art forms can be part of the texture of political protest, and when codified and objectified it serves as a bridge between movements, past, present and future (Brendel, 2008). The Islamic laws believe just as the walls of a house protect 13

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Figure 11 - Down with the U.S.A; image showing a building plastered with propaganda against the western world

Figure 12 - Private and public; image showing the contrast between interior and exterior spaces in Iran (Tehran)

the inhabitants, the veil protects women moving through public space from being looked at by unrelated men (Khosravi, 2008, P47). Figure 12 highlights the difference between the behaviour of women in private and public space. The central composition of the veiled lady expresses the forced political issue of hijab in public spaces. Ironically, this draws attention to the veiled lady contradicting the regime’s principals. The purpose of the veil is to create uniformity through which the individual differences disappear (Shilandari, 2010). The fragmented interaction between the veiled woman and uncovered woman portrays the broken political issues between the regime and society as well as public and private space which form the basis of the divided place identity. In private spaces women are allowed to unveil and here the gender segregation is invisible. To further depict 15

Figure 13 - Private and public; image showing a woman dressed in the compulsory manteaux in the comfort of her own house, showing bare legs and uncovered hair

this point figure 13 shows the difference between identities of women in private spaces. The woman in the image shows her bare legs and chest and uncovered hair while wearing her black manteaux which is compulsory in public.

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4.

Niyaz Azadikhah

(IVDE, 2014; Eyerman, 2013; Brendel, 2008; Buganim, 2014; Khosravi P47)

Tehran based video artist Niyaz Azadikhah’s works outline graceful and ironic digital observations on life in modern-day Iran (IVDE, 2014). Art and artistic expression serve many functions in political protest as they aim to produce knowledge and solidarity (Eyerman, 2013). Many practicing artists have pursued ways of balancing their commitment to art, as a representation of unique sensibilities and their political commitments (Brendel, 2008). The works of Azadikhah is banned in Iran as her artwork is used to express her personal thoughts on the current political identity of women in the country. An exhibition of works by Niyaz Azadikhah, titled “Feminine Sensors” displayed six works that focus on the religious, chadorclad Iranian women and “on every woman who is forced by religion into following a way of life, a dress code and particular behaviour”. Azadikhah transforms these anonymous faceless women wearing black into bodies whose form is sometimes abstract and at other times identifiable (Buganim, 2014).

After the revolution rules prescribing the hejab as proper and modest attire for women were written into the law. One form of “cultural crime” is bad-hejabi (improper veiling). Women must cover their hair and skin in public, except for the face and hands (Khosravi P47). In ‘Kaktus’ animation (Figure 14), Azadikhah uses doll-like figures of chador-clad women, who slowly adapt and transform, drifting gently into the form of a cactus plant with their rosary beads emerging into blooming flowers. In the tightly controlled, expanding of the image, she 17

represents closed systems of ideology and ineffectual behavioural patterns in society (IVDE, 2014). Using chador in her art Azadikhah creates a metaphor for the struggle between tradition and liberation as well as women’s daily complications

Figure 14 - Still image from ‘Kaktus’ animation; showing chador-clad women adapting and transforming in to a cactus

in public places (Buganim, 2014).

According to the Islamic laws, it is haram (unlawful) for man to look at the body of the namahram (unrelated) woman, regardless of whether it is with the intention of pleasure or not (Khosravi P42). Azadikhah makes use of the taboo on female sexuality to create provocative sexual situations. The chador, which makes all women look the same, is a symbol of her struggle to shape a feminine identity that is separate and distinct. Figure 15 represents Niyaz Azadikhah’s Channel 2 18

(2010), two still images from a short animation. This piece represents a woman in a chador dancing on a pole, while the background displays the shadow casts suggesting a phallic image (Buganim, 2014).

Azadikhah stated, “My work is a result of my daily life, through time … since school time, we shall be unified in form with uniforms and after that, in university and our society, we shall all look alike. This is the reason my women are all the same and what makes them different from each other, is the internal desires and attitudes … ” (Buganim, 2014).

Figure 15 - Still images from ‘Channel 2’ animation; veiled woman pole dancing

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5.

Author’s Individual Response

In the recent years changes has been seen in Iran; women have introduced their own ‘Silent Revolution’ where the modesty of their mothers has been forgotten and strength and power of the modern women have been put in place. In the past 10 years as the government have attempted to further force the regime upon women; young Iranian women have become less compliant. They have now used the enforced hijab as a method of expression to reinforce their personal identity as a fashion statement in public spaces. The women’s silent revolution is discarding the black, featureless chador and manteaux and replacing them with bright colours,

Figure 16 - Silent Revolution; young Iranian girls dumping black veiling for bright and colourful uniform in public spaces

vibrant and fashionable outfits in the course of the past decade (Figure 16).

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It is important to note that chador is the preferred look by the rulers of the Islamic Republic of Iran not the chosen appearance by Iranian women. Ironically, many of the women in Iran who are freely choosing to use hijab in the “proper� way as sought by the government are mainly the first generation unveiled women from pre-revolution. Despite the discriminatory policies of the male dominated government, the position of women in modern-day Iran is brighter than ever and everyday the identity of women grows stronger. Though the dress code in Iran prevents the women to follow their desires in fashion, many young Iranian women try to find ways to incorporate their wish to be fashionable with the need to observe the forced hijab.

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6. Conclusion To conclude, as issues such as women’s rights and equality in Iran have become more and more mainstream through the years, the question of the enforced hijab on the identity of Iranian women has suddenly found itself being thrust into the spotlight. Though Iranian women have gained ground in their struggles under the Islamic Republic regime, they have gained a very strong and powerful identity.

When discussing Iranian female identity, hijab is one of the most heated issues.

One can argue that the enforcement of the hijab in Iran on the female identity comes at the expense of personal identity and creates an identity of conformity for them.

Through hijab, Iranian women’s feministy and identity is ignored and condemned by the dominant Islamic culture in order to decrease the women’s independence.

Through artworks by Majid Karimi and Niyaz Azadikhah it is clear that all forms of visual representation and artistic expression have a definite place in contemporary social and political activism.

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