HUMAN 1C Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Chador, African Diaspora, Reza Shah
Lecture #16: Film Adaptation of Men Without Women
Diaspora
● “Derived from the Greek for ‘scattering of seeds,’ it is used to describe population
migration and dispersal (voluntary or involuntary). Originally used to refer to the Jewish
peoples’ forced exile from Israel...Slavery in Europe and the Americas resulted in an
African diaspora...Diaspora is generally thought in terms of homelessness, a sense of
trauma and exile, but lately it has come to be viewed more positively...a more advanced
stage of politically and culturally heterogeneous citizenry.” - A Dictionary of Critical
Theory
● You are distanced from your homeland, and while you may create a community away
from the homeland there is still an inevitable change. You do not live in the exact same
culture you left behind.
● Differences in the film: Mahdokht was not in the film. Munis’ brother doesn’t stab and kill
her.
● Upon returning to Iran after the revolution, many (including Rahimieh and Parsipur) feel
alienated and frightened by the changes that have taken place, such as the constant
military presence.
Parsipur as an actor in the film
● Parsipur played the madam of the brothel in the film.
● She wanted to be in the film so she could be a part of Neshat’s creation which in many
ways was different than her own novel.
● Parsipur may have chosen that role because it is part of critique of how Iran has
disavowed women and certain professions that Iranians don’t want to talk about.
Parsipur wanted to expose and discuss taboos in her novel, and her role as the madam
of a brothel is the ultimate manifestation of this.
Rahimieh’s Argument
● The film’s foregrounding of the 1953 coup suggests an analogy between the nation’s
liberation from western imperialism and women’s freedom from subjugation to Iranian
patriarchy but offers no end to the nation’s and women’s struggle.
● Neshat is making this film for an international audience that already has certain ideas
about Iran, which affects how she will portray the novel in her film.
Differences Between the Film and Novel
● In the opening scene of the novel, Mahdokht sees the gardener and servant having sex
and turns herself into a tree. In the film, the opening scene consists of Munis debating
jumping off of the roof (finally jumping at the end) with the call to prayer in the
background.
○ Munis is wearing a chador, but it is only draped in her shoulders when this would
normally cover her hair. When she jumps, the chador falls of completely...and
she says “now there is only silence...and I thought, the only freedom from pain is
to be free from the world.”
○ The significance of the call to prayer: Neshat is signalling to her audience that the
film is set in a Muslim country. But there is also the juxtaposition between Munis’
agitated state and the call to prayer...shouldn’t this have stopped her from
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