Is the Blade of Censorship and Limitation More Effective for Women Filmmakers?

For the first time, a film by a female director, "Breath," the second cinematic work of Narges Abyar, has been introduced as Iran's representative to the Academy Awards. The committee responsible for introducing the Iranian film to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences selected "Breath" from among four films: "The Sleep of the Heart" by Hamid Nematollah, "Malaria" by Parviz Shahbazi, "Breath" by Narges Abyar, and "The Villa" by Monir Ghidi. While Iran has introduced films for international Oscar competition 22 times before, this is the first time a film directed by an Iranian woman has made it to the Oscars. But why have no films by Iranian female directors reached the Oscars until now? Do Iranian female directors face more difficulties than their male counterparts? Does censorship, cultural limitations, and cinematic oversight differentiate between male and female Iranian filmmakers? Majid Barzegar, producer and director of the film "Parviz," has a clear answer to this question, stating: "No, it is so clear and delineated that it cannot be answered. Perhaps there is a kind of historical and cultural censorship in the society's subconscious that leads to less trust in women for investment, or perhaps their work does not result in good films, or they do not become good filmmakers. This still has nothing to do with censorship. However, the censorship or oversight that exists in cinema at the Ministry of Culture is the same for us and female filmmakers. What we and female filmmakers face are feminine subjects that are likely to be censored in our screenplays, both in the screenplay production stage and in the post-production stages. It is natural that female filmmakers, especially serious female filmmakers, probably because of their precise understanding of themselves and the society of women, focus their films on women, and this is very clear. I can say that many of the films made by women address women's issues. And it is clear that someone who wants to create stories about women based on sensitive topics will face more censorship." Mouna Zandi, director of the acclaimed film "Friday Afternoon," addresses the limitations faced by Iranian female filmmakers from a different perspective, attributing cultural and religious issues as the root cause of the distance between female filmmakers and the male-dominated management of cinema in Iran. She states: "The limitations that women face as filmmakers in Iranian cinema are not of the kind that we can say women are not allowed to work. The issue is communication. A male filmmaker can sit in the office of the head of the cinema organization for two hours and forty-five minutes, because he is a man, chat, drink tea, and even engage in serious jokes, arrange sauna appointments, and go out together, thus expanding their space and allowing for interaction. On the other hand, if I go into the office of a male head, I cannot stay more than twenty minutes, I cannot get too close to him because I am a woman and he is a man; sometimes we cannot even look into each other's eyes because he has to lower his head, we cannot shake hands, and the communication that exists in such relationships cannot happen between a woman and the male-dominated spaces that exist for making a film and for the cinematic environment. This is a problem in cinema, not that they cannot make films just because they are women." A look at the unemployment statistics of educated Iranian women, their absence in politics, and even their exclusion from management positions raises the question of how, despite all these obstacles, the number of female filmmakers has increased to this extent, culminating in a female-directed film, "Breath," by Narges Abyar, competing against films made by men and making it to the Academy Awards. Nahid Hassan Zadeh, director of the film "Another Time," considers the enthusiasm of Iranian women for filmmaking as part of a broader social issue, stating: "Consider a group of young people who want to showcase themselves in the new world, social networks. In other societies, these young people can express themselves in various ways, such as in music, dance, or modeling. But in Iran, we do not have these. For example, the design and fashion industry, as it exists worldwide, does not exist in Iran; even the fields of books or poetry do not have an audience; but cinema is a different event. Due to events that occurred in the 60s and 70s in Iran, we had prominent filmmakers like Kiarostami or Makhmalbaf who suddenly became global, it seems that cinema in Iran was discovered all at once, and this made everyone realize that they could also do new things through cinema, and some thought they could become famous overnight..." Nahid Hassan Zadeh questions whether there is a difference between women and men in achieving the dream of becoming famous overnight, stating that as a young girl, entering this field has posed numerous difficulties for her: "In Iran, making films as a woman is very hard, especially if you have social concerns and an independent viewpoint. For me, making each film felt like giving birth. Giving birth is a terrible pain... For every film I made, I had to prove to everyone that I did not come here to play like a boy. I came to make films, and proving this as a young girl, especially when I was much less experienced and younger, was torture for me. Until gradually, I found friends who recognized me and my spirit and saw my films... Despite all this, it is hard." However, the experience of Iranian cinema is not the same for all female filmmakers. Aida Panahandeh, director of the acclaimed film "Nahid," addresses the presence of Iranian female filmmakers from a different perspective, believing that they go through different experiences. At the Iranian Women Filmmakers Festival held last June in Berlin, she stated: "Iranian society has changed a lot. The majority of Iranian society, the middle class, in fact, the new generation living in Iran, men respect their women. The managers we now have to work with actually encourage female filmmakers. When I was talking to a French journalist, he could not believe how many female filmmakers we have, both documentary filmmakers and narrative filmmakers, and they are encouraged to make films..." In contrast, Nahid Hassan Zadeh, like Mouna Zandi, considers cultural issues and organized gender segregation between men and women as problems for female filmmakers in controlling and leading their groups. She states: "Because of the constant separation of men from women, we always have distance, and we can never have the intimacy that two men have with each other as colleagues with our male colleagues. If we do have it, it is only in the long term when deep trusts are built." Perhaps problems like these have led to Narges Abyar's response when asked, "Which female filmmaker's films do you like the most?" She replies: "I know that filmmaking is hard work, and the women who make films have it much harder because they have to prove themselves ten times more than a man. I mean, if a man wants to work hard and make a film, it is hard work, but a woman has to go through much more to prove herself. When a woman can prove herself and makes a film that lasts, she has accomplished something great. For this reason, I respect all of them greatly." With all this, it remains to be seen how, after the introduction of a woman's film to the Academy Awards, Iranian women filmmakers will progress.