Divorce Iranian Style

The documentary Divorce Iranian Style documents women’s struggle in Iran to divorce their partners. This struggle on their part is due to the fact that Iran is and has been for some time a male patriarchy. The intended audience for this movie surely has to be citizens outside of Iran, who really have no concept of the hardships over there. Yes, its one thing to read about the particulars of the situation over there; it’s another thing entirely to actually see how unfair the system is over there. The film is very simply directed (possibly because there are no visual distractions from what is going on; the topic is simply to pertinent to be “entertaining” visually). However, the situation itself, the frustration of these women over the basic rigged setup of the male dominate divorce court, is such an important concept for American audiences to consider and think about. It’s a reminder that freedoms should never be taken for granted, or else they may be whisked away from us. It’s startling how easy it is for these men to display their sexism—the system in Iran allows them to do so.

The film was extremely successful in capturing my attention. I think it’s because of the heroism of these women. Yes, the movie is depressing because we as an audience know that these women will not have a chance in separating from their partners. However, this doesn’t thwart the women’s efforts of trying. I think these women, knowing that the film camera is on them, become more heroic than ever in their stature. They know that audiences from around the world will be watching, so they become the most heroic women. They really are some of the most heroic characters ever documented in a film in my opinion, because even though they know that their situation is bleak they keep on fighting anyway, in order to remind the women of the world that they all should stand up to male oppression in any subtle guise that it takes. After seeing this movie, no one has an excuse to simply follow orders.

The filmmakers relationship to those being filmed (they were all women) is almost one of sisterhood, and great empathy. My favorite moment of the movie is when the one Iranian woman is so frustrated about the situation that she tears up a court order. When the male judges of this particular divorce court ask the filmmakers if she tore up the report, the filmmakers say that she did not. It’s a justified gotcha moment.

The only challenges that I can think of on the filmmakers part, besides staying out of the situation and being detached professional filmmakers (I’m sure it must have been hard considering that these men are such jerks) is to not have any really great aesthetic imagery—it would have distracted the audience from the situation like so many dumb American movies today. Movies with no political motivation whatsoever.

The aesthetics of the movie are very simple. Actually, the colors are mainly the white imprisoning bleak bare walls that surround these women, and the women’s black robes. Actually, the color scheme is very similar to the color scheme of Persepolis; a film that depicts a situation very similar to this one’s. Perhaps the filmmakers are making a comment on how the government is over there in Iran; one that is indeed black and white and not complex in anyway. It’s like males saying to women that we are one color and you are the other; it’s a terrible drawing of the line in the sand.

The great women in this film’s main purpose must have been stating to the audience that, “If we can’t do anything about this situation, at least we can document it and make fun of these fools."