{"id":9698,"date":"2012-01-04T02:00:24","date_gmt":"2012-01-04T06:00:24","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/?p=9698"},"modified":"2012-01-03T22:44:06","modified_gmt":"2012-01-04T02:44:06","slug":"circumstance-gender-sexuality-and-the-power-of-men-in-%e2%80%9cfundamentalist%e2%80%9d-iran","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/mmw\/2012\/01\/circumstance-gender-sexuality-and-the-power-of-men-in-%e2%80%9cfundamentalist%e2%80%9d-iran\/","title":{"rendered":"Circumstance: Gender, Sexuality and the Power of Men in \u201cFundamentalist\u201d Iran"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

After reading a couple of reviews (on FilmJabber<\/a> and Afterellen.com<\/a>) about Circumstance<\/em><\/a>, a recent film by Maryam Keshavarz<\/a>, I decided to give the film a shot. Circumstance <\/em>is a drama set in Iran, where gender and sexuality are heavily controlled by the political regime. The film depicts the story of Atafeh and Shireen, two sixteen-year-old friends, whose friendship extends to the sexual and romantic in an environment of underground adventure in contemporary Iran.<\/p>\n

<\/iframe><\/p>\nThe story is also complex due to the differences in the characters. While Atafeh is portrayed as a wealthy, wild adolescent, Shireen is the daughter of two disappeared anti-revolutionary professors. As an orphan, Shireen has been raised by her grandmother and uncle, who are trying to get her engaged.<\/p>\nIn their attempt to challenge the regime, and what Atafeh calls at some point \u201cthat \u00a0revolution of yours\u201d (calling out her father who participated in the pre-revolution protests), both girls are shown to engage in heavy underground partying, drinking, drugs, sex, and dubbing \u201cradical\u201d films like Milk<\/em> and Sex and the City<\/em>.<\/p>\nSpoiler Alert<\/strong> for what follows.<\/p>\nAtafeh and Shireen are two friends and classmates who are very close. A big part of their relationship is their desire to escape to a place where they can dance, listen music, smoke, and enjoy their youth. Their friendship eventually extends to the sexual and romantic, but it is threatened after Atafeh\u2019s brother, Mehran, comes back home from rehab looking for a new path. An accomplished musician, Mehran meets religious authorities at the mosque and starts working for them. Simultaneously, Mehran falls in love with Shireen, who spends a lot of time in his house and with his family, due to her relationship with Atafeh.<\/p>\nAfter informing the religious police of an underground party and, on a different occasion, enabling them to arrest Atafeh and Shireen for driving while smoking and listening rock music, Mehran is able to take advantage of Shireen\u2019s fear, and proposes her to marry him in order to get her record clean.<\/p>\n<figure style=\"width: 150px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" title=\"Circumstance\" src=\"https:\/\/www.takepart.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/tp_campaign_cover\/public\/Circumstance_150x221.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"150\" height=\"221\"><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Circumstance film poster. Via TakePart.com.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nAs the film progresses, Atafeh starts seeing unusual but clear signs of danger within her family. Mehran brings religion into a household that was by no means religious. What begins as prayers here and there is quickly transformed into Mehran\u2019s rejection of Atafeh\u2019s \u201cdirty\u201d body, control of Shireen as his wife, and a sick need to observe and record everyone\u2019s activities.<\/p>\nAtafeh finally decides to leave after seeing her own father, who until then was resistant of Mehran\u2019s new attitudes, praying with her brother. After a failed attempt to convince Shireen to leave with her and continue their relationship, Atafeh is seen leaving alone to Dubai.<\/p>\nThe movie itself has received mixed reviews. Some Western observers (like <a href=\"http:\/\/www.tcdailyplanet.net\/arts\/circumstance-movie-review\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">tcdailyplanet.net<\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/movies\/column-post\/circumstance-peers-under-thumb-theocracy-30469\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">thewrap.com<\/a>) seem to be skeptical about Iranian young women\u2019s ability to navigate underground Iran while engaging in such a \u201cwesternized\u201d relationship, while others see it as a <a href=\"http:\/\/movies.nytimes.com\/2011\/08\/26\/movies\/circumstance-directed-by-maryam-keshavarz-review.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">strong response to religious dogma<\/a>. Nonetheless, I see it as neither. The film is more concerned with the politics of gender and sexuality than with teenager adventure and commentaries on Islam as a belief system. The film depicts the power balance favoured by the political system where a man, if in the right position, may acquire power not only over women, but over other men who seem to overlook the power of political-religious affiliation.<\/p>\nThe film is also interesting in that it points out that the Iranian revolution happened in the past and does not necessarily reflect today\u2019s Iranian youth and their realities. However, at the same time, it is the same revolution that gives power to some and takes it away from others until this day.<\/p>\nThe movie has received mixed feedback. Some <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rottentomatoes.com\/m\/771228738\/\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">comments and reviews<\/a> focus heavily on Atafeh and Shireen\u2019s erotic relationship due to the hyper-sexualisation of both characters, especially Shireen. They also tend to focus on Iran as the \u201cother\u201d and the issues that women \u201cover there\u201d face on a daily basis (for example in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.thewrap.com\/movies\/column-post\/circumstance-peers-under-thumb-theocracy-30469?page=0,0\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">here<\/a>). To some degree, the reviews tend to be simplistic in seeing this film only as the story of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.miami.com\/039circumstance039-r-article\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">a teenage lesbian romance<\/a> or <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/gog\/movies\/circumstance-sharayet,1206617\/critic-review.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">women\u2019s oppression due to enforcement of the veil<\/a> and being banned from smoking or music. This all forms part of the film\u2019s commentary on the politics of gender and sexuality. The relationship between both girls, who also held heterosexual relationships, shows an \u201cextra\u201d identity layer that complicates their interactions with a system that favours heterosexuality within marriage.<\/p>\nSimilarly, the movie portrays the political importance placed on the female body. The ability of Mehran to gain control over Shireen\u2019s body is significant in that it allows him to manipulate her identities, including her sexuality.<\/p>\nCircumstance <\/em>has a lot more to offer than wild, sexualized, erotic girls partying in underground Iran. The film may not directly challenge the Iranian government and may not necessarily allude to a specific path for change, yet it provides a powerful commentary on the power of political affiliation, gender and sexual orientation in contemporary Iran.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After reading a couple of reviews (on FilmJabber and Afterellen.com) about Circumstance, a recent film by Maryam Keshavarz, I decided to give the film a shot. Circumstance is a drama set in Iran, where gender and sexuality are heavily controlled by the political regime. The film depicts the story of Atafeh and Shireen, two sixteen-year-old […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":171,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1600,630,1601],"class_list":["post-9698","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-cinema","tag-circumstance","tag-iran","tag-maryam-keshavarz"],"yoast_head":"\n<title>Circumstance: Gender, Sexuality and the Power of Men in \u201cFundamentalist\u201d Iran<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"After reading a couple of reviews (on FilmJabber and Afterellen.com) about Circumstance, a recent film by Maryam Keshavarz, I decided to give the film a\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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