At last week's Writers' and Literary Translators' International Congress (WALTIC), Shahrazad proudly presented a panel of distinguished Iranian writers and human rights activists - Parvin Ardalan, Pegah Ahmadi and Asieh Amini - who discussed the current situation for women and freedom of expression in their home country. The discussion was moderated by Fataneh Farahani. Immediately following the event, we published Mrs Amini's contribution to the discussion here at Stories for life, and now we are happy to present Ms. Ahmadi's speech as well!

 

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Analyzing censorship of women's poetry in Iran

 

by Pegah Ahmadi, ICORN Guest Writer in Frankfurt City of Refuge 

 

To do any research about women's poetry and women's writings, first we have to look at the role of gender in society and literature. In under-developed societies, gender and consequences of gender identity have direct influences on the literary creations of women. Limitations, restrictions and obstacles that women are facing because of their gender, have direct influences on their writings. In addition, in under-developed societies and dictatorship societies, literary works and evaluation of literary works are influenced by gender. As Helene Cixous has said: "Women throughout the history have always been faced by three kinds of suppressions: suppression of woman herself, suppression of women's body and suppression of womanly language. She added: "Women must break the silence. The womanly language is the language in which a woman must write all women's characteristics including the specifics of her body."

 

In traditionally closed and totalitarian societies, women are suppressed and discriminated by society, the government and the family in the forms of fathers, brothers and husbands. Some of these discriminations are:

- Existence of laws, based on injustice and discriminations
- Lack of equal opportunities in the market place
- Discriminative punishment laws
- Efforts to lower and weaken women
- Denial of women's abilities and capabilities
- Creation of obstacles, limitations and restrictions on women's education and employment opportunities

In addition, history has shown that an Eastern woman also suffers from the following problems:

- Thoughts of self-guilt
- Self limitation and shyness
- Lack of individuality
- Fear
- Feelings of insecurity
- Feelings of uselessness, except in the role as a mother or a wife

 

All these limitations, restrictions and discriminations have been imposed on women by the male dominated society and unjust laws, rules and regulations. In such a society, any kind of creation and creativity by women count as disobedience, rebellion and even as a threat to the structure of the system. In such a society as it is, a woman suffers from being a woman, let alone being a writer or a poet. Therefore, a female writer faces enormous obstacles and difficulties such as censorship, limitations and restrictions in writing as well as humiliation and lack of mental and physical security. These factors cause women to feel threatened and fearful and eventually force them to be isolated from the society. A female writer or a poet, instead of focusing on her own creativity, has to put her effort and energy to find a way to free herself of the existing crisis.

 

Censorship is the most important issue that we as writers or poets are facing, but it is not only a women's issue, because it applies to female and male writers and poets equally. This is the only erea with equal opportunity! However, it needs to be pointed out that prior to governmental censorship, the trace of gender discrimination is evident in women's literary works and shows itself as:

- Self-censoring due to traditional and cultural upbringing
- Avoiding to use some of the words and vocabularies that are thought to be not suitable for women to mention
- Avoiding political and social issues in poetry that are believed to be used by men only
- Transformation of poetry to the phenomenon that satisfies male wishes

Consequently, the poetry becomes decorative and superficial, avoiding the influence of the individuality, because any free expression and independent thought are interpreted as rudeness and being anti-system.

 

Reviewing women's poetry, we have reached the conclusion that throughout history the majority of poems written by women have been under the influence of all the mentioned factors except a few. As a poet and a researcher of women's poetry in Iran, I need to point out that the female writers in our country have in the last three decades been making tremendous efforts to free themselves of historical dogmatism, social and political restrictions and limitations in order to express themselves freely about social, political and erotic issues.

 

The poetry in the past three decades is the result of the real living situation of a generation that has left behind the experiences of revolution and war in Iran. When reading this generation's poetry, you notice disappointments, hopelessness, frustrations and failures. One of the specifics of the contemporary poetry is utilizing different expression of love in various ways. This kind of expression is usually bitter and criticizing. 

 

Prior to the past three decades, women poets traditionally have expressed themselves as mothers, wives, teachers, passive lovers, waiting lovers and advisers. On the contrary, in current time, women portray themselves in new and different roles in poetry. I can point out these instances:

- Woman poet as a social issues critic
- Woman poet as an active role in society and not passive
- Woman poet as a poet who transforms her poems from monophony to polyphony
- Woman poet utilizing feminine and erotic language in her poetry without feelings of guilt
- Woman poet writing about issues which previously belonged to men's literature only
- Woman poet demonstrating her power in her poetry
- Woman poet describing issues that throughout history have not been mentioned due to a lack of courage

 

The following are two examples of poems from two different periods in time:

Your eyes are my ocean
The shadow of your body
Is flowing over my water
Morning is a mirror that begins in you
And the night is an ink that you end it.

And the second one:

I have name ! Hey little man!
I give you hell
This dead end of your name
I finish you
So, you get lost in another century of things

 

Reviewing the first poem, we notice that the poet has a passive attitude about her lover. Her whole world is a mirror that reflects her man. The lover with his manly power is her extreme desire and landscape. From this point of view, appearently, the woman's character has completely
vanished. In the second poem, which was written two decades ago, the poet from the beginning points out her identity and overcomes her lover's manly authority. In this poem, contrary to the first one, the poet does not admire her lover.

 

I'll give you another example of women's poems:

Barbed wire was my mother's dowry
In the border of the road that was reaching the bitter moon
I sleep with you without love
Here the bare footed hors
For one pair of shoes and one set of floral china,
Run Mosaddegh to the end of Valiasr avenue
Yes! The air is filled with sick children

 

In this example, the poet has a bitter but real view about love. She leaves behind the historical shyness in order to say that without love and only for following the social contract, she sleeps with her man. The poet, continues her poem utilizing two words: " Mosaddegh" and "Vali-asr" in order to point out the history of women's suffering in a satirical way.

 

Another poem:

Everything in this little note is omitted father!
Except that I have gone with the sloppiness of the evening
I have bundled the name of the stoney castle
And prayer of the Haji on the wall's Koranic verse
The dead end that closed my childhood
And the day in the floral bowl that grandmother handed me
No! I won't get older than this, my Babylonian tower!
I am the continuation of the dream that mother never saw
I pull the heaviness of a new song to the first line of the page

 

In this poem, the poet dialogues with her father as a symbol of manly power and authority and tells him that she does not obey the old traditions and searches for a new way of life.

 

Another example:

I don't know if its Saturday or Friday today?
It's morning or night
Today is forbidden
Tomorrow is forbidden
Clapping is forbidden
Always is forbidden

 

And another poet says:

Where is the newspaper?
When it makes itself more important
It has to be changed

 

And another says:

I would rather every morning to wear my shoes
Go out of the door
And spit to one direction and kiss the other side
Return for lunch
And slaughter another book
Religious slaughtering, according to religious rules

 

Another female poet says:

Lets shine on our hair!
Long live Rock & Roll
The streat on the other side is left alone
And the prostitute girls,
Change their names in every pick up!
You continue this cigarette and I continue this poem.

 

 

In today's poetry in Iran we are witnesses of violence, disappointment and anger. Screams, pains and hurts, that time after time have hurt women, are reflected in their poems. Women bravely move forward and despite censorship and all the limitations and restrictions,  create their valuable poems.