Gender+Roles-+Keeley+Gibson+Harlow


 * The Main Ways Men and Women are Different in Iran- **

** Keeley Gibson Harlow **

In Iran, women are looked at more as property. They haveto dress modestly and are looked down upon in our society. Men don’t have to dress modestly and are waited on hand and foot by their wives at home. Although in their Holy Book, men and womenare looked at as equal in society the differenceis very noticeable.Walking around Iran you can automatically tell the differencebetween men and women. On a hot summer day, men are dressed comfortably and cool while the women are dressed from headto toe in fabric. As you can see in the picture totheright of this, you can see h ow women are fo rced to dress. In Iran, it is the law that women dress modestly. If you google, "Women from Iran" the only things that tend to comeup are women that are dressed from head to toe in modest wear like I showed in that picture. Men however are something totally different. If you type in "Iran Men" on google images, you can see that there are a lot of differences from men and women. The thing that most stood out to me was how casual the men were dressed compared to the women. For instance, the picture to the right is the second thing that came up on my google search. See the difference between the men and the women? It is clear as day to me. Marji’s family is not the most traditional when it comes to religion. When Marji is at home, you don’t typically see her with a veil on. Marji states in the book “I really didn’t know what to think about the veil. Deep down I was very religious but as a family we were very modern and avant-garde” (Satrapi, page 6). When Marji says this it made me think about how much women are forced to do in Iran. Women have always taken pride in their hair. It makes us feel pretty! When that is taken away, it is almost like a stab to our confidence. Another example of this is when they compare the differences of the fundamentalist women and the modern women to the fundamentalist man to the progressive man (Satrapi, page 75). The only difference for the men is that they have longer beards. They are wearing almost the same exact outfits. The fundamentalist woman is completely covered from head to toe, while the modern women has pants and a jacket on with a little bit of hair strands showing. The difference is phenomenal. Although men and women both have dress codes, I believe that women have the harsher dress code. They are almost under control by the government at all times. Rules for both genders may be very different but it seems to work for the women of Iran. Although I couldn’t imagine myself in Iran some women are very happy there being a fundamentalist or a modern women.

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