The Stoning of Soraya M.

After reading the review on MMW about the movie “The Stoning of Soraya M.” I decided to give it a bash, it’s been a while since I’ve watched something worth the reel its embedded on.

[This post contains spoilers, although the title of the movie is a spoiler in itself]

((Please excuse the untidy layout of  this entire post. I have tried to fix it a number of times but it won’t budge))

The movie is based on a book by the French-Iranian journalist Freidoune Sahebjami, who stumbles upon a small village in Iran in 1979, shortly after the Revolution. His car breaks down and whilst waiting for repairs Zahra notices he has a tape recorder and recognises him to be a journalist. She beckons him to her home to narrate the incidents which occured only the day before in the village.

And this is where the movie begins. A true life account of Soraya Manutchehri, 35 year old woman married at the age of 13, a mother of 6 children with a husband who actively works at turning their sons against her and is physically, emotionally and sexually abusive with a hankering for prostitutes. Her husband, Gorban-Ali, wishes to marry a younger girl of 14, the daughter of a doctor who is on death row at the prison where he works as a prison guard. However Gorban-Ali cannot afford to keep 2 wives and wants to avoid paying Soraya her dowry if he divorces her so wants her to divorce him.

Soraya on the other hand doesn’t want to divorce Gorban-Ali since she would not be able to provide for her children without his financial contribution and would be prone to being harrassed or propositioned, as does the mullah who visits her on saying of Gorban-Ali, to propose she, over time, become his sigheh – temporary wife, or as Zahra, Soraya’s aunt, calls it “his holy whore”.

Zahra is an outspoken woman who see’s the religious mullah for what he is; selfish and corrupt and drives him out of Soraya’s home with a good earful of insults. Gorban-Ali knows the Mullah from his days as an inmate, where he was detained for child molestation charges. Zahra is Soraya’s confidante and her well-wisher.

When Gorban-Ali’s cousin, Hashem, mourns the passing of his wife, Zahra see’s this as an opportunity for Soraya to generate some income in order to feed her daughters, as her husband refuses to provide any further financial support unless she divorces him. So Soraya goes to Hashems house and does the cleaning and cooking. This is where the trouble begins and the plot her husband spins starts. Her husband, with the support of the Mullah, begin to accuse Soraya of adultery and with abit of co-ercion and threats of causing harm to Hashem’s son, he contributes to the web of lies and soon enough the village comes to hear the rumours.

The Mayor of the village, who propositioned Zahra for marriage once but she refused, is advised of the moral crime and holds a tribunal, the panel of which consisted of Soraya’s father, the mullah, her husband and 2 sons. They find Soraya guilty of adultery and put her to death by stoning. Zahra tries to escape with Soraya, but they are trapped in her home as guards have been placed outside to prevent her from absconding.

The final scene plays out the long stoning scene,  Soraya is put waist high into a pit and then the stoning begins. The first stone is cast by her father, the second by her husband, then Hashem and her sons – after which the rest of the villagers join in. She lies there, after what seems like an eternity of pelting stones at her, bent over in a pool of her own blood. Zahra takes the Soraya’s body but is refused permission to bury her.

The stoning scene is long and drawn out, harrowing and disturbing. I personally couldn’t watch the stoning, so decided to just listen attentively to that portion of the movie.

There is a strong sense of injustice as Soraya is being stoned, despite being an innocent woman – a woman who was told to prove her innocent and to disprove her guilt, the onus being on her despite the accusations coming from her husband who was known to be a philanderer and of dubious character. Some of the characters are typical, such as the husband – he personifies evil, but Soraya is not the meek quiet woman despite giving off such airs when being taken to the freshly dug pit. You do wish however that she had tried harder to protest her innocence, though would probably have made little difference to such an unforgiving crowd.

I noticed a few discrepancies which to me quite jarring. They were:

• In the book Soraya has 6 children, mostly in their late teens. In the movie Soraya has 4 children, 2 girls and 2 boys – all young, the oldest being 12.
• Zahra – an ignorant village woman, who speaks perfect English to the journalist. Why, since the journalist spoke Farsi anyway?
• The undubious character of Soraya’s husband – why no-one spoke out about his infidelity and sleeping around when he accused Soraya of adultery?
• The calibre of witnesses and their reputation – surely if witnesses are known to be of shady characte thenr their accusations or testimonies would be put to scrutiny even more so? This wasn’t the case in this movie.
• The application of punishment – the villagers were seen picking up stones from all over the village. They are only meant to use those available in the vicinity of are where punishment is to be carried out
• The un-veiling of the woman before stoning – they removed her burka and she is dressed all in white, as one is for burial.
• Refusing to bury the body – you bury the body regardless of what they died of or for.
• Her being stoned for adultery when she, in the end, was accused of trying to seduce Hashem. In this case, as far as I’m aware, it would be lashings not stoning.

I personally don’t think the movie was remotely about the application of Islamic law with regards to stoning, it wasn’t a critique of it, nor was it about showing how barbaric stoning can be. The stoning was simply a medium for darker, sadistic intentions. The movie was about the abuse of power and position by those with vested interests (the mullah), the selfish motives of the husband and how a desire can result in destruction. The main message imparted was about patriarchial and mysogynistic attitudes, how the voice of some (the women in this video) is not always loud enough against those who know how to twist the system.

Dancing Boys of Afghanistan

A recent documentary on Channel 4, part of the new season of True stories programme took us through the hidden world of the dancing boys of Afghanistan. These are boys, under the age of 18 who are kept for entertainment purposes, to dance and shimmy with the older men (often their “owners” or guests at a party) with sex also being a component of their role as dancing boys. Bacha baazi, as its referred to, is a common practice in Northern regions of Afghanistan (but slowly trickling to other cities and provinces) perpertuated by older men,  the one’s in the documentary varying between the ages of 30-60 (some being older), often with enough disposible income and wealth to lure boys from impoverished backgrounds in the hope of supporting and sustaining their families in exchange. For those who struggle with the looming poverty reigning over them, as with most of the population, such an offer is hard to resist. Some families sincerely believe their boys will be used purely for dancing purposes only and not be sexually exploited.

The documentary made the point several times of the inaccessibility of women to the Afghan men due to the strict nature of purdah in the country resulted in the substitution of boys who were readily available and within their vicinity, from street children to those working in tea houses and food stalls. The reference to women being inaccessible somehow implied that were women available for entertainment and sexual pleasuring (prostitution), these boys would be spared which is quite a poor explanation and reasoning behind the popularity of bacha baazi )despite the boys often being dressed in women’s clothing and ghunghru for their dances and needing to be attractive in appearance, slim and nimble – like nymphs)

The keeping of boys, openly flaunted and boasted as being toy boys, was not about sexuality. Sexuality played little a role in the desire of these older men (some married, some single) enjoying them, boasting about their dancing talent, and holding parties especially for their friends and peers to come and watch and often take their boy home for the night. Some confessed to becoming habituated to having boys for company during their days in the fighting against the Russians and some of the boys wanting sex themselves, others professed an attraction for them whilst some simply enjoyed the elevated status it brought having a boy under their wing, to exploit and swap with their peers. There was no mention of plying the boys with drugs to keep them addicted and therefore wanting to stay, but I suspect this may be also be a factor or a method used in keeping them from running away (aside from the threat of being killed and/or beaten)

Boys for this purpose remain this “charm” until they hit adulthood, which for the Afghan men would be around 18. After this, the boys are no longer desirable and left to go. And often the victims may become perpetrators of the same kind,  as one dancing boy shared his goal of having 20-30 dancing boys when he is able to afford it and hold parties for his friends to be entertained in the same manner as he had been entertaining his “masters” friends, despite stating in the beginning he had no choice in becoming like this or living this existence so had accepted it. An insight as to what these parties consist:

The orchestra started up with a curious, plaintive melody, the rhythm being taken up and stressed by the kettle drums, and four bachehs took up their positions on the carpet. The bachehs are young men specially trained to perform a particular set of dances. Barefoot, and dressed like women in long, brightly-coloured silk smocks reaching below their knees and narrow trousers fastened tightly round their ankles, their arms and hands sparkle with rings and bracelets. They wear their hair long, reaching below the shoulders, though the front part of the head is clean shaven. The nails of the hands and feet are painted red, the eyebrows are jet black and meet over the bridge of the nose. The dances consist of sensuous contortions of the body and a rhythmical pacing to and fro, with the hands and arms raised in a trembling movement. As the ballet proceeded the number of dancers increased, the circle grew in size, the music waxed shriller and shriller and the eyes of the native onlookers shone with admiration, while the bachehs intoned a piercing melody in time with the ever-growing tempo of the music. The Heir explained that they were chanting of love and the beauty of women (Source)

What used to be brushed under the carpet or denied, is now openly flaunted with the government being aware of it but doing nothing. One wonders what kind of a life these boys end up etching for themselves and where the morals of the men who engage in this are, or how they manage to dabble in this sort of things and feel no sense of guilt in destroying the lives and innocence of these poor boys.

Fatima Bhutto: Book Reading of Songs of Blood and Sword

I attended a book reading/Q&A hosted by Fatima Bhutto based on her new book Songs of Blood and Sword on Friday in London. She read a few excerpts based on violence from her book and then proceeded to answer questions, whether they were related to her book or not.

I am not an entirely political type of person, the current election campaign for the general elections in May don’t interest me the slightest since nothing and no-one is ever who and what they appear to be. But because a few of my previous posts relating to the sorry state of Pakistan got me wondering, I decided to go and hear what Fatima’s POV on the countries situation is.

I havent had the chance to read her book though some are ambivalent about it and her, others deem is to be a personal account of the chequered history of the Bhutto dynasty (nor did I manage to buy one at the event and have it signed by her either! Something I regret now!) but her loud criticisms of the Zardari government and placing the blame of her fathers death at the foot of her aunt Benazir have attracted an audience and followers who cannot fathom why people do not see what appears to be glaringly obvious when it comes to the unstable and tumultous state of Pakistan.

She may be ultra liberal for some, but the insights into Pakistan which she provides make a change from the usual puppets on a string show that many others put on in order to save face. Though she vehemently denies having any interest in going into politics, as her passion is for writing onlyand of being counted on her own merits only – this doesn’t deny her the opportunity to speak about Pakistani politics as a member born into the country’s most well known political dynasties – and it is her name which draws people to her first and perhaps her opinion on issues second.

Filled with much murky water and struggles within, one wonders whether the only thing the Bhutto families have in common is a shared surname and a sad and blood filled history.

Women Causing Earthquakes

Women behaving promiscuously are causing the earth to shake, according to cleric, as Ahmadinejad predicts Tehran quake

A senior Iranian cleric says women who wear revealing clothing and behave promiscuously are to blame for earthquakes.

Iran is one of the world’s most earthquake-prone countries, and the cleric’s unusual explanation for why the earth shakes follows a prediction by the president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, that a quake is certain to hit Tehran and that many of its 12 million inhabitants should relocate.

“Many women who do not dress modestly … lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which increases earthquakes,” Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi was quoted as saying by Iranian media. Women in the Islamic Republic are required by law to cover from head to toe, but many, especially the young, ignore some of the more strict codes and wear tight coats and scarves pulled back that show much of the hair. “What can we do to avoid being buried under the rubble?” Sedighi asked during a prayer sermon last week. “There is no other solution but to take refuge in religion and to adapt our lives to Islam’s moral codes.”

Seismologists have warned for at least two decades that it is likely the sprawling capital will be struck by a catastrophic quake in the near future. Some experts have even suggested Iran should move its capital to a less seismically active location. Tehran straddles scores of fault lines, including one more than 50 miles long, though it has not suffered a major quake since 1830. (Source)

“Rocking your world” just took on a whole new meaning!

Pakistan and Lost Opportunities

After visiting Morroco last week, I noted the many similarities between it and Pakistan. The bustling bazaars of Marrakech offered many of the same noises, smells and atmosphere as any Pakistani city. The small cobbled streets of the walled medina resembled markedly the streets in any inner Pakistani citiy with exception of the uncovered and open sewer system that runs parallel to the street in Pakistan. The 3 floored homes complete with roof terraces were not dissimilar either, kids playing in the streets, the dust and grime, and the modest grocery stores whereby the locals purchase items as and when needed. Colonial rulers – another similarity.

Despite the many similarities, there is a rampant tourist industry in Morocco, partly because of its reputation as a historic city. However there are many noted cultural and historical buildings in Pakistan too – such as the Shahi Qila (Fort) in Lahore, the ancient bhuddist monastries in Taxila, the ancient ruins of the Moehenjedaro civilsations to name but a few.

However what really is saddening is despite the many potentials in Pakistan to encourage tourism, there is little. The unstable nature of the country is admittedly off putting and that is a shame. During my stay in Marrakech, I lodged in a riad, and this particular riad was very similar to our own home in Pakistan, and that of my husbands family. The craftsmen selling their clay crockery, the food stalls on the street and the beautiful call to prayer echoing all across the city led us to dawn how Pakistan has failed to grasp and capitalise on the beautiful history and culture it shares with India, who is doing far better in the tourism stakes.

Pakistan is, as always, left behind, under appreciated and open to be pillaged from anyone willing to pay enough money for its takeover.