Iran has different expectations of gender roles than America does. In the memoir Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas the main character experiences the different women’s gender roles from where she was born, Iran, to America, where she grew up. She moved to America, the land of the free because her father got a job transfer to California. She had to learn the new American culture so she could fit in with the rest of the American kids at her new school. The expectations for Iranian women were that you get married and have kids at a young age, then spend the rest of your life cooking and supporting the family. For Firoozeh this was not her expectation due to the fact that she moved to America when she was only seven years old. Throughout the story Firoozeh …show more content…
In Iran, women are expected to get married and have children at a young age. This is so they can spend the rest of their life supporting their family. In the memoir, Firoozeh’s mother was pressured into getting married and having a child at age seventeen. Due to this she had to give up on her education to care and support her child like Iranian women were expected to do. Firoozeh was born in Iran, but she grew up in America so she did not have to obey these roles. Firoozeh explains, “The problem was that my mother, like most women of her generation, had been only briefly educated. In her era, a girl's sole purpose in life was to find a husband. Having an education ranked far below more desirable attributes such as the ability to serve tea or prepare baklava”(Dumas 5). Firoozeh’s mother abandons her dreams of having a professional career and education to create a family like Iranian women are expected to do. In America women can start a family and continue their education and get a job of their choice if wanted. Typically no matter if male or female, you have some kind of education and the choice to go as far as they want. Firoozeh’s mother
In today’s contemporary American culture, gender roles are despised by the younger generation because of the distinctions placed on them. This is the era of open-mindedness and self-expression and because of this individuals feel they should not be told what they can and cannot do based on their sex. There are now material things such as, clothes, shoes and perfumes that are considered unisex, males and females can now fight in wars and men are no longer fully needed to be the providers of their families. Though the American culture has attempted to make a leap forward when it comes to breaking down the barriers of gender roles, it is still being held back. Being a culture that was first influenced by the Christian religion, there are still traces of these gender roles present. From areas of
In the article titled “Pashtana’s Lesson” by Beth Murphy, she records the story of a 15 year-old Afghani girl who has a fiery passion for acquiring knowledge and pursuing education, but old traditions oppress her devotion to study. Pashtana is in the 7th grade at an all girls school which has been rejected by the elders in their community, asked to be torn down, or turned into an all boys school. Her mother strongly enforces studies on her children because she never went to school herself and she doesn’t want her children to end up blind to things in the world like her. In order to support her mother and three younger siblings financially, Pashtana is being forced by her uncle and father to marry her first cousin which is not uncommon, the
Characters Dealing with Otherness in “Funny in Farsi” and “The House On Mango Street” Funny in Farsi by Firoozeh Dumas and The House on Mango Street by Sandra Cisneros are two books that have many similarities, yet are vastly different. Both stories detail the life of a young girl as they grow up in a culture different from their parents’. Esperanza Cordero is the fiction protagonist in The House On Mango Street; throughout the story we learn about her life as she struggles with her desire to be seen as more than just a poor Mexican-American. Funny and Farsi is a memoir that recounts Dumas’ life as an Iranian American. Cordero is the daughter of immigrants, while Dumas is an immigrant herself; because of this, they both must deal with many
Throughout history women were taught that they needed to learn how to sing, play a piano, keep up with the latest current events, socialize, etc. in order to maintain their status as a woman. However, they were only taught to learn these various things on a minimal level in order to entertain a crowd, make simple conversation, and appear wealthy and educated. This was especially this case in Iran in the 1930’s. Women were/still are pressured to embody a modest personality and style. Women were especially not expected to be poets and/or film directors. Regardless of the societal standards Forugh Farrokhzad was held to, she had an influential career as a poet thus becoming a bold female voice that was able to express what it meant to be a feminist
A woman’s place is in the home. She should have babies and raise them well. Her job is to keep the house clean and to take care of her husband. Although in today’s society this is no longer an acceptable classification, parts of it still exist within the minds of many. For example, the majority of men and women in the United States would say that they are against inequality between men and women; yet, the majority of women in America are living with their husband’s last name. This practice literally used to symbolize the ownership of the woman by the man, but people today fail to see the connection between this tradition and the past. This inability to see the connection creates a contradiction. It would seem logical that if America wants to affirm the value and equality of women, it would reject practices that keep an oppressive past alive in the present.
Funny In Farsi: written by Firoozeh Dumas is a memoir about an Iranian girl that came to America with her family, where they settled in Southern California. Throughout the story, the author shares stories about herself and what it was like to grow up in the United States. Out of many books, this one explains what it means to be an American from the author's perspective using her own experiences and comparisons. Her father Kazem is a very optimistic, encouraging, and clever man that raised his children to be kind-hearted and goal oriented; especially his daughter, Firoozeh.
One primary reason why Middle Eastern men oppress women is their deeply rooted belief system as well as their needs. For example, their belief that the Middle Eastern woman’s duty is being a dedicated homemaker encourages them to disallow her from seeking an education. Ramsay M. Harik and Elsa Martson, revisit this concept in their book, Woman in the Middle East, as they state that many males convince their women that education is unnecessary nor relevant to their household responsibilities. "The girl will spend her life cooking and having babies, why does she need to read or write? This was a common attitude in much of the Middle East until the last fifty years or so" (24). The common consensus was that once educated, these women would question many of the injustices suffered, would demand better treatment...
The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 created a lasting affect on the societal role of women through modern day Iran. Women in Iran before the revolution were not entirely treated equal to men, but despite some cultural perceptions of women being inferior to men, they had made progress to become socially equal under the Shah. Several misconceptions and theories have been published and studied to show the inequality of women versus men because of Islam. However, contrasting theories have also been made to show that inequality has little to do with the religion, but instead with the forceful nature upon which it was implemented in the revolution. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the Islamic and political history of Iran and its social implications over Iranian women.
Gender roles are based on the norms and standards in different societies (Flores 2012). Each societies has their own set of social norms, and the identities that fit those norms. In the United States masculine roles are associated with strength, dominance, and aggression. Women in the US are expected to be more passive, nurturing and subordinate (Flores 2012).
Before the 1890s, females had no other options but to live with their parents before marriage and with their husband after marriage. They couldn’t work and if they did their wage was way lower than men. Today many women chose their own lifestyle and have more freedom. They can chose if they want to get married and have kids or not. Coontz said “what 's new is not that women make half their families living but that for the first time they have substantial control over their own income, along with the social freedom to remain single or to leave an unsatisfactory marriage” (98). When women couldn’t work, they had no options but to stay with their husband for financial support. Working is a new way of freedom because they can choose to stay or leave their husband and make their own decisions. It’s not like women couldn’t work before, they could but they didn’t have too much social freedom like to get divorce or not have children. Their voice wasn’t as important as men. Most of the time men had to decide everything in the family and had control over the family. Coontz believe that today women have more control over their own life and they can choose however they want to live their life. Kuttner also agree that “most Americans, after all, believe women should not be consigned to the nursery and the kitchen” (122). Women used to be the mother who
Marjane’s family’s maid could not marry a higher class boy “...because in this country you must stay within your own social class”(Satrapi 37). Marjane did not want to accept this inequality, and it made her realize that Iran was more narrow-minded than she had thought. She argued with her father about this issue because she could not see if he was for or against social classes. There were slight generational conflicts throughout the duration of the novel. Marji’s parents were rather respectful of her, but they had arguments about certain matters. Marjane did not always respect her parents.
The everyday role of women in many countries is quite different from that defined in
In the short story “Girl” by Jamaica Kincaid is a story that everyone can related to. The story is about a mother telling her daughter what to do, what not to do and how to do things. Kind of like society or parents or a friends of what to do. There has also been always been expectations of what to do and how to do things in life regards of gender, nationality or religion. The male has he’s duties and the female has different duties. However, in the typical society today, a person is supposed to graduate from high school and go straight in to an Ivy League university, to get a degree in a field of study that makes lot of money. While working a person must save money for that dream big house with the white picket fence. At the same time, you have to look for that perfect spouse so you can have the big beautiful dream wedding. After the wedding it’s the romantic honeymoon to Bora Bora. After a couple years the baby comes, and you are a happy family. Typically, that is what parents teach their children of what is what is expected of them.
Women and men are nestled into predetermined cultural molds when it comes to gender in American society. Women play the roles of mothers, housekeepers, and servants to their husbands and children, and men act as providers, protectors, and heads of the household. These gender roles stem from the many culture myths that exist pertaining to America, including those of the model family, education, liberty, and of gender. The majority of these myths are misconceptions, but linger because we, as Americans, do not analyze or question them. The misconception of gender suggests that biological truths no longer dictate our gender roles as men and women; they derive from cultural myths. We, as a nation, need to do severe critical thinking about this delusion of gender, how has limited us in the home, media, and education, how it currently limits us, and what the results of the current and future changes in gender roles will be.
All men expect to marry a girl in order to continue the family lineage, and children are considered a blessing, male are considered more valuable, because at a young age they are taught to respect their elders and to help their father to work and have responsibilities, while girls usually help their mother in the house’s tasks. Children of wealthy families have the luxury of focusing primarily on their education and they live with their parents until they get married. (Arab Academy, 2013)