The Day I Became A Woman Analysis

This analysis will examine focal points in the movie, The Day I Became a Woman, written by Mohsen Makhmalbaf. The movie is three separate stories of females in separate stages of life. Part one is a young girl transitioning into womanhood. The second part is a married woman defying her husband’s wishes for happiness. The third and final story is of a rich old widow, celebrating the end of her life. The lives of these women do not appear to intertwine, but their fates are parallel as women in Iranian society.

The first story in the film is of Have, a little girl on the day of her ninth birthday. This age signifies her “coming of age”. In a recent article it states that, “…a member of the Iranian Parliament (Majiles) Mohammad Ali Isfenani, “we must regard 9 as being the appropriate age for a girl to have reached puberty and qualified to get married” (Weir, 2012). When obtaining this information there is a higher quality of understanding why this event is vital to the little girls future. The second part is of a woman named Ahoo. Ahoo is riding alongside other cyclists in a competition. During this part of the film Ahoo”s husband

commands her to get off the bike and return home. When she refuses the entire village of men chase her, which eventually leads to her brothers forcefully terminating the rest of her race.
The actions of the men in the second part of the film provide a small-scale example of the life of women in Iran.

According to laws in Saudi Arabia, it is illegal for women to ride bikes on public roads. “Saudi clerics considered bicycles the Horse of Satan back in the 1960’s” (Streeter, 2009). It is also illegal for a married woman to leave her house without her husband’s permission. Women are forbidden to divorce their husbands, but husbands can divorce their wives at any given cause. If a man divorces his wife, this action will create shame for the family. Most of the time the family will disown the woman. The final part of the movie is an older widow. She has inherited money, in which she uses to purchase items that she was unable to own before. This part of the film reminds me of the silent movies where dialogue is not

necessary.

It is notable that there is no real dialogue within the film. The women are displaying what is expected from them in this culture by being female. Although it is beautifully creative the film is tinged with sadness. These women have their voices taken away from them at an early age. The only woman that shows some sort of freedom of choice is the widow. And she even wears the respectable garments. One of the interesting parts is at the end when the widow is returning to the market the children help themselves to her belongings. It is also notable that most of these children are male. Also, another notable thing about the film is how the beginning looped to the ending. The lives of the women seemed to intertwine at the ending. I felt that although there was a happiness that the widow finally was able to purchase items that she wanted, there was also a sadness that it took her entire life to finally do this.