Date of Award

5-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Master of Arts (MA)

College/School

College of Humanities and Social Sciences

Department/Program

English

Thesis Sponsor/Dissertation Chair/Project Chair

Negin Nabavi

Committee Member

Laura Nicosia

Committee Member

Melinda Knight

Abstract

Using the concept of intersectionality, this thesis explores how women are marginalized in three post-revolutionary Iranian films (made after 1979), directed by Saeed Roustayi. In these three films, Life and a Day (2016), Just 6.5 (2019), and Leila’s Brothers (2022), the intersectional lens helps investigate how different types of oppression, such as gender and class, often come together to affect women’s lives. In the analysis, four main themes emerge, including emotional labor, symbolic erasure, limited visibility, and intersectional oppression. Roustayi’s films point out how systems like patriarchy, poverty, and tradition hold women back. The study also explains how multiple social forces combine to take away women’s ability to choose for themselves. One theme the thesis explores is how financial problems and traditional gender roles lead women to make forced choices. Another theme is on how women’s efforts to stand up for themselves are often ignored or pushed aside in families or cultures. A further theme examines the structural exclusion of women from public and institutional spaces, where male dominance renders female presence minimal or invisible. After putting Roustayi’s films in the context of postrevolutionary cinema, through a thematic analysis, I argue that Roustayi’s films can be seen as a critique of the patriarchal system in Iran and how it can trap and resign women into giving up their freedom. Ultimately, the study shows that oppression does not always stem from violence; rather, it often works in quiet ways, such as emotional demands, silence, or being left out.

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