Mahnaz afzali biography for kids

A Ladies room in the center of Tehran seems to be a good meeting point with an often therapeutic role. Directed by the acclaimed Iranian actress Mahnaz Afzali and filmed entirely inside a ladies washroom in a public park in Tehran, The Ladies shatters western preconceptions of Iranian women. Populated by addicts, prostitutes, runaway girls and others who simply enjoy the camaraderie and atmosphere, The Ladies becomes one of the few places where women feel comfortable enough to smoke cigarettes, discuss taboo subjects and remove their veils. Maryam is an epileptic who reveals the brutal circumstances that drove her to heroin addiction and self-mutilation; Sepideh describes her fraught relationship with her mother and her struggle to get back on her feet; and the old woman who runs the bathroom alternately offers tough love and a shoulder to cry on. The rest room becomes a shelter where the women can be safely unveiled, both physically and mentally. The Ladies is raw and provocative, a remarkable verité look at the hidden lives of Iranian women. Mahnaz Afzali interviews the women in a very spontaneous manner. We experience the whole film as a friendly chat visualized by an invisible camera.

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Have you seen Jafar Panahi’s The Circle, Abbas Kiarostami’s Ten and Marzieh Meshkini’s The Day I Became a Woman? Let me suggest that the “episodic” and the “wheel” are turning into formal elements of a post-paedocentric cinema in Iran (landmarked by films like Panahi’s White Balloon and Kiarostami’s Where is the Friend’s House) which is boldly engaging women to the extent of feminism. The Iranian Journey (Maysoon Panachi, 2003) is a documentary about a female long-distance bus driver—thus the wheels. The Ladies Room (Zananeh, dir. Mahnaz Afzali, 1999) fragments the daily conversations between women in a public lavatory—thus the episodic. And, they are both made by women and distributed by the Women Make Movies organization—thus the feminist!

The Iranian Journey is a documentary from a fairly objective point of view. It is the story of Ma’soomeh, the first and only long-distance female bus driver of the Middle East in the year 1999. Whether Ma’soomeh is the first female driver of the Muslim world is far less important than the fact that she is a bus driver in a presumably patriarchic society. By showcasing the strength of character and the will of a female individual, the Iranian Journey succeeds to debunk many a stereotypical notion of Iranian (or Muslim) patriarchy in the rest of the world. In addition, it glimpses into the cultural specificity of feminism, Iranian style!

The Iranian Journey begins in the living room of the Mo’ammar family. We learn that having to become a bus driver was not Ma’soomeh’s choice, but a matter of survival. We then follow her through on one of her weekly cross-country trips from North to South of Iran. We also learn that her endeavors are not intended to prove a point about her ability and capability as a woman. She simply has to provide for her family. Her implicit desire to be accompanied b