Why Was the Controversial Banner in Vali-e-Asr Square Taken Down?
The famous banner in Vali-e-Asr Square, which occasionally goes up for various reasons and themes, did not last more than a day this time. An image shared by a Twitter user late Thursday night shows the empty space where the banner once was.
Fatemeh Motamed-Arya, Jaleh Alavi, and Marzieh Boroumand protested against the use of their images on a banner titled ‘Women of My Land, Iran.’ Some of the figures, mostly deceased, could not voice their agreement or disagreement, but the weight and echo of the voices of those few were so significant that it was likely to trigger a domino effect, prompting other figures on the banner to speak out. Therefore, keeping it up there was more of a liability than a benefit.
Reza Dormishian, a film director, also wrote that the image used of Jaleh Alavi on the billboard in Vali-e-Asr Square is from a scene in the film ‘We Are Forced,’ photographed by Noushin Jafari, who is currently in Evin Prison. As the director, producer, and owner of ‘We Are Forced,’ I am not pleased with the misuse of my film’s image on the billboard installed in Vali-e-Asr Square.
Supporters of Unveiling on the Vali-e-Asr Banner
The peculiar aspect of this mismatched banner was the image of Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, a pioneering woman activist of the Constitutional Era. It was not just her unveiled image, which probably due to her old age was allowed to be on the banner, that was strange. More importantly, it seemed the creators of this banner had no familiarity or understanding of Bibi Khanum Astarabadi, her thoughts, ideas, and actions. She was the founder of the first girls’ school and a pioneer of unveiling in Iran.
Bibi Khanum Astarabadi’s significant work is a book titled ‘The Flaws of Men,’ written in response to ‘The Education of Women,’ criticizing the patriarchal views of the anonymous author of the latter. This book blends Islamic and Western views on women and, with a tone sometimes humorous and sometimes citing verses and hadiths, recorded one of the first feminist declarations in Iran. Parvin E’tesami, whose image was also on the banner, was a supporter of unveiling and even wrote poems about it, which were removed from her divan in post-revolution editions.
The Implicit Message of the Vali-e-Asr Square Banner
If at night the streets are sporadically and uncoordinatedly taken over by protesters, supporters of the current discourse or conservative principlists choose some days for organized and coordinated marches. If night protests lead to clashes, everything is safe and sound during the day.
If the walls of cities, especially Tehran, at night are places for writing slogans and stenciling images of those killed in protests with tools like stencils and spray paint, or a simple banner with a hand-written slogan is hung from a pedestrian bridge on Hemmat Highway at midnight, the huge banners and billboards are controlled by municipalities and other institutions where advertisements are installed during the day.
The Vali-e-Asr Square banner should be evaluated and analyzed in this context: that the walls do not truly belong to the people, and no one but us is allowed to install a banner of this scale in Tehran. That we still have the right to use women instrumentally; they are not autonomous subjects. Whenever we see fit, we can use them for promotional purposes in line with our interests or perspectives. In fact, the main idea and perspective of this discourse is that these women are our assets or belongings, so we use them as we see fit.
A type of claim to ownership over individuals who, from a certain point onward, do not want to think like the dominant discourse. This claim has been repeatedly raised by critics and protesters against celebrities or athletes, arguing that their current position is owed to the current structure. Regarding some TV celebrities, it has been claimed multiple times that they gained fame and wealth thanks to the state media, and now they are biting the hand that fed them.
Jafar Panahi once said about the film ‘Offside’ that in Iran, even the national team is considered the team of the Islamic Republic. Similar claims have been made about the wave of migration of elites and specialists, and sometimes the term ‘traitor’ has been used for them.
Why These Women?
When the banner went up, many questions were raised about it. Why were these women chosen among so many? What was the selection mechanism? What is Forough Farrokhzad, whose views are not only incompatible but also antagonistic to the ruling ideology, doing there?
For example, why is the image of a certain female athlete present but not Leila Esfandiari? Why is Maryam Mirzakhani included but not Anousheh Ansari? Or why is Giti Khamenei there but not Elaheh Rezai? And why is Iran Shaqool, the news anchor of the 1980s and 1990s, absent but Elmira Sharifi Moghadam present? More importantly and interestingly, the exclusion of politically active women, especially from the opposing current, was notable on this large banner.
Whether political women before or after the revolution, another point was that the images of Forough Farrokhzad and Maryam Mirzakhani were both published with headscarves. This means that even when we want to tell you that these are the women of our land, we must adapt them to our standards. The women of our land must be presented in a way that we like or accept.