¹ With the Presidency of Mr. Mohammad Khatami (1997–2005), the agents of censorship loosened their restrictions, allowing other adult issues to take center stage, which ironically, seems to have moved Iranian cinema to the periphery of international film festivals.

² Commenting on an earlier draft of this paper, Farzin Vahdat wrote to me, “In reality the Iranian directors do a lot of work to elicit acting from these non-professional actors. Historically, because the contemporary filmmakers in Iran of the 1970s had very little resources at their disposal, including funds, they couldn't hire professional actors, and hence they worked with non-professionals. They did a lot of coaching to get acting out of them.”

³ See fn. 30, Amiri, Maryam and Oveisi, Shirin. “Where is the Ideal Islamic/Iranian Woman?” (Report of the First Gathering of Women and Cinema), Zanan, no. 60 (2000): 28–29Google Scholar.

⁴ But then, the young people of both sexes have consistently found ways to thwart such puritanical restrictions.

⁵ Rose Issa reports that in summer of 1996 the Ministry of Culture published a booklet in which it laid out the “Rules for Iranian Cinema.” The list prohibits, among other things, showing tight feminine cloths; any part of women's body except the face and hands; physical contact, tender words or jokes between men and women; jokes either on the army, police or family; portraying negative characters with a beard; foreign or coarse words; foreign music, or any type of music which brings joy; showing favorably a character who prefers solitude to collective life; policemen and soldiers badly dressed or having an argument. On the other hand, films should always include a prayer scene; exalt religion, heroism during war [between Iran and Iraq, 1980–88] and denounce Western cultural invasion. “This can only add to our admiration,” concludes, Issa, “for the poetic and imaginative films that some filmmakers in Iran are producing today” (1997, http://www.nima3.com/IranMedia2/women.html)Google Scholar.

⁶ For discussions on Iranian Cinema, modernity and subjectivity, see Taper, Richard ed., The New Iranian Cinema: Politics, Representation and Identity (London, 2002)Google Scholar; Dabashi, Hamid, Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present and Future (London, 2001), 12–32Google Scholar; Naficy, Hamid, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences: Women in Postrevolutionary Iranian Cinema,” in In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Postrevolutionary Iran, ed. by Afkhami, Mahnaz and Friedl, Erika (London, 1994)Google Scholar; and Naficy, Hamid, “Tanish-hay-i farhang-i sinamaie dar jumhuri-i islami” (Cultural Tensions in Iranian Film of the Islamic Republic), Iran Nameh, XIV, no. 3 (Summer 1996)Google Scholar.

⁷ A good example is Nusrat Karimi's Muhallel, which was made in the early 1970s. Legally and religiously, muhallel is a middle man hired by a husband who has triple-divorced his wife! Only after the muhallel has married, consummated the marriage, and divorced the wife can the first husband legally re-marry her. The intention is of course to prevent men from hastily using their unilateral right to divorce their wives. It apparently did not matter to the director of Muhallel that Shi'i law prohibits the simultaneous triple divorce.

⁸ For discussion of these issues see, Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences,” 14; Naficy, “Tanish-hay-i farhang-i sinamaie dar jumhuri-i islami”; Dabashi, Close Up. Also see the series of articles in Zan va Sinema (Women and Cinema), ed. by Araqi, M. Najm, Pour, M. Salih, Mousavi, N. and Samimi, M. (Tehran, 1997).Google Scholar

⁹ While conducting my research on temporary marriage in Qom (summer 1978, and 1980–81), the clergy and the laymen alike reminded me, almost without exception, that Islam was a pragmatic and easy, shal, religion, and that is why, for example, priesthood and celibacy are forbidden in Islam, or that temporary marriage is permitted.

¹⁰ For an ethnography of the institution of temporary marriage, or sigheh, as it is popularly known in Iran, see Haeri, Shahla, Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran (Syracuse NY, 1989)Google Scholar.

¹¹ I do not know whether many or any actors actually cared to follow Mr. Yaftabadi's instructions. Nor am I aware of the existence of public debates and discussions among the ulama and Mr. Yaftabadi regarding the appropriateness of using temporary marriage as a ploy to allow movie actors a degree of intimacy. Such conversations and discussions may or may have taken place. My point is that Mr. Yaftabadi's proposal was not publicly approved of despite the fact that temporary marriage was publicly endorsed and actively encouraged by the religious state. See Yaftabadi, Yahya, Barghaei az zaman (Leaves from History) (Tehran, 1353/1974)Google Scholar.

¹² Dabashi, Close Up, 15–16.

¹³ Bouhdiba, Abdelwahab, Sexuality in Islam, trans. from French by Sheridan, Alan (London, 1985)Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Every high-ranking ayatollah has a “Resaleh-e Tuzih al-Masa'il” (Book of Exegesis). The book is divided into chapters and each chapter consists of a series of numbered “problems” and the correct way of approaching them. The chapter on the regulations of the gaze, “ahkam-e negah kardan,” includes problem numbers 2442–2451 (or 2440–2449) in all of the following Tuzih al-Masa'ils: Ayatollah Hussein Tabatabai Brujerdi (Tehran, 1961); Ayatollah Shahabuddin Marashi Najai (Tehran, n.d.); Ayatollah Abulghasem Khoe'i (Tehran, 1997); Ayatollah Ruhalla Khomeini (Tehran, 1983). The text remains virtually unchanged in all of these guide books. Ayatollah Ali Moravveji in his book, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh (Cinema in the Mirror of Jurisprudence), ed. by Mohammad Reza Jabbaran (Tehran, 1999), has systematically documented Shi'i religious scholars' disputes and discussions regarding the regulation of the gaze; See also Dabashi, Close Up; Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences”; Soltani, Parvaneh. “The True Face of Women: A Missing Link in Iranian Cinema,” (1998), http://www.iranbulletin.org/Women_in_cinema.htmGoogle Scholar.

¹⁵ Moravveji follows a trail of ahadith (sing. hadith) to qualify the authenticity of this saying, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 56, and 50, 74; and see Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 38.

¹⁶ Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 37. See also Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences”; Haeri, Law of Desire.

¹⁷ Barlas, Asma, Believing Women in Islam: Unreading Patriarchal Interpretations of the Qur'an (Austin, TX, 2002), 55Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Chow, Ray, Writing Diaspora: Tactics of Intervention in Contemporary Cultural Studies (Bloomington and Indianapolis, IN, 1993), 29 (emphasis original)Google Scholar.

¹⁹ Asma Barlas, however, takes issue with such interpretations, and in her impressive book, Believing Women in Islam (54), she offers an enlightened reading of the verses in the Quran that deals with women and veiling.

²⁰ In Persian, the term ‘aurat is usually understood as “genitalia” for both sexes, and seldom, if ever, is popularly associated with woman. On the contrary, ‘aurat in Urdu means woman. In fact, one of the most reputable and well established women's organizations in Pakistan is called the “‘Aurat Foundation”, a jarring association to Persian speakers.

²¹ Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 38. Ayatollah Moravveji (Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 57), however, questions the authenticity of this hadith but cites several Shi'i sources for variations on the theme.

²² Khomeini, 2445; Khoe'i, 2445; Moravveji, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 57. For a review of such discussions, see Moravveji, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 55–61.

²³ Namahram may be roughly translated as “forbidden,” as in the prohibition of association between adult women and men who are not related to each other within a certain degree of consanguinity or affinity, e.g. cousins, or strangers. Here, women must religiously observe veiling. Mahram, also roughly translated as “permitted,” is the opposite of namahram, meaning that in relationships created as results of consanguinity and affinity, e.g. nieces and paternal and maternal uncles, or father-in-law, women need not maintain veiling: in these categories men and women are considered mahram to each other.

²⁴ Khoe'i 2440; Khomeini 2440, and other Ayatollahs mentioned in note 14; cf. Moravveji, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 53.

²⁵ Cited in Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences”, 132.

²⁶ Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 36.

²⁷ Milani, Farzaneh, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (Syracuse, 1992), 202Google Scholar.

²⁸ Mulvey, Laura, “Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema,” in Feminisms: An Anthology of Literary Theory and Criticism, ed. by Warhol, Robyn R. and Herndle, Diane Price (New Brunswick, NJ, 1993), 432–442Google Scholar.

²⁹ Amiri and Oveisi, “Where is the Ideal Islamic/Iranian Woman?,” 29.

³⁰ While any depiction of touch and physicality between adult male and female is essentially forbidden in Iranian cinema, representation of violence is more readily tolerated by the guardians of censorship. In Dariush Mehrjui's Hamoon (1990), a man whose wife has decided to leave him beats her with impunity. Similarly, in Bani Etemad's Blue Scarf (1994), as described by Hamid Naficy the main character harshly beats up her younger brother (Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences,” 133). On the other hand, in May Lady (1997) any expression of love and tenderness between the young divorced mother and her teenaged son has to be mediated through various objects so that they not touch each other directly, http://www.iranchamber.com/cinema/articles/veiled_voice_vision_iranian_cinema2.php. See also Issa (1997), http://www.nima3.com/IranMedia2/women.html.

³¹ Amiri and Oveisi, “Where is the Ideal Islamic/Iranian Woman?,” 28–29.

³² Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 39.

³³ I am not certain if this poem is by Hafez, though it is popularly attributed to him.

³⁴ See Musallam's, Basim F., Sex and Society in Islam: Birth Control Before the Nineteenth Century for biographical information on Ibn-i Hazm, whom he places in the short-lived Zahiri school of law (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press 1983, 18-19)Google Scholar. “Ibn Hazm's opinion is an important exception,” says Musallam, “that proves the rule” (18).

³⁵ Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 37.

³⁶ Cited by Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam. Also Issa (1997), http://www.nima3.com/IranMedia2/women.html. Hadiths (or ahadith) are the sayings and deeds of Prophet Muhammad. Muslims believe that hadiths provide a divinely inspired source of law, second only to the Quran. Both Sunnis and Shi'is have their own corpus of “authentic” hadith, some of which are diametrically opposed to one another. For that matter, Shi'is and Sunnis have historically contested the accuracy and authenticity of many hadiths attributed to Prophet Muhammad. Nonetheless, an overabundances of questionable hadiths are still in circulation and are employed to claim legitimacy—or prohibition—of one act or another. Although some of the hadiths used in this article may fall in the questionable category, because of their popularity I have used them in order to frame the discussions that follow.

³⁷ Makhmalbaf claimed international fame with his beautifully directed film Gabbeh. Much is written about him, his films and his equally talented wife and daughters. For a candid and at times moving interview with Makhmalbaf regarding his life, his changing religious views, and his critique of the present day ideologically charged Iranian society and state, see Dabashi, Close Up, 156–212.

³⁸ For an interesting take on the role of intermediaries in Persian poetry who cunningly subvert cultural propriety and facilitate meetings of the lovers, see Milani, Farzaneh, “The Mediatory Guile of the Nanny in Persian Romance,” Iranian Studies, 32, no. 2 (Spring 1999): 187–188Google Scholar.

³⁹ Bouhdiba, Sexuality in Islam, 37; See also Khomeini, Khoe'i, Brujerdi, Najafi Marashi, note 14.

⁴⁰ Moravveji, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 75.

⁴¹ Currently, Rakhshan Bani Etemad is one of the most famous and productive women directors in Iran. For biographical information see Dabashi, Close Up, 213–243; Naficy, “Veiled Visions/Powerful Presences,” 132–135.

⁴² “A Conversation with Rakhshan Bani-Etemad,” Zanan, no. 25 (1995), 44–50.Google Scholar

⁴³ See Moravveji, Cinema dar aieneh fiqh, 36–47, for discussion and critique on whether women's voices is ‘aura.

⁴⁴ A few years before making the May Lady in an interview with Zanan magazine, Bani-Etemad articulated the cultural expectations of divorced or widowed women, “The general atmosphere [in Iran] does not allow her to think and say that ‘I too am a human being and can supervise/provide for my children while beginning a new life for myself.’ Culturally, the myth of motherhood has come to mean remaining unmarried and sacrificing one's own life” (“A Conversation with Rakhshan Bani-Etemad,” Zanan, ibid).

⁴⁵ See also Hamid Nafici for this and other transgressive themes in this film: http://www.iranchamber.com/cinema/articles/veiled_voice_vision_iranian_cinema2.php

⁴⁶ For biographical information see “Interview with Film Director Darvish,” Bahar Newspaper, 1, no. 8, 16 May 2000, http://www.netiran.com/Htdocs/Clippings/Art/200516XXAR02.html.

⁴⁷ It is interesting to note here that in the Iranian mystical tradition, unlike that of the South Asian, seekers are usually men who abandon their wives and children to embark on a quest in search of union with the “beloved.” But in this story, similar to the South Asian cases, it is the woman who has set out to find her beloved. For the South Asian examples, see Schimmel, Annemarie, My Soul is a Woman: The Feminine in Islam (New York, 2003)Google Scholar.

⁴⁸ An Iranian female actor told me that certain items, such as apples—particularly red ones—cannot be shown on Iranian television, though they may be displayed discretely in movies.