Wednesday 01 April 2015

Azadeh Namdari: The Image of Domestic Violence

Rooz Online

On a television network where saying “I love” is a taboo and the total number of times it has been said in the entire life of the Islamic republic amounts to a handful, sometime back on a live broadcast from network 3 television, a young couple spoke of love and the groom read out a love poem for his bride. The announcer of the program expressed his hope that the strength of all Iranian families would be as solid as that of the couple’s they were seeing so that the marriage of Farzad Hassani and Azadeh Namdari - themselves two popular TV producers - would resonate, be acceptable and start something new across Iran.

Such departure from normal dry television broadcasts was the result of Iranian state’s decision to widely encourage marriage as a way to hopefully speed up the falling – and what officials have announced alarming - birth rate in the country. None other than ayatollah Khamenei himself issued direct and express orders for the government to take measures to increase the nation’s falling birth rate. The goal is officially seen as a solution for all social ills rapidly growing in Iran.

But Farzad and Azadeh’s supposedly encouraging and “happy” union did not last long. On the first day of the new Iranian calendar year – March 21st – the image of Azadeh’s battered face once again became the talk of town and a reminder of the customary domestic violence in the country.

Azadeh posted an image of herself on Instagram photo exchange site showing her black and swollen eye and wrote that she had been beaten by her former husband Farzad. This scandal still continues to be discussed on social virtual networks in Iran. And while Azadeh ultimately removed her photograph and the caption under it from the site, her initial posting read, “I apologize for posting this personal photograph but it is time that the managers of our television network learn of my situation. Today, by the grace of their lies and a thousand other bitter issues, my documentary program was never broadcast but I am now alive, standing, well, and live my life. I teach, work and have started reliving. I feel sorry for the radio station that provides a live microphone to someone who had no merci for even the closest person to him. As confessed by his closest friends, marriage to me for him (Farzad) was merely a show and nothing else. But through my father’s grace, I had the right to divorce. Otherwise, I may have not been alive today. ”

What was of interest to social and women’s rights advocates was the perpetual acts of violence that Azadeh claimed Farzad had committed against her final escape from that situation because of the right of divorce that she had. They were ecstatic that a woman had shown courage to talk of the violence committed against her into the public realm and taken a step out of the bond. They did not want the issue to be forgotten, as the television network and other media outlets advocated and advanced.

During the Iranian new year holiday period starting with March 20th, Azadeh’s story dominated the news and by publicly exposing domestic violence in Iran against women has encouraged many to focus on the issue. Even state-run and direct media picked up the issue and covered it. And in the virtual social networks, the event provided the atmosphere for many women to share their similar stories. Experiences that seem to be widespread but still hurdles in being widely and deeply discussed in public.

There of course were those who disliked what Azadeh had done and argued that personal family matters should not have been taken to the public sphere. Others argued that the credibility of a popular TV producer – Farzad – should not be judged by a single assertion. Still others said feuds between a husband and wife were “normal” and so should not be exaggerated.

This incident has once again brought to the forefront a woman’s right to divorce and reminded them of the legal restrictions currently existing on this.




© copyright 2004 - 2024 IranPressNews.com All Rights Reserved