Amin maintains a consistently insolent attitude towards his mother throughout all chapters in which he is present. He is at the age at which he may steadily begin to grasp the power an Iranian man has over an Iranian woman. The emergence of these abusive patterns a male directs at a female works so well when explored through Amin’s character not only because it is a clever way around the Iranian law, but because it is all the more poignant since it shows, inherently, a child, born innocent and unknowing, who becomes entirely exposed to and reliant upon whatever society and environment he falls into.
In chapter seven, the setting changes as night is instilled and we learn that Akbira’s passenger is a drunken prostitute. Akbira shows curiosity at the life the prostitute leads, and a reason for that is that she appears to be proud of her profession and devoid of any desire for marriage or a family. More so, she considers herself to be in an advantageous position to the ordinary woman: she is a “retailer” while they are “wholesalers”, in other words, they give everything to their husbands, but she gives men solely what she chooses to, as in a trade, while choosing to keep her autonomy and her individual personality. Their conversation also touches on the subject of infidelity: the prostitute tells Akbira of her experiences with married men, whom she hears lying to their wives over the phone about their whereabouts and who easily feign feelings of love. She compares Akbira to many of her clients’ wives, all poor creatures at the mercy of their men. This is a woman whose choice to prostitute may base on her unwillingness to conform to the expected Iranian norm of being under the confined, absolute possession of a man. She identifies the problem women have of “clinging” to their men and wishes to protect herself from falling into the same trap.
Chapters six and two feature a young woman whose name is not revealed, and who discusses with Akbira religion, prayer and marriage. In chapter six she tells Akbira of her boyfriend’s contradictory desires of marrying, and in chapter nine we learn that he has eventually denied wanting to marry her and expressed an interest in a different woman. She had been desperately, and with no success, been seeking a life partner, and in her grief or possibly out of a longing for individuality and independence from men (similar to the prostitute’s cry for freedom), she has cut all her hair.
The passenger in chapter three is yet another unnamed character, a heartbroken woman who was cheated on by her husband. This draws similarities to Akbira’s sister’s situation two chapters earlier, thus establishing a pattern of infidelity and general selfishness and injustice directed towards women. This is a key scene into revealing the nature of Iranian men-women relationships, as it essentially shows how women appreciate their value in a relationship. The two characters of Akbira and her passenger contrast in their expectations from themselves and from a man. Akbira, in a feminist surge to console the other woman, emphasizes the importance of things like self-respect, experience and pleasure in a woman’s life. She states: “We women are unhappy, we don’t know how to life for ourselves”. She calls her sadness over losing her partner a “weakness” because it essentially means she is clinging to him. It is interesting to note that she used the same word the prostitute used in chapter eight, thus suggesting that she may have not only understood the prostitute’s motives and views but also considered them rightful.
Therefore, despite the absence of male characters in the film 10, Kiarostami is still able to imply different types of relationships, purely by observing the interactions Akbira has with her various passengers. The general sense one gets from watching this film is of a cruel inconsideration on men’s part in the Iranian society. Women are portrayed as being at loss to men, a situation dictated both by law and by society’s moral codes.
by
rwandavoight (student)
