Two Women

                  Two Women was an excellent film, and one of my favorite of the media that we have analyzed this semester.  Roya and Fereshtah were beautiful characters with whom I could easily sympathize.  The film also gave a peek into Iranian culture and the issues that have to be dealt with by women living there.

                  Fereshtah was a compelling character.  In the beginning of the film, she seemed almost too “perfect,” being beautiful, smart, and independent.  One could tell that although she studied diligently to get good grades, she also possessed an incredible intelligence.  Then, after being stalked by a male stranger, she was afraid to go to the police, because it would dishonor her family; and her life ended up being ruined.  Her father forbade her to go back to the university and pressured her to enter an arranged marriage.  Her being stalked caused terrible dishonor on her family, her father said; he blamed the actions of the stalker on Fereshtah, and even said at one time that he would kill her for the dishonor she had brought on him.  The man she married also deeply distrusted her, and practically kept her as a slave because of his jealousy for her and his fears that she would misuse her independence, though she never gave him any reason for him to distrust her.  She is only freed when both her husband and her stalker die.  Then she is free to live her own life and raise her two sons the way she feels is best.

                  I loved Roya’s character, though her story is not the main one.  Though she is much more timid in the beginning of the movie, and does not seem as intelligent as Fereshtah, she is the one who ends up with the “good” life.  She is free to finish her education, and she marries a more liberal-minded husband and becomes a career woman.  Her education and independence elevates her and gives her freedom.  But though she succeeds, she never forgets her beloved friend.