UC Irvine

The curtailment of women's rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran has received a great deal of scholarly attention. Among the legal changes that have profoundly affected women's lives are divorce laws. If the legal arena has not given women much room for maneuver, the realm of cultural representation, particularly cinematic production by women, has provided a fertile ground for self-expression and resistance. Through an analysis of Ziba Mir-Hosseini and Kim Longinotto's ethnographic documentary,Divorce Iranian Style(1998), and two feature films,Blackboards(2000) by Samira Makhmalbaf andCeasefireby Tahmineh Milani (2006), this article explores representations of the ways in which women work within and against the grain of the dominant structures of power.