Female representation in Iranian cinema and Cafer Panahi cinema after the Iran Islamic Revolution

Cinema is generally defined as a tool that includes visual and auditory features. Cinema, which has a unique style of expression, has a unique language in connection with this. Cinema creates a new language by making use of all previous branches of art. Unlike known languages, this language is a visual language. Cinema tries to explain the phenomenon it wants to express with images, not words. Cinema, as in almost all branches of art, exists in the form of cultural works that are used to spread the ideas of different powers and ideologies to the public and to establish a kind of hegemony. Cinema, which has an important place in world history, especially in revolutionary political change processes, has been sharply affected by political processes in Iran since the date of entry into the country. The cinema, which was seen as a rich entertainment for the people in the palace for a long time during the Shah's period and could not go down to the public due to the pressure of the clergy, succeeds in establishing itself despite periodic political conflicts in later times. After the regime change, cinema, which was previously accepted as a ban, is used for the propaganda of the Islamic regime after this period. In this study, the existence of cinema in Iran, the transformation of cinema in the light of political processes, the representation of women in Iranian cinema and the films of the director Cafer Panahi will be discussed. The theoretical support of the study is taken from the representation theory. The representation of women in cinema, whether this representation is within the framework of stereotypes, supporting the dominant ideology, or coinciding with the effort to position women within the patriarchal system, has also been questioned in the sample analysis of this thesis. As a result of this study, the effects of political structuring on movies and the perception of women in society are associated with the representation of women in the director's films.