Investigating the representation of Iranian women in Iranian cinema; post Iranian Revolution

Today, cinema is one of the most important cultural tools that succeed in attracting the audience, especially the general public, by creating visual attractions. By representing the normative patterns governing social life demonstrative form, the mass media practically plays the role of constructing and reproducing these norms in today's social life. By presenting a specific image of the women, they can play an essential role in institutionalising the conceptual framework of that particular image. Among the well-known mass media, cinema as a superior art over other arts, as well as its special possibilities for showing gender relations, identified itself as an ideal example for us to research the inequalities and gender differences in society. The present study aims to highlight how the social role of women is represented in Iranian cinema and to identify the hidden ideologies behind these representations. In this regard, relying on content analysis techniques based on semiotic theory analyses, the targeted movies such as Two Women, Paternal house, Salesman are selected using as a case study of this research. Accordingly, in this study, by examining the films in question, it has been concluded that cinema is a social art influenced by society and representing the issues inside it, including women; besides, it intends to promote and influence society by inducing and creating an ideal form.