Divorce Iranian Style Analysis

Divorce Iranian Style is a verite-style documentary shot almost entirely in a small family law court in Tehran centered around four women and their resourcefulness and guile when dealing with conservative Islamic law in order to secure their divorce, a right given freely to men but available to women only through the court system. The film follows Massy, who wants to divorce her inadequate husband; Ziba, an outspoken 16-year old who proudly stands up to her 38-year-old husband and his family; Jamileh, who brings her husband to court to teach him a lesson; and Maryam, remarried and desperate to regain custody of her two daughters (Mir-Hosseini, “Negotiating the Politics”:1).

Although the film’s subject matter is complex, the stories are depicted with compassion and humor and at the same time challenges common stereotypes of Muslim women as passive victims. This sophisticated balanced is largely due to Longinotto’s raw method of filming which seems to be imply pressing “Record” and letting the court tell its own story. As an observational filmmaker, Longinotto’s style

The text is divided into three parts; the record of the twenty months of negotiations before filming, a detailed description of the one month film shoot including the final editing process, and lastly is a summary of reactions to the film from various audiences (Mir-Hosseini, “Negotiating the Politics:2). This model of analysis is consistent with Ruby’s interpretation of what an anthropologist must do to be truly reflexive: “systematically and rigorously reveal their methods and themselves as the instrument of data generation and reflect upon how the medium through which they transmit their work predisposes readers/viewers to construct the work in certain ways (p