Local art and local people's hospitality

Two phenomena of “rural people’s hospitality” and “local art” are observable in local areas of Iran while an NGO is working as facilitators, mentors, consultants or implementers of community based projects with local people. When community members recognize you as a person/team who supposed to help them to be more empowered in community development process, they feed you with their local food. It doesn’t matter what they have at home, they try to do their best for their guests.

The other phenomenon which is very observable in local market is traditional art. You can see it everywhere. If you travel from the north to the south or from the west to the east, there are many small shops selling art products beside the roads. Although Iran’s market is full of Chinese products, especially during the last five years, Iranian handicrafts are still luxury products which are being offered by sellers.

Zahedan: Mirror made by local women

Qeshmi women embroidery

Small Cushion: Touran National Park

Decorative curtain made of "Peganum.hermla" seed (Espand)

Hand made blouse by a local women in a village around Touran Nation Park

Handicrafts made by local women, Touran National Park

Handicrafts made by local women, Touran National Park

Kilim, made by local women in a village named Zaman Abad, Touran National Park

Embroidery, made by local women in a village named Ahmad Abad, Touran National Park

Small kilim, made by local women in a village named Khankhodi, Touran National Park

Small kilim, made by local women in a village named Khankhodi, Touran National Park

Wall carpet, woven by local women in a village named Sarab Karian, Kermanshah (North west of Iran)

Ceramic bowl and plate, Yazd

Wall carpet woven by local women's group in a village named Ahmad Abad during a project for conservation of Asiatic Cheetah, Touran National Park

Local industry of copper, Tafresh (my home town)

Weaving Giveh, a traditional shoe, Kurdistan

Baskets woven by local women, villages in Boushehr (South of Iran, near Persian Gulf)

Ceramic shop, Lalejin, Hamedan

Wall carpet, woven  by local women in a village named Khankhodi, Touran National Park

Decorative curtain, Shiraz traditional Bazaar

Ahmad Abad village, the facilitator with local governor and local people, conservation of Asiatic Cheetah project, Touran National Park

Lunch with members of an NGO, Hamedan (North west of Iran)

Lunch with members of a local women's group, conservation of Asiatic Cheetah project, Touran National Park

Dinner with a game guard in Bojnourd, Salouk protected area (North east of Iran)

Dinner with a game guard in Bojnourd, Salouk protected area (North east of Iran)

Tea in a villager's home, project of awareness raising on Asiatic Leopard, a village in Boushehr (South of Iran, near Persian Gulf)

Dinner with a villager, project of awareness raising on Asiatic Leopard, a village in Boushehr (South of Iran, near Persian Gulf)

Breakfast with a member of local group in a village named Ziarat, Golestan National Park (North of Iran)

Breakfast with a member of local group in a village named Ziarat, Golestan National Park (North of Iran)

Dinner in Kermanshah, with a member of an NGO in his auntie's home (North west of Iran)

Breakfast in Kermanshah, with a member of an NGO in his auntie's home (North west of Iran)

The role of Media on aggression against women

Some scholars believe that aggression against women is related to media sexual violence. Media affects either directly or indirectly on sexual behavior of men. TV shows influence on people’s thought patterns in their sexual activities. For example   “a civil suit brought against NBC television alleged that the portrayal of rape in a television movie, Born Innocent, directly resulted in an imitation rape by several juvenile viewers”. Although, thought patterns of sexual motivation is not only shaped by media exposure, magazines and TV shows such as movies, advertisements and etc, have a main role, but not linear, in the way that some viewers act in their sexual life.

In an academic study, Malamuth and Check found that “college men’s frequency of reading explicit magazines correlated positively with their beliefs that women enjoy forced sex”.

Some studies indicate that men’s aggression against women is not directly related to what they watch on media and there are certain naturalistic variable in their individual life which learnt by them during their life span. But the thing is that according to observational learning theory, people learn everything through observing in their life span especially in their childhood that television has an important part in children’s daily life.

Roots of discrimination against women in media

Women often have been portrayed in media as “a considerate wife and a devoted mother”. It means that only reproductive role of women in the life is emphasized on media and their productive roles in the socio-economic, cultural and political parts are being neglected. “Women have been viewed as the weak whose voice and discourse power has been neglected in all the fields of mass media”.

 This discriminative image of women in media is rooted in the real life that women encounter to inequality in many aspects of life. In politics, they have little access to political positions in parliaments and they are not given permission to be involved in decision making process within the families and communities. In economics, not all women have ownership rights and their access to resources is narrowed by patriarchal structures in communities. On the other hand, they do not have appropriate circumstances in workplaces and have many challenges with their employers. In social life, women are not able to confront with male dominant customs and traditions. They have to obey their fathers and brothers before marriage and their husbands after marriage. In many countries man is bread winner and superior to woman even though women play a main role in family economics. Unfortunately, a large number of women in the world are suffering from various types of discrimination and mass media not only are neglecting women productive roles but also enforce male dominant structures.

Women and media

When I searched the exact meaning of the word “media”, I found that it is a means to send messages to people with an aim of increasing information or as a way of communication. Then many questions came to my mind. Message of what? Message of who? To whom? What kind of a message? Where are the messages? Who should send messages and how? Then after a while I came back to the reality and looked at the impact of media on the society and again asked myself if it is really an instrument that everybody has an access to it to send her message? A laud voice answered me from my inside: “Of course NOT”! Do you think media have helped women to send their messages to the society? Media have always been destroying women’s image about their body; it reduced their role on the life only as good cookers, the best care-givers to children and the elderly, persons that only think about polishing of their nails and their make-up…! As Xiao-hui and Min (2010) say in their article about media and women: “In the contemporary information-globalized society, with the explosion of the mass media, the status of women as the subjects in mass media, has been improving increasingly. Under the surface of the more discourse power women have got during transmission, conceal the weakness and marginalization of discourse power for women, the media subjects, especially in decision-making or hard news. Actually, the truth of gender inequality has been hidden under the apparent prosperity”.

I am going to focus on media and women.