NOTE: This
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Another look at Iraj Mirza's famous poem on the
chador [Full
text]
September 4, 1998
The Iranian
When I bought "The
Complete Poems of Iraj Mirza" from Iranbooks in Bethesda,
just outside Washington DC, I went straight to the poem I had
heard so much about over the years -- the one about his views
on the chador, which was written some 50 years ago.
I had already read or heard parts of it before. But I had never
read it in its entirety. As I was waiting for a friend in the car,
I read it all with great enthusiasm. What courage and wisdom, I
thought. Iraj Mirza had made a strong argument against false chastity,
but with great sense of humor and imagination. And he used adult
language in a way rarely seen in Iranian literature, even today,
outside Iran.
When my friend got into the car, I asked her to give me a moment
of her time. But before I finished the first page, she asked, "Isn't
this the one about rape?"
I was stunned. "Rape? Who said it was about rape? It's about
the fact that a woman is not necessarily chaste if she covers herself
head to toe."
"I can't believe it!" she said. "My God! How can
you not see that the man raped her? Women have been subjected to
many forms of oppression. But rape is a far more serious issue
than the chador."
"But 50, 60 years ago, the chador was a big social
issue and that's why Iraj Mirza wrote a poem about it. The woman
here raises hell when the man, a stranger, asks her to take off
her chador. But she does not resist him when he tries to
have sex with her."
"Excuse me. But she does try to resist. She's not
at all willing to have sex with this guy. That's rape, plain and
simple."
Read it and decide for yourself (in Persian) >>> Page
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