The Maternal Role of Women in Iranian Fictional Literature
According to the correspondent of the Iran Book News Agency (IBNA), women have played different roles in Iranian fictional literature, one of which is the role of mother. On the occasion of Women’s Day and Mother’s Day, this report examines some fictional women in contemporary Iranian literature who have taken on the role of mother in contemporary stories. These women are all mothers, but their styles of motherhood are not the same, and it is this variety that gives a diverse display of motherhood to the collection as a whole.
Mergan of ‘A Place of Emptiness’; The Pinnacle of Fictional Mothers in Iran
In Iranian fictional literature, if we want to provide a list of the best women who played the role of mother in a story, one of the first names that comes to mind is Mergan from Mahmoud Dowlatabadi’s novel ‘A Place of Emptiness’ (Jaye Khali-ye Soluch). Mergan is one of those women about whom one can use Abolfazl Beyhaghi’s expression about the mother of Hasanak Minister. Beyhaghi calls Hasanak’s mother a ‘very brave’ woman, and Mergan in ‘A Place of Emptiness’ also deserves such an attribute, provided that we do not have a rhetorical and clichéd meaning in mind for ‘brave’ and having courage and valor, and we see courage in the context of complex and vague realities of life and as one of several attributes that a person can have.
Mergan is a woman who tries to protect her children and life with tooth and nail in the absence of her husband who has left. She is a mix of audacity, courage, conservatism, fear, kindness, and cruelty. Despite her kindness, she comes under such pressure that she is forced to make cruel decisions and sometimes even harms her children for what she perceives as their well-being, and at one point, she clashes with one of her sons.
Mergan is a truly complex woman, and Dowlatabadi exposes her with all sides of her personality in ‘A Place of Emptiness’. She is a mother trapped in a difficult situation; a real mother who is sometimes kind and sometimes angry, but in both cases, worried about her children.
Ahu Khanom’s Husband; The Story of a Responsible Mother
Ahu in Ali Mohammad Afghani’s novel ‘Ahu Khanom’s Husband’ (Shohar-e Ahu Khanom) is the complete embodiment of a traditional mother who has become a victim of the patriarchal system. Her husband goes after another woman, and Ahu tries to withstand this high wave. Up to a certain point in the novel, her method is to cautiously and conservatively lower her head against the wave and adjust her movements so that the wave passes over her and her children with the least harm.
Ahu is a classic kind mother who has completely disregarded her individuality and devoted herself entirely to her children and husband. She tries to protect her children from the consequences of the crisis that has arisen in her marriage. She is a kind and anxious mother.
However, at the turning point at the end of the novel, Ahu changes her approach, and seeing that things are completely getting out of hand, she takes proactive action and pushes back against the wave with intensity.
Suvashun; The Story of a Worried Mother
Zari from Simin Daneshvar’s novel ‘Suvashun’ (Sūvashūn) is an educated and affluent mother. Zari’s education and level of literacy distinguish her from the fictional mothers we have discussed so far. Among those women, Ahu is also a relatively affluent woman (in terms of livelihood), but her social class differs from Zari’s social class.
Zari, however, is not unlike Ahu in terms of conservatism, but the nature of her conservatism, like her social class, is different from Ahu’s. Zari’s conservatism is almost political. She surrenders to power to keep her children safe. Zari in ‘Suvashun’ is a woman with motherly doubts and anxieties who tries to keep her children and family life safe from the dangers of the era. However, Zari is in the midst of the era’s turmoil. Iran, including the Fars region where Zari belongs, has been occupied by the Allies, and Yusuf, Zari’s husband, is a rebellious man who cannot tolerate the occupation and its consequences for the people, including bread shortages. Zari is afraid of trouble and, unlike Yusuf, prefers to compromise and negotiate to keep her children safe and prevent her family life from falling apart. Although she is also eventually forced to enter the struggle, her doubts and fears throughout the novel, which are completely motherly fears and doubts, are vividly and realistically portrayed.
Where Are You Going, Naneh Amru; A Mother Searching for Her Lost Child
In the story ‘Where Are You Going, Naneh Amru?’ (Kojā miri Naneh Amru?), a story by Ahmad Mahmoud published in the collection ‘Meeting’ (Didar), we encounter a mother known as ‘Naneh Amru’, which is the southern pronunciation of ‘Naneh Amrullah’. The events of the story take place in the years before the revolution in a southern city. Naneh Amru is an elderly woman whose son, apparently for political reasons, has been shot and arrested, and now, in search of her son, she visits everywhere and asks everyone she can reach and thinks might have information about her son for his whereabouts.
‘Where Are You Going, Naneh Amru?’ is a tragic story full of fear and hope. Mahmoud in this story talks about a mother and son who are victims of a closed political atmosphere; the son does not have a direct presence in the story, but his presence is felt in every sentence of the story. Where is he and what has happened to him? We don’t know, but we see the bitter and terrifying impact of his disappearance and absence in the restless, anxious, and worried being of his mother; a mother who, while inquiring about her son, becomes hopeful from some answers and desperate from others and continues her search in the grey fog of doubt, and at the end of the story, faces an ominous and shocking scene.
I Will Put Out the Lights; Story of a Middle-Class Mother
With the increase in the number of female writers in the 1990s and 2000s and the continuation of this trend until today, urban middle-class women found a more prominent presence in Iranian fictional literature than in the past. Clarisse, the narrator and main character of Zoya Pirzad’s novel ‘I Will Put Out the Lights’ (Cheragh-ha ra man khamoosh mikonam), is a pioneer among this group of women. Pirzad provides an honest, accurate, and non-clichéd image of a middle-class urban mother in this novel.
Clarisse is a calm, caring, yet tired and bored mother; a woman who has to do housework alone. She appears calm, obedient, and kind, but inside she is full of storms and tensions. Although she sometimes falls short in her motherly duties, she never neglects them and always takes care of her children. Like Mergan, she is a real, tangible mother, but in a different setting than Mergan, and for this reason, the way her feelings are expressed is also different.
Clarisse’s world is full of small details related to children; a world consisting of school homework, fights, and children’s need for constant attention and care. Clarisse is a woman who tries to be an exemplary mother and wife without pretense or show, although a different woman is nested and hidden inside her, wanting to be a different person. Clarisse compromises with this inner woman without giving her too much freedom. She doesn’t completely expel her but doesn’t give in to her desires either. Clarisse is both a full-fledged mother and struggles with her own individuality.
My Bird; The Story of a Lonely Mother
Fariba Vafi’s novel ‘My Bird’ (Parandeye Man) was published about a year after ‘I Will Put Out the Lights’ and was well received and won awards like Lights. The narrator of ‘My Bird’, like the narrator of Lights, is an urban middle-class woman, but not as affluent as Clarisse. However, like Clarisse, she is alone. Her husband dreams of Canada and ignores her, and then ends up in Baku. The narrator has to raise her children and take care of them alone. In ‘My Bird’, we see brilliant scenes of the narrator’s interaction with her children and her type of motherhood and anxieties for her children, and we also witness her inner suffering as a lonely woman who has no one to rely on.
Throughout the novel ‘My Bird’, we see how the narrator tries to make the environment calm and tension-free for her children by any means possible, although she herself is full of turmoil, restlessness, and anxiety inside. She is a tired and lonely woman who, while sometimes annoyed by her children and their childish fights, tries to prepare a ‘celebration of life’ by creating small joys for them. She pays close attention to the details of her children’s behavior and feelings, and through this observant mother, the author portrays not only her own issues but also the issues of her children’s childish world.
