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Around the globe women have been oppressed by a male power structure especially in Islamic extremist countries. To gain control and power the “male infrastructure” used prejudice against women, executing their women-hood, and also defining the roles women play in life. The novel Reading Lolita in Tehran by Azar Nafisi dealt with the oppression of women and how oppression has led to the execution of the women spirit and how they have become more invisible.
In the book Nafisi, who is a professor, uses western literature to give her students a view or an idea of freedom in the west. The students and the professor gather in her home, upon arrival the students took of their scarves and their black robes. This became a place were they could celebrate their freedom as women. In the novel the professor describes two different photos stating, “One of them being of seven women standing against a white wall. They are according to the law of the land, dressed in black robes and headscarves, covered except for the oval of their faces and their hands. In the second photograph the same group in the same position stands against the same wall. Only they have taken off their coverings. Splashes of color separate one from the other. Each has become distinct through the color and style of her clothes. The color and the length of her hair, not even the two who are still wearing their head scarves look similar to each other.” This is what the male power structure in countries like Iran does not want to happen. They want the women to be covered up, and beneath the robe lays their identity and individuality. There is no female individuality, the women begin to disappear slowly, becoming invisible by covering any evidence of her female identity.
The goal of this “infrastructure” is to gain total control over the women of Iran. The system puts fear in the mind of the women by punishing those who disobey the Islamic law. There is an explanation of one of the girl’s...