IMAGES OF MUSLIM CHILDHOOD IN THE STONING OF SORAYA M
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.25159/1727-7140/1610Keywords:
muslim childhood, Soraya M, stoning, male and female children, cautionary taleAbstract
This article explores the constructions of the identities of male and female children in the film, The Stoning of Soraya M. On the surface, the film is about the stoning to death of a married woman falsely accused of adultery. However, the article argues that this ugly performance is enacted in order to warn Muslim children to observe their fixed social roles that Muslim and adult males have created for the children of both sexes. The film’s content and cinematograph addresses male children to become further emboldened in carrying out the dictates of a male authored society, while indirectly warning women not to aspire to freedoms beyond the kitchen and the socially-sanctioned bedroom space.
As cautionary tale, the film uses stoning as a metaphor of repression of independent thinking in both male and female Muslim children.
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