A Gaze through the Veil:

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fundamentalist values. Khomeini stated: “The road to reform in a country, goesthrough its culture, so one has to start cultural reform.”(Callamard, 2006, p.6)To apply this objective Khomeini constructed a new system of governance to imposestrict new laws into the culture of Iran. He established a position which is called theSupreme Leader, this is the highest ranking official of the Islamic republic and has thepower of rule over the nation, and The Supreme Leader is the chief leader of moralityand is declared responsible for keeping the population on the path of righteousness.Khomeini described the function of this position asMen would not be able to keep their ordained path and toenact Gods laws unless a trustworthy and protective individual(or power) were appointed over them with the responsibilityfor this matter, to prevent them from stepping outside thesphere of the licit and transgressing against the right of others(Middle East Watch, 1993)So the government was transformed into a paternalistic model. The government wasstructured as such; The Supreme Leader was the highest ruling power, part of his dutywas to elect six of the twelve clergymen on The Council of Guardians. Although thepresident is seen as the second highest ranking official of the government, his poweris restricted by the Council of Guardians. The Council of Guardians is anexceptionally powerful council; they have the authority to decide which laws arepassed by parliament and decide if these laws conformed to Sharia Law. They alsodetermine which candidates run for the presidential and parliamentary elections.The rest of the government was made up of various councils, who were given powerin their different departments. In relation to censorship, Khomeini established twocouncils. The first is the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council (SCRC); the SCRC isthe “highest body for producing guidelines and making decisions in relation to allcultural, educational and research activities.”(Callamard, 2006, p.7). He alsoestablished the Ministry of Culture and Information Guidance (MCIG), the MCIG isan “elaborate system of councils that regulate and monitor every sphere of artisticexpression” (Callamard, 2006, p.7). By establishing this systematic government,Khomeini’s new culture, based on a fundamentalist regime began to take shape.
The MCIG is the main power that has affected artists in Iran. An artist or academicwho wanted to publish or exhibit their work were forced to obtain permission. Theseworks were inspected by different bodies within the MCIG. This authorization couldtake weeks, months or years and after this wait, the work could be eventually denied.The direct censorship instruments at the states disposal areblunt and wide-ranging: these include highly repressive laws,supported by an array of regulations and guidelines thatdelineate and restrict what can be expressed, and how itshould be done, assisted by a multitude of censors-diverseinstitutions that will intervene at different stages of the artisticprocess by assenting to or denying the much neededauthorisation. (Middle East Watch, 1993)Combined with the authorities within the government, there are also non-stateorganisations that act out against free expression often with brutal force. In the eventthat the government has not intervened on work or writings where free expression isbeen exercised, or if these organisations think that the work offends Islam, thesevigilante groups intervene; their main objective is to protect society against corruptinginfluences. These groups force these restrictions by the use of force, threats, violenceand intimidation. There are two main vigilante groups at work within Iranian society;these are called the Basij and the Ansar-e Hezbollah. The Basij are paramilitaryforces, who according to human rights officials are the “organs of repression that havebecome increasingly open in crushing student protests, detaining activists, writers andjournalists in secret prisons.” (Ervand, 1999, p 124) The Ansar-e Hezbollah or ‘Partyof God’ is an ultraconservative Islamist group, whose objective is to maintain that therules of Islam are maintained within society. These groups are closely linked to theIranian government and mostly go unpunished for their actions. In 2002 an Iraniancleric spoke out against these groups stating that they are “louts and fascists, who area mixture of ignorance and madness, but whose umbilical cord is connected to thecentre of power”. (Callamard, 2006, p.8) Reading this statement these vigilantegroups are conducting censorships and punishments with force, which the governmentcannot enforce themselves without raising questions.
Page 4 and 5: Introduction“In any society, the
Page 6 and 7: Chapter One: The Oppressed and the
Page 10 and 11: In June 1993, sixty Hezbollahis att
Page 12 and 13: depicted wearing the chador and eve
Page 14 and 15: the Shah and it was also seen as a
Page 16 and 17: Fig.2. Persepolis, Film Still, 2007
Page 18 and 19: Chapter Two: Repressed or PowerfulI
Page 20: the men.” (Tenaglia, 2002, p.97)
Page 25 and 26: Chapter Three: Structures of Oppres
Page 27 and 28: One would agree with this viewpoint
Page 29 and 30: oundaries. They pray, beat drums an
Page 31 and 32: Iran. It shows us the separation of
Page 33 and 34: Shirin Neshat’s work deals with i
Page 36 and 37: Reference ListBalaghi, S. (2002)
Page 38: Tenaglia, S. (2002) ‘The Power of

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