Abstract
Purpose: In this paper, the aim is to examine film form and narrative in relation to gender identity and the politics of representation. Drawing distinctions between these methods make it possible to identify how feminist frameworks are used to examine identity, aesthetics, and ideology through film culture.
 Approach/Methodology/Design: Thematic analysis, employing a feminist perspective. Three films were selected for conducting this type of analysis: Rakshane Bani-Etemad’s ‘Nargess’, Manijeh Hekmat’s ‘Women’s Prison’ and Pouran Derakshande’s ‘Hush! Girls Don’t Scream.
 Findings: By understanding the representation of women in Iranian Cinema and the cultural/traditional norms and values of the Iranian Society, I argue that the narrative form identifies feminist perspectives, which create an Iranian feminist cinema. Combining textual analysis with a greater concern for the audience-text relationship, and the rejection of the male gaze, these films recognize texts as shaped by the struggle to make meaning amongst institutions which shapes the filmic text from different components of the socio-historical context, and which creates a relationship between feminist film and cultural studies.
 Practical Implications: Iranian female directors have been adopting a feminist approach in their films’ narrative structure dating back to the reformist period of the 90s. Through the social/political context of female characters and the counter-cinematic development of agents, circumstances, and surroundings of the systems of patriarchy and oppression, women directors have been applying feminist narrative form to their work as evident in Rakshane Bani-Etemad’s ‘Nargess,’ Manijeh Hekmat’s ‘Women’s Prison’ and Pouran Derakshande’s ‘Hush! Girls Don’t Scream.
 Originality/value: This paper analyzes the principles of female desire through these selected films, the patriarchal dominance of societal oppression, the female condition, and the examination of violence in the traditions and attitudes related to women while looking at the representation of this violence and oppression in the Iranian Society.
Highlights
Through connections between three dimensions of narrative cinema, story world, plot structure and narration, female Iranian filmmakers have presented feminist cinematic language that is balanced between narrative and stylistic elements
Dismissing previous feminist film theories, especially the psychoanalytic theories of Laura Mulvey’s male gaze and phallocentric pleasure in favor of reading films as cultural texts changes the dynamic of the film narrative
By rejecting earlier positions on women’s cinema, which include Claire Johnston’s stance on women’s cinema, which disregard sociological analysis of women in cinema and any realist stance, the relationship between the feminist film and cultural studies becomes a tool of resistance for Iranian female directors
Summary
Through connections between three dimensions of narrative cinema, story world, plot structure and narration, female Iranian filmmakers have presented feminist cinematic language that is balanced between narrative and stylistic elements. This paper is divided into sections on the social/political context of the female character/protagonist; and the counter-cinematic development of the agents, circumstances, and surroundings of the systems of patriarchy and oppression. These feminist frameworks are used to examine identity, aesthetics, and the ideology of Iranian film culture. It is better to examine film form and narrative in relation to gender identity and the politics of representation Drawing distinctions between these methods make it possible to identify how feminist frameworks are used to examine identity, aesthetics, and ideology through film culture
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