Gender Roles In Tehran

900 Words4 Pages

Good morning Mrs Snyman and Mrs Sibisi, I am very grateful for this opportunity to share my thoughts and opinions on the novels I have read and why I think they should be included in the library. The four novels I strongly believe should be included in the library each focus on gender stereotyping in their own different but relevant way coming all together to conclude to the fact that as females it is punishing for us in a world where males are given more opportunities and hold more power over us. This widely held but fixed image of females is real and in some extreme cases women of strict cultures and religions often suffer if they do not abide to their expected roles.
Prisoner of Tehran written by Marina Nemat The first novel of my choice is titled Prisoner of Tehran written by Marina Nemat. This beautifully written and emotive autobiography would be a …show more content…

The novel sheds light on sixteen different teenagers growing up in New Crossroads, Cape Town in the 1990’s and the struggles they face on a day to day basis from their affiliation with gang violence to their lives at home away from the streets. A lot of these teenagers had to depend on one parent and most of the time it was the female members such as the mothers or grandmothers who headed the household whilst the fathers or uncles were at the mines working hard for every little cent to send back to their families. In some cases the husbands had two families; an urban wife to satisfy his immediate sexual needs and a rural wife to keep the home stable, and in other cases the men were not present at all in the teenager’s lives, some by choice and others due to illnesses and deaths. Male-headed households were still held as the romantic ideal in spite of the number of single female-headed