Centre for Persian and Iranian Studies: Visiting Speaker: Zahra Khosroshahi

Bio

Zahra Khosroshahi (she/her)
Zahra.khosroshahi@glasghow.ac.uk

I am a Lecturer in Film and Television Studies at University of Glasgow researching everyday activism and resistance in Iran's contemporary cinema. Currently, I am working on a forthcoming book Iranian Women Filmmakers: A Cinema of Resistance (Edinburgh University Press, 2023). I am interested in how the visual medium challenges systems of power, and how filmmaking specifically functions as a form of resistance in Iran. My work also considers the role and influence of Iranian cinema on the global stage.

Abstract

In this talk, Zahra Khosroshahi discusses her forthcoming book on Iranian women filmmakers as voices of resistance and dissent. Her talk looks at how women’s filmmaking in Iran confronts gender and representation, challenges the male gaze, and speaks from a position of agency. She explores how women filmmakers have not only influenced Iranian cinema, but contributed to the wider discourse of political resistance in Iran, and globally. The first part of the talk offers an overview of Zahra’s research, before looking in more detail at case studies on the themes of bodies, veiling, and collective feminism in the works of Rakhshan Banietemad and Mania Akbari.