Analysis of 'The Breadwinner' Animated Movie

The Breadwinner is an animated movie that uncovers the hard truth of powerless women living under an extreme patriarchal regime, real feminist issues and the strength of family bonds.

The film, based on the adaptation of Deborah Ellis' young-adult novel, was executive produced by Mimi Polk Gitlin, Angelina Jolie and directed by the Irish filmmaker Nora Twomey. As well as being nominated for a best-animated picture at the 90th Academy Awards, it is about 11 years old Parvana's courageous attempt to support her family and to rescue her father, who was falsely accused and arrested by the Taliban. However, In order to be allowed onto the streets, she had to impersonate herself as a boy. This required cutting off her hair and wearing male clothes belonging to her older, but sadly deceased brother.

Women = Objects

The Breadwinner set a bitter but unfortunately until this day very real world in a Middle Eastern culture. Women are treated as second class citizens and are dependent on their husbands, fathers or brothers for all things, where men control nearly all the aspects of women's lives, where discrimination against women is the official policy.

In the movie, everything takes place in Kabul, in the era of the Taliban (The Taliban is an Arabic word which means students of Islam) a radical religious group.

The people of Afghanistan now living under Taliban rules had to follow orders set by them. The main rule was that women were strictly not allowed out of the house, without a man figure by their side. This rule prompted several conditions, one of which was that no women were viewed in the market (shopkeepers were forbidden to sell to women customers. Otherwise, they would be punished severely). The economic activities were solely done by men, while women would stay and wait at home. However, when going out, women had to wear a Burkha (a garment that covered them from head to toe). Since it only consisted of a small net in the part of the eyes, the Burkha gave a limited view of their surroundings. Furthermore, women were not permitted to wear colourful clothes or white socks since white was the colour of the Taliban's flag.

Disobeying these rules, for women meant that they were not going to heaven after they passed away.

In the movie, the Taliban sympathizer would be checking from time to time the market; in search of anyone who dared to break the rules. If anyone did disobey, they would then be punished by being harshly beaten in the street, raped, amputated, plus other forms of violence and told to go back home where they belonged. Simply because of the stereotypical role of how women were viewed and portrayed (take care of the house, cleaning and taking care of the children).

Just like at one point it was displayed in a specific scene in the animated film, where the protagonist's mother was beaten nearly to death in front of her, because of they attempt to reach the prison, where Parvana's father was unfairly taken to.

Women also had to be ready to become wives to other families, who had any male who was looking for a wife. Sadly, in their culture, a girl is ready to be given in marriage from the age of 9, sometimes as narrated by their religious book the Quran,(Sahih-Bukhari volume 5, book 58, number 234): girls were allowed to get married at the tender age of 6, as a result of such immoral imposition, many young girls commit suicide, to avoid rape and forced marriage.

In the animated movie, there is a scene where a Taliban member encourages the father of the protagonist who's only 11 years old to give her in marriage. And not only that, but Parvana's sister (Fig. 6) had to be ready and willing when her mother told her to marry their cousin from another city in order to survive.

Since the movie depicted the real condition of women in Afghanistan under the Taliban, as objects, women were not counted, their voices were not heard. Just like at one point, Parvana, after her father was taken, went to the market alone and while trying to purchase some items, no one replied to her questions nor sold anything to her. Everyone ignored her completely, almost like she didn't even exist; however, that situation quickly changed once she pretended to be a boy, and on that day Parvana learned a valuable lesson, that 'When you're a boy, you can go anywhere you like.'

Taliban's Laws

According to documented laws made by the Taliban, where they clearly showed their ruthless restrictions by writing laws that banned women from education. And as a consequence of that, the Taliban used violence to prevent female students from attending school. Aside from not being allowed to get an education, Women were also treated unequally as in job opportunities compared to men, female teachers and doctors were very rare in Afghanistan.

One outcome of the banning of employment of women was the closing down of primary schools, not just for girls but for boys because almost all the teachers at that time were women.

The major main cause of death of Afghan women is the impossibility of getting proper first-aid when needed, because of a lack of female doctors in society (male medical personnel are not allowed to treat women and girls).

Religious police additionally issued new regulations by ordering people to blacken their windows, so that women would not be visible from the outside. Which is something that can be seen in the movie where each house's windows can clearly be spotted covered from the inside.

The Taliban claim that their goal is 'preserving women's honour' and further claim that 'the restrictions on women are for their own protection.'

The overall circumstances for Afghan women have improved in the last decade, particularly in major urban areas. However, those living in the rural area of the country still face many problems.

The World Against the Taliban

The Taliban deprived almost every fundamental right for women and the fact that Afghanistan was identified as the most dangerous place for women. Based on Tompson Reuters Foundation survey, it does not come as a surprise. Additionally, Georgetown Institute for Women, Peace and Security also ranked Afghanistan as one of the worst countries for women.

About 87% of Afghan women face abuse and violence; they face a high mortality rate due also to the limitation of a lack of economic rights. Moreover, in 2013, the United Nations published statistics showing a 20% increase in violence against women, usually due to domestic violence being justified by religious conservatives and culture.

On May 27-2007, in an interview with Edge Radio, Khaled Hosseini an Afghan-American novelist commented: 'When the Taliban came; they imposed inhumane restrictions on women, limiting their freedom of movement, expression, barring them from work and education, harassing them, humiliating them, and beating them'.

Many if not all, western's media coverages on the Taliban were extremely negative. However, in response to the negative media coverage on the Taliban's treatment of Afghan women, the former Taliban leader Mullah Mohammad Omar expressed the following opinion about the Western world's treatment of women: 'their interpretation of women's rights is only those ugly and filthy western cultures and customs in which women are insulted and dishonoured as a toy.'

Men under the Taliban

While men think that discriminating against women is something allowed by society, women believe that their fates are between men's hands. Therefore, both men and women have roles in the founding of this discriminative gender system, and because of centuries-old customs and traditions influenced by patriarchal rules, when the Taliban took full control over everything, the majority of the population (mostly men) believed that those laws were necessary to maintain social order, hence why most Afghans appeared to accept what the Taliban dictated.

All of the restrictions that they brought upon women were deemed necessary by conservative males because they consider women socially immature, with less moral control and physical restraint; consequently, women, based on men's twisted illogical logic were untrustworthy. Therefore, they kept them between the walls of their own houses so as not to disrupt the social order. The need for their isolation was, therefore, more important than anything else.

Men were required to grow beards and the ones who failed to grow beards and leave them untrimmed were fined and jailed, extremists perceived full beardedness as the mark of a Muslim, and to convicted criminals little mercy was shown.

Male authorities resided in their family economic welfare, politics, and relationships with outsiders; within the family, they were expected to be disciplinarians and providers for aged parents and the entire family, they were further expected to make decisions for women.

The right to make and control decisions for females for men and society was also a symbol of honour and a man's reputation. Any evidence of independent female action was regarded as evidence of the loss of male control, which adversely affected the entire family's standing within the community. Therefore the family male's reputations and their much-valued honour were dependent upon the good behaviour of women.

While some traditional Afghan sports like dogfighting, kite-flying, and buzkashi (a game played on horseback with an animal carcass) were outlawed for being 'un-Islamic'. Volleyball, cricket, and boxing gained in popularity as the Taliban banned other activities such as music, television, and cinema.

Sports were not for everyone, however. Women were strictly forbidden to take part, and men were permitted to compete, only if they were dressed accordingly. Football players, for example, were required to wear long-sleeve shirts, long shorts, and high socks that covered their bare skin.

Another difference between gender inequality was that a man could have easily divorce without needing his wife's agreement. Whereas if a woman was seeking to divorce then the approval of her husband is needed, and she also requires witnesses who can testify in court that the divorce was well justified.

Moreover, while it is legal for male citizens to marry foreign non-Muslims, it was and still is illegal for female citizens to do so.

The dominance of the patriarchal system was evident from the very beginning of the story. When a Taliban member aggressively asked the protagonist's father what the daughter was doing outside and why she wasn't inside where she belonged and that she had to cover herself properly and not raise her voice because she wasn't allowed to draw any attention to herself. The control of the Taliban in the story emphasizes the struggle of the women to survive. It shows that this movie takes sides to support the women's actions to liberate themselves in any way that they could. The film appreciates women to have the courage to free themselves, but at the same time, it reminds women that they cannot survive without men because Parvana in order to save herself and her family, had to impersonate herself as a boy, this kind of duality shows how deep patriarchy is rooted within that society's life.

From the Breadwinner's Era to Today

The Breadwinner portrays the inferiority of women in a patriarchal community, which is reinforced through the male interpretation of their religious beliefs. The story describes the agony of women and their continuous fight for existence and basic human rights.

In many Middle Eastern cultures and regimes, women still struggle against the oppression from the opposite sex every single day. They are abused physically and mentally, in and outside of their homes. They are treated as an object of man domination by their husbands and male figures in general.

Despite the torture that they go through, women are not even allowed to raise their voices and fights back against such inhumane treatments. Because the right of a husband to beat and abuse his wife is still accepted by their society, many women, unfortunately, still accept being subjugated and consider that as their fate that they should and need to endure.

All of the premises definitely makes the modern-day western feminism groups and ideologies (third-wave feminism and fourth-wave feminism) almost sound and look like a joke in the ears and eyes of many.