Call me medhi torange yeghiazarian analysis

Being of Iranian descent and Armenian heritage, she tries to reflect Middle Eastern perspectives in her writing so as to address how people outside these cultures wrongly perceive them. Torange has a Master’s degree in Theatre Arts from San Francisco State University, and she has used her knowledge to start initiatives that advance theatre and try to broaden cultural diversity in people’s perception of the Middle East and women in general (“Torange Yeghiazarian”, n. d. Torange is therefore involved with several teaching programs such as ‘Each One Reach One program’ where she teaches playwriting to at risk youth and the East Bay Center for Performing Arts’ Learning Without Borders program, where she has included theater in social studies at the Richmond’s Washington Elementary School.

Call me Medhi is a play whose title is derived from a joke that is told within the play. Inequality exists between the characters and secondary stories presented in Call Me Medhi that goes deeper than their gender roles that can be best described by this perspective. Identifying the female characters that are presented in a text is the first step to a feminist literary analysis. Ziba who is one of the two main characters is an Iranian woman who lives with her husband John and although she is married to an American, the cultural lift between them is a central theme for their disagreements. Ziba is clearly a Muslim who is liberal, intelligent, who is proud of her Iranian heritage and claims her sexuality as her own.

The only other woman presented in the play is the subject of the joke that Ziba tells her husband in their discussion. In most societies, women are seen as having the above stated qualities and in need of a strong man to lean on, which in this case is Imam Zaman who comes to the woman’s rescue when she changes her mind about taking her life. Another example of such stereotypes is seen when John complains to Ziba that she cares more about sex than his deep emotional revelations. He says this in a way that implies that a woman should not have sexual desires or that her sexual desires are subject to the man’s approval. The stereotypes that either gender has towards the other are significant in explaining how gender inequality occurs as they form the trans-generational deep rooted values propagate oppression and injustice (Jaggar, 1992).

For instance, John is opposed to visiting Iran because he feels that its natives are anti-American and that he could die or be taken hostage if he does. The most prominent concept of feminism presented in this play is the dominance of men over women (Bordo, 2003). In the play John feels superior to Ziba and this is shown in the way he demands for her attention and his desires to be met without considering her circumstances while he brushes hers aside at will. Ziba tries to sleep after a long night of hosting guests at their house but she has stay awake to sooth John’s ego which is wounded because she enjoyed talking to another man. In contrast, later John abandons their sexual escapades after he experiences a moment of revelation about their relationship even though he had initiated it without considering Ziba’s sexual needs and his duty to fulfill them.

This shows an inequality of roles where a man gets his way while a woman has to either beg or throw an anger tantrum to get hers; and even then, nothing is guaranteed. This further shows how in a society the woman comes from; the sexual objectification of women by men is so pervasive that it does not spare religious leaders. Another form of objectification is when men treat men as property that they own and try to control their actions, emotions and preferences (Papadaki, 2018). This makes such women subject to the wishes of the men in their lives. In this play, John wants his wife to spend all her time and attention on him regardless of the situation. He fails to consider the satisfaction she may derive from interacting with someone who understands her Iranian experiences due to her isolation from her native land and its culture.