Help Watering Plastic Flowers Come to Life!

Hello world. My name is Kathy Kiany and I'm the writer and director of Watering Plastic Flowers. As an Iranian woman who grew up in a patriarchal society, I had to fight every day to achieve my dreams; therefore, my stories deal with women, cultural differences, immigration, and issues of identity. My latest animation called "Second Home" is about an immigrant woman and her challenges to fit into her new culture which won the best animation award in Berlin, Chicago, and here in Vancouver in 2019.

 

This is a short animation about child marriage. The story is about Narges, a nine-year-old girl from an Iranian religious family. In a conversation with her brother who is proud of his masculine power, she realizes her jurisprudential duties as she reaches the age of ‘religious puberty’. Among these duties are the preparation for marriage and the obligatory hijab. Narges, who is a vibrant child with a head full of big dreams for her future, finds those rules against her dreams and becomes incredibly irritated and furious about it all. Since she is only nine years old, she reaches out to her mother for her support. But her mother, who was once the victim of the same rules is powerless and weak to help.

 

According to Islamic jurisprudence, girls reach the age of puberty at the age of nine. At this time, in addition to the obligatory hijab and the observance of religious pillars, girls are eligible for marriage and having children. For this purpose, on the day of the age nine,

the age of religious maturity, a celebration called Takleef celebration (which is equivalent to the same bat mitzvah in Judaism) is held

in girls' schools in Iran, and girls are taught duties such as hijab and jurisprudential rules. These celebrations are different across the

country and child marriage does not happen to every 9-year-old girl. Unfortunately in recent years, the number of 11-year-old mothers is increasing, especially among the low-income sections of society. The fact that the situation is increasing is appalling. Also, in one of the twelfth-grade textbooks for girls' schools called (Family Management and Lifestyle), an attempt has been made to normalize the issue of child marriage and gender discrimination, which has been opposed by women and family activists. Although mothers oppose the marriage of their children at such a young age, they were once victims of the same laws and also they lack the financial and social independence in the patriarchal society, they remain silent. In fact, they have no right to decide for their daughters, and thus the chain continues.

My belief is that mothers need to support their daughters to break this patriarchal cycle, that is the reason I started to write this story to raise awareness.

 

Thank you,

Kathy Kiany