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About The daily Nebraskan. ([Lincoln, Neb.) 1901-current | View Entire Issue (April 20, 2000)
Dancing Every Thursday no swing on 4-27-00 Doors open at 7:30 Lesson begin at 8:00 The PIA MOR 6600 W. O St. 475-4030_ Save the trees. Recycle your DN. Every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night 11:00 p.m. to 3:00 a.m. Must present NU student ID Questions? Suggestions? E-mail us at: nuonwheels@unl.edu JLWkWTWr HcahhCcntetUNL is a nondiscriroin^ M ■ ■ M to start/stop your electric service and you could win a $50 gift certificate. Before you head home for the summer or move within Lincoln, you need to start or stop your electric service. Every stu dent that starts/stops service on our website from April 19-May 7, will have their name put into a drawing for one of six $50 gift certificates to the Nebraska Bookstore and University Bookstore. Just go to our web site at www.les.com, click on the Starting & Stopping Servic^ light, go to the "I'm a student and I'm moving" section, click the appropriate option for you, fill out the simple form, submit it, and you're done. g. . - . - ■; To be eligible for the drawing, entrants must be students who use the LES web service for stop pingAtarting service between April 19 and May 7,2000. Landortfe realtors, tide companies, and apartment managers are not eligible. Winners vriH be drawm on May a 200a and notified via mail. Iranian film looks at divorce ■ Documentary points the camera at inequality in the country’s legal system. ByJoshKrauter Senior editor Divorce is almost always a bitter, painful and complicated process. Who gets the house? Who gets the children? Who’s to blame? In Iran, these are easy questions, at least in the legal system. The answer to the first two questions: the man. The answer to the last one: the woman. Divorce is still bitter and painful, of course, but in Iran, it’s not very compli cated. That is, as long as women under stand they have no rights. Kim Longinotto and Ziba Mir Hosseini’s documentary “Divorce Iranian Style” is an eye-opening and fascinating look at an Iranian divorce court and the women who try to remove themselves from bad mar riages in a fiercely patriarchal legal system. Longinotto, a British documentary filmmaker, and Mir-Hosseini, an Iranian anthropologist, were given sur prisingly unrestricted access to film the court proceedings. As a result, they have created a triumphant, brutally honest and effective film. Instead of showing clip after clip of divorce trials and hearings, the film makers concentrate on a handful of women. These particular women have decided to push for a divorce them selves, and all are unsuccessful, with the partial exception of one young woman. In Iran, though divorce is not respected, men can choose to divorce their wives at any time. If they do this, however, they have to pay a large com pensation, usually thousands of dollars, to their ex-wives. They don’t need a reason to file for divorce. A woman can divorce her husband only if the man is sterile, insane, has admitted deception (usually involving lying about his age or name) or agrees to the divorce. If the man consents to divorce, he usually doesn’t have to pay a compensation. Women only receive custody of the children if their husbands OK it If die woman ever remarries, custody reverts back to the ex-husband. This is the case for one of the film’s women, who tries desperately to win back her daughter, only to lose her because she has remar ried These are the insurmountable odds the women in “Divorce Iranian Style” face. One woman alleges that she has been beaten and cheated on for 30 years by her husband, who won’t even let her answer the phone. She is crying as she talks, clearly upset, while her husband looks merely annoyed and rolls his eyes, as if he’d rather be eating a bowl of soup or watching TV. He doesn’t want a divorce. The judge’s reply: “Make yourself more attractive. Then things will get better.” With an answer like that, Judge Deldar could have been the villain of the film. But one of the triumphs of “Divorce Iranian Style” is its fly-on the-wall perspective. The filmmakers don’t have to beat viewers over the head to show where their sympathies he. In fact, Judge Deldar is not that bad of a guy. He believes wholeheartedly in his religion and country and doesn’t think much of women’s rights, but he’s a soft-spoken, patient man who is kind and decent to his underlings on the job and often dispenses harsh words to the deadbeat husbands who fill his court every day. When he tells the woman to be more attractive, he’s not trying to be malicious or mean. He honestly believes what he’s saying. Therein lies the film’s power. The filmmakers know bad ideas and policies are much more destructive than bad people. § j, Divorce Iranian *5* Style DIRECTOR: Kim Longinotto, mkm Ziba Mir-Hosseini RATING: Not rated (some ^ language, adult situations) f , 1 GRADE: A yy FIVE WORDS: Documentary fascinates, educates Western audiences The film is a truly educating expe rience to Western audiences. In one scene, a 16-year-old girl is attempting to get compensation from her 37-year old ex-husband. She asks the judge if — there is a law about young girls getting married. He says once a girl begins puberty, she can be married. He adds that this could be as young as age 9. The film then shows a meeting between the two families at one of their homes. The girl is the only female pres ent She must sit there while her father, uncles and brothers discuss her marital problems and sex life with her ex-hus band’s father, uncles and brothers. When she begins to join the discussion animatedly, her father tells her to keep quiet because she has no place in the conversation. In the film’s most poignant scene, the stenographer’s 7-year-old daughter climbs into the judge’s chair during a court recess. At first, it’s funny. She bangs the gavel, which is almost as big as she is, and yells, “Silence.” Then, she says things the judge probably hasn’t even fathomed in his age and wisdom. “Why won’t you listen to your wife?” she says. “You have no reason to treat your wife that way. You must be nicer to her.” “Divorce Iranian Style” is showing at the Mary Riepma Ross Theater’s Iranian Film Festival on Saturday at 7 p.m. The film has been banned in Iran for its political content. ^ Career Services Snapshot ...see what’s developing in Career Services (TTENTIOH SENIORS or even if you re not a Senior yet ... Baer ye Jumpstart your job search! Saturday, April 29th (Lrt W 9:30 -12:30 (Id" workshop City Union Auditorium UNL Career Services — 230 NE Union — 316 East Campus Union Autumn Ridge Family Medicine 5000 N 26th Street 435-5300 "Take $30-$150 OFF Your Herff Jones Class Ring! Bnokfiow NE Union Wed. 4/26 Thurs. 4/27