Stephanie
COM 242
Book Analysis: My Forbidden Face

One distinctive theme of this Communication Culture course is the balance between oppression and privilege. These very opposite concepts are seen in almost all of our course readings, films, and discussion board assignments. According to the Fabric of Oppression Theory, privilege is when an individual experiences certain advantages that are based on their race, class, sex, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiness (FOOT handout). “The privileged groups have opportunities not provided to other groups because of the current social system in place and may not recognize that they ‘benefit’ from the system” (FOOT handout). Oppression is on the other end of the spectrum and involves an individual lacking the same opportunities as someone who is privileged because of the same sub categories of race, class, sex, religion, sexual orientation, and able-bodiness. Latifa’s novel My Forbidden Face is one that shows many strong examples of oppression for Latifa and her family. Not only do we see disadvantages in her life based on her sex and religion, but the Taliban goes even further to control the people of Kabul by providing restrictions on the media and their everyday routines. Throughout My Forbidden Face, we see the main character of Latifa being oppressed from the very beginning, especially because of her female sex. Outlined by FOOT, we see several “isms” that could be taken out on a person, or group of people. One that we see very often and that is a prominent focus of Latifa’s novel is sexism. Rothenberg describes sexism as a system of advantage that is based on a particular sex (2010). There is an abundant amount of evidence to prove that Latifa’s female being prohibited her from gaining the same advantages that were provided to the men throughout her life. When the first sign of the Taliban invading Kabul is visible to Latifa and her family, she voices her opinion about what she has heard about their intentions: “They imprison women in their own homes. They prevent them from working, from going to school. Women have no more lives…” (2001, p. 4). In order for this group to gain and sustain their control, the Taliban came up and voiced an extensive list of what they will be taking away from the people of Kabul. We are introduced to these rules and regulations on page 36-37: “Women and girls are not permitted to work outside the home… Women and girls are forbidden to wear brightly colored clothes beneath the chardri. It is forbidden to wear nail polish or lipstick or makeup”. It seems that the only way for the Taliban to remain in control is to oppress the women of this country and belittle them, driving them into a state of depression.
In their society, males are the dominant force behind them staying in power. Allan Johnsons essay “Patriarchy”, he discusses the effect a male-orientated society has on the oppression of women: “…it is male-dominated, male-identified, and male-centered. It also involves as one of its key aspects the oppression of women” (1997, p. 153). Latifa is quite obviously living in a patriarchal society. Although the men of Kabul are subject to oppression as well, the Taliban target the women in a more restricted and degrading way. This is seen in one of stated rules they declare over the radio station Radio Sharia: “All women who are obliged to leave their homes must be accompanied by a mahram: their father, brother, or husband” (Latifa, 2010, p. 36). Right here we see an example of a male-identified patriarchal society established by the invasion of the Taliban. They are suggesting that a woman is of less importance than a man; their focus is keeping the women strictly property of men and stripping them of the opportunities and privileges they once received. Johnson goes on in his essay to say that, “Because patriarchy is male-identified and male-centered, women and the work they do tends to be devalued, if not made invisible” (1997, p. 157). Patriarchy and oppression based on an individual’s sex go hand in hand. Johnson and Latifa both strengthen the principles of FOOT and give specific examples to how women can be oppressed simply because they are not men.
A second “ism” that is dominant in My Forbidden Face is “religionism”. As discussed and defined in class, “religionism” is the discrimination against any religion that is not deemed to be privileged. In our society, the privileged religion is noted to be Christianity. In Latifa’s story, it is seen that Muslim is the dominant religion while all others are oppressed. The Taliban’s version of the Islamic religion is different than what the Muslims of Kabul practice, but they believe that religion is what runs their law and all others are of little to no importance. They try to belittle those practicing any other religion by having them become recognizable to the public eye: “All non-Muslims, Hindus, and Jews must wear yellow clothing or a piece of yellow cloth. They must mark their homes with a yellow flag so they may be recognizable” (Latifa, 2010, p. 38). This is a complete lack of privacy and a form of oppression in and of itself. Those who do not fall under these religious categories are not forced to make it known that they are Muslim; non-Muslims, Hindus, and Jews have no choice but to segregate themselves from others because of the religion they choose to practice. In a world working towards integration and less segregation, the Taliban’s thirst for power is dependent on oppressing those who are different than them and those who they deem not worthy enough to have the same rights as they do. Without these rules and regulations, they would not have the control that they are presented with in Latifa’s novel.
Not only do the Taliban try to restrict Kabul based on one’s sex or religion, but they successful gain control of their media and their means of entertainment. After the invasion of the Taliban, the dominant radio station that is to be listened to in Kabul is Radio Sharia. Latifa remembers what it used to be like listening to Radio Kabul before the take over and how Radio Sharia is now restricted to what the Taliban deems necessary and important: “It doesn’t have news programs anymore; the broadcast will begin at eleven o’clock… with religious chants and decrees by the mullahs” (2010, p. 34). A little later in Latifa’s story, we learn that they choose to glorify the heroes of the Taliban “while ignoring their defeats” (2010, p. 66). In this example, the Taliban are practicing media imperialism. M&N (2010) describe what the Taliban are trying to accomplish as “domination or control through the media” (p. 370). In order for them to feel that they have complete control over the city of Kabul, they not only imprison women in their homes, but they choose what they are exposed to through radio while locked up. Marilyn Frye relates the restriction of oppression to bird cage. She describes the visual of a bird cage lined with several wires and the vision that we may not initially see; the bird having no way to escape, only inhibited and restricted to the space within the wires (Frye, 1983). This is how Latifa and her family are treated within their own homes. They become scared and discouraged to leave their home and therefore, become content living within the small walls of their building, eventually slipping into a state of depression. Although we do not see anything about the dominance of the media in FOOT, we can see through the eyes of Latifa that the Taliban gaining control of their once informative Radio Sharia contributes to her oppression while accumulating to their amount of power.
We sometimes may take the routines and privileges of our daily lives for granted if we are not aware of their importance. Actions like jogging in the morning and wearing whatever you desire are so simple that they do resonate in the mind as privileges because we have always had the option to partake in these things. Latifa is one who probably did not realize how much freedom she had until it was snatched away from her one ordinary day in September of 1996. It is apparent the world Latifa lives in in Afghanistan is not the same as the world we live in today in the United States. Individuals are not granted the same freedoms as it is as we do in the land of the free. However, their independence is weakened and shrunken even more with the invasion of the Taliban. Latifa’s oppression begins with her being a female and expands as the Taliban weave out the type of people they want the people of Kabul to be molded into. The only way they can gain the results they wish for is through absolute control. Unfortunately, Latifa lets us into the story of how they gained this control and through what aspects they achieved it. In more ways than one, we can relate My Forbidden Face to our studied concepts of privilege and oppression and elaborate on these terms through Latifa’s personal yet heartbreaking experiences.