A Comparative analysis of critique of the patriarchal social system in the poetry of Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riyadh

Introduction

The long-term historical process that has led to the emergence of a new Western civilization and is today called modernity, has exposed all aspects of human life to change and revision, including the change of social structures and the transformation of the values ​​that govern these structures. One of the most important challenges in entering the modern world in the field of social structures and values ​​that have emerged from the beginning of this historical process and has gone through many ups and downs, regardless of the many conflicts that can be raised in many ways has been the subject of criticism of the patriarchal view that governs the structure and social values ​​of the traditional world and the demand for equal rights for men and women. After the acquaintance of oriental nations with Western modernity and under the influence of Western social developments, this demand was gradually formed among some intellectuals in Islamic and Asian countries, especially educated women and intellectuals, who were mainly poets and writers and led to the emergence of women's writing, including poetry and prose in the literature of these countries. Feminine writing has several components, one of which is the critique of various aspects of the patriarchal social system. Based on what has been mentioned, due to the many commonalities and similarities in cultural, historical and social fields and roots between the Iranian and Pakistani communities, including the traditional and religious interests and contexts along with the social movement towards development and modernity, It seems that women's poetry in Iran and Pakistan, despite slight differences, has many similarities in terms of reflecting women's issues and problems, as well as common feminine feelings and experiences. Therefore, this research tries to compare and analyze the issue of the critique of the patriarchal social system in the works of Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riaz, two contemporary Iranian and Pakistani female poets, using a comparative approach. Accordingly, the present study is a report of methodical and scientific efforts in order to find answers to the following questions:
- How is the critique of the patriarchal social system seen in the poetry of Fahmida Riaz and Simin Behbahani?
- How can the similarities and differences of the critique of the patriarchal social system in the poetry of the two selected poets be analyzed?
 

Methodology

This is theoretical research based on written documents and sources, conducted in a descriptive-analytical method and with the approach of sociology of literature has studied the critique of the patriarchal social system in a comparative way in the poetry of Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riaz.
 
3.Discussion
In a patriarchal society, a man is a first-class citizen and a woman a second-class one. The context, time, and society in which Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riaz live are also patriarchal societies, which due to gender discrimination in the social and value system, not only  dismiss a large portion of women's inalienable rights, but also they unintentionally and unjustly impose many problems and difficulties on them. In the following sections, the researchers will review and analyze some of these issues that are reflected in the works of these two Iranian and Pakistani poets.
Simin Behbehani
In a patriarchal social structure which is based on the superiority of the male sex, women lack originality and are merely a means of meeting the needs of the superior sex, i.e., women are the means of sexual satisfaction for men. For this reason, in women's writings, this instrumentalistic view of women, which is the result of a patriarchal social structure, is always criticized. Simin Behbahani tells the story of a man who sees a woman merely as a sexual commodity in the poem "Vasteh". Besides this poem, Behbahani in another poem called "The Dancer" narrates the lust of men in a seemingly open society, whose leaders are in the pursuit of modernization and call it the gate of their civilization. Behbahani believes that in a patriarchal society, all forms of freedom have been taken away from women in the name of tradition or under the pretext of modernity. Just as the dancer is trapped in the circle of men's asceticism in the name of freedom and the housewife is also forced to stay home and avoid socialization. In the poem "Zan dar Zindan-e Tala" (Woman in the Gold Prison), Simin complains about the forced residence of  the contemporary Iranian woman in the gold palace, without authority, freedom and independence. Other issues that provoke Simin Behbahani's social critique are polygamy and the right of men to divorce, along with various manifestations of male violence and its social consequences, such as, sexual and physical violence, abandonment of children and evasion of responsibility towards the family, as well as forcing girls into marriage, and above all, confronting women not from the perspective of the human element but as a means of men’s satisfaction and reproduction are the most important social problems of women in the patriarchal society of Iran, which are usually depicted in the form of often long poems, with a large number of verses and in a narrative tone and atmosphere. Poems that include such themes in Simin Behbahani’s collection of works, include poems such as Fe’l-e Majhool (The Passive verb), Ilkhan Sitareh-ha (the Ilkhan of the stars), Jibb Bor (the pickpocket), Dard-e Niaz (the pain of need), Anja wa Eenja (here and there), Khoon-e Sabz (green blood), Zarkhrid (Bought), etc., in general her poetic works, such as Jay-e pa (Footprint, 1954), Chelcheragh (Chandelier, 1955), Marmar (Marble, 1961), Rastakhiz (Resurrection, 1971), Khati ze Sor’at va Atash (A Line of Speed and Fire,1980), Dasht-e Arzhan (The Plain of Arzan,1983), Kaghazin Jameh (Paper-Thin Vestment, 1989), Yek Daricheh-e Azadi (A Window to Freedom, 1995) and Tazeh-ha (The Latest, 2008) are scattered.
Although the origins of Behbahani's critique of the patriarchal social system and the patriarchal values that govern Iranian society can be attributed to the feminist ideas, but certainly, this feminism is by no means anti-male and extremist and has a perfectly rational, moderate and balanced basis.
Fahmida Riaz
Fahmida Riaz is also one of the poets who has paid attention to the issues and problems arising from the patriarchal social system for Pakistani women, and this issue is one of the central discourses in the works and especially the poems of this famous Pakistani poet. Fahmida Riaz was born on July 28, 1946, in the city of Meerut. Fahmida grew up in Hyderabad (Pakistan) and her father died when she was 4 years old. During her school years (1960), she composed her first poem and published it in "Fonoon" magazine (Mari, 2004, pp. 14-15). Fahmida got married in 1965, and after marriage, she went to England and published the book Badan Darideh (The Torn Body) (1973) there. She returned to Pakistan a few years later from the United Kingdom and served for some time as the chairman of the National Book Council in Islamabad. When General Zia-ul-Haq came to power, he realized that she was the director of the literary magazine "Avaz". The military government did not come to terms with her and she went to India for several years and did not return until General Zia-ul-Haq was alive (Shams ul-Haqq, 2008, p. 381). Fahmida Riaz, in addition to being a poet, was also a prose writer and translator, and some of her prose works include Karachi, Goodwari, Tem Kabir, Zindeh Bahar, etc. Fahmida Riaz's translations are often from the masterpieces of the world poetry in Urdu (poetry and prose), one of which is Kohli Darichi si (from the open window), a translation of selected poems by Forough Farrokhzad, an Iranian Persian poet. In essence, this expresses the poet's belonging and her acquaintance with the living and dynamic corpus of contemporary Persian poetry (Riaz, 1998, pp. 2-3). She has another book called Ye Khaneh Ab va Gel (This House of Water and Mud), which is a poetic translation of selected lyric poems of Divan Shams-e Tabrizi and indicates his familiarity with classical Iranian literature (Rumi, 2006, pp. 1-2). Shadiani is a story that has been translated into Urdu prose by Fahmida Riaz and this Novel is from the Egyptian Najib Mahfouz who won a Nobel Prize (Mahfouz, 2000, p. 2). Apart from these, she wrote stories such as Qaleh Framosh, Adhora Adami, Halqa meri Zanjir ka, Apna Jurm Sabit hey etc. Fahmida Riaz died on November 21, 2018.
Although Riaz has made a critique of the patriarchal social system in the context of the tradition of its prestige, she has not neglected the imposition of new problems on women, such as freedom. These problems, which sometimes occur in Eastern societies, are doubly severe in political regimes with a capitalist approach, like the United States or France, which is seen as the origin of democracy (Sarvarian, 2004, p. 302). Denying the physical and mental abilities of women and limiting their social function to physical characteristics is one of the topics of concern for Riaz and the poem "The Beauty Contest" is a strong protest against the behaviour in which the female body has become the subject of writers, poets and artists. This poem is about beautiful girls who participate in the beauty contest and there, just by appearance and physical criteria, a worthy girl is selected from the point of view of men.
The poem "Chador and Chardivari" is one of the most important poems of Riaz regarding women's issues in the patriarchal social system, which has addressed various issues in this regard. Part of this poem depicts the oppression of men and their cruel domination over women who have been exploited and sometimes sexually abused for low wages.
Fahmida Riaz describes the captivity of women in the poem "smile of a woman" and so it challenges the idols of the new temple, which are international symbols and demands peace from them.
The poem "Chador and Chahardivari" tells the story of a woman who is forced to wear a hijab to cover herself. But the woman, who is a symbol of the poet herself, cleverly points to more important social priorities and points out the poverty of the society to the rulers. And ironically, he asks them to first bury the shrouded dead who have been left on the ground by the pressure of poverty. In another layer of this poem, the corpse can be considered a symbol of women who in the house of fanatical men have the status of the moving dead who need to be covered more than others.
Other issues such as polygamy of men, types of verbal, physical and psychological violence, forced marriage and social inequalities are other social problems of women in Pakistani society that Fahmida Riaz in its poetic works,  like Pathar ki Zaban (Stone Language, 1967), Badan Daridah (the Torn Body, 1973), Dohup (Sunshine, 1976), Kia Tum Pura Chand Na Dikhu Gay (Will You Not See the Full Moon, 1984), Hamarkab (Travel companion, 1988), Admi ki Zindigi (Human Life, 1999), Kulyat-e Fahmida Riaz Sab Lal o Gowhar (Generalities of Riaz called Sab Lal and Gowhar, 2011) have been criticized.
 
4.Conclusion
The results of the present study on the critique of the patriarchal social system in the poetry of Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riaz are as follows:
- One of the important topics and discourses in the poetry of Simin Behbahani and Fahmida Riaz is the critique of the patriarchal social system and the moral and social values ​​that govern it and the confrontation with the violation of some social rights of women in Iranian and Pakistani society;
- Due to cultural, historical, religious, social, etc. commonalities that exist between Iran and Pakistan ​- topics related to the subject of this research were often in common in the works of both poets and were often expressed in a common style (narrative style);
- Although Fahmida Riaz is known as one of the activists of the women's social movement in Pakistan, neither of the two mentioned poets - based on their poetic works - can be considered a feminist poet in its radical and even liberal sense, because the criticisms expressed in their poetry are completely humane and respectful of men while recognizing their rights and they are sometimes accompanied by a critique of the values ​​that govern the liberal-democratic discourse of the New World.
- Simin Behbahani's social criticisms are more superficial, emotional and soft, but Fahmida Riaz's critiques are deep, thoughtful, sharp and reckless, with political connotations and critiques of the ruling power;
- Despite the many thematic similarities in the critique of the patriarchal social system in the works of the two selected poets, the influence of Fahmida Riaz on Simin Behbahani seems very unlikely. But, Fahmida Riaz's influence from Simin Behbahani, due to her fluency in Persian language, complete familiarity with classical Persian poetry and interest in contemporary Iranian poetry, as seen in the introduction of her translations of Shams lyric poems and Forough Farrokhzad's poems in Urdu, is quite probable.