Nobel Women’s Initiative blog

by Roja Bandari, NWI rapporteur, PhD student in electrical engineering

As an Iranian-American, I work to help my sisters in Iran while living in the US where my own life is affected by women’s image and position in the society. When I came to the US at the age of 20, I was accustomed to the Iranian society with its own forms of male and female stereotyping and a different (and more visible) version of patriarchy. I had gotten used to ignore or maneuver around most of these issues.

Americans have a different set of stereotypes (although there are some overlaps) and especially negative language associated with women which insulted me all anew when I started integrating into American society. I am specifically quite irritated at the media and popular culture’s image of women and the way it leads to how women see themselves and how men and women view other women. It’s not a very pleasant image, and not one that I’d like to be associated with. I have often wondered why there isn’t a more widespread and unified campaign to change this and to improve the public image of women in the US.

Today, when Yanar Mohammed brought up the issue of Iraqi television programs and how women are portrayed in them, I immediately remembered my own struggle at home. Yanar suggested for an international women’s television channel to be established. That sounded incredible and it compelled me to raise my hand and say how I think this channel will not only empower women in Iraq and other countries, but it can also empower the American women. It seems to me that American women are sometimes viewed by the international community as women with no problems and even maybe as a powerful group that perpetuates oppression on other people. I think this is not true.

I believe that the average American woman has to learn to feel solidarity with her sisters inside America in order to learn to also have solidarity with the rest of the women in the world. And for most American girls, that solidarity does not seem to be there, or at least I don’t see it. American women are not all-powerful forces that are sitting at the top of the world. They experience discrimination and violence as well, and especially when the world complains about the US acting as a bully (with its military, its media, etc.). In some situations, it’s not far off to think that American women can get bullied by their own macho media at home. Fighting the macho mentality inside America might help ameliorate the macho foreign policies of the US as well. I’m not a sociologist nor an academic in Women’s studies, but this simply seems to make sense to me.