The Day I Became A Woman

Three loosely connected half-hour films add up to one powerful indictment of the onerous daily restrictions women face in contemporary Iran. In the first segment, Hava (Fatemeh Cheragh Akhtar) celebrates her ninth birthday. As her mother and grandmother prepare her first chador — the long head covering Islamic women must wear after a certain age — Hava begs for permission to join her friend Hassan (Hassan Nebhan) for ice cream. But life isn't so simple anymore: Since Hava is now considered a woman, she must obey the rules that will govern her dress and behavior for the rest of her life, and that behavior no longer includes playing with boys. In the second e...