Positions in the Society

15 Determine State Exigencies. He said that justice does not mean that all laws must be the same for men and women. The difference in the stature, vitality, voice, development, muscular quality, and physical strength of men and women shows that men are stronger and more capable in all fields 3. Iranian really believes that women must accept the reality of men dominating them, and the world must recognize the fact that men are superior. In 2005, Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran or WFAFI has distributed and compiled official laws against women in Iran. These laws are prohibiting women from the presidency, leadership, judgeship, and certain educational fields. This means that Iran constitution controls both the public and private lives and role of women. According to WFAFI, Iranian women are not free to choose or control various aspects of lives. Some of the articles from Iran Constitution are article 115, which states the condition for the presidential candidates. The law states that, “The President must come from among the religious and political statesmen rejal. The word rejal literally means men of high achievement. Another article is article 209, which states that womans life is valued only half as much as a mans life. A convicted man who has intentionally slain a woman is subject to execution only after the payment of Deyeh by the family of the victim. Deyeh is defined as a sum of money that the victims family has to pay to the assailants family for the physical damages, dismemberment, or death of the assailant. WFAFI also added that family courts in Iran do not provide women any protection from abusive husbands. 16 Moreover, Hughes also found that the top officials of the fundamentalist regime in Iran emphasize that it is sacred responsibility of a woman to serve her husband and take care of the households. The mullah supreme leader also declared that women first job is to be a wife and mother, he states that a woman is negative, primitive, and childish 1. Hughes also states the fundamentalists are denying the equality of women and men under the banner of Islam. Yet, fundamentalist also declared if women fail to comply their role as a wife and mother compel, they are compelling their men to commit sin outside the home.

2.3. Theoretical Framework

In this thesis, I formulate two problems to be answered. In the first problem, I try to find out the characteristics of the major character as portrayed in the novel. These characteristics of the major character are discovered through the theory of character and characterization. By using Abrams’s and Stanton’s, and Murphy’s theory on character and characterization, I focus on the information of the major character that can be found in the novel through personal description, conversations, thought, comment, reaction, and habit. In the second question, I try to find out the women’s position in Iran as revealed in the novel. For answering this question, I employed Rohrberger and Woods theory that can explain the relationship between literature and the social and historical in the reality. Besides, the review of the women’s position in Iran on the late twentieth century is used as the source to compare the women’s position in Iran or in the reality and in the novel.

CHAPTER III METHODOLOGY

This chapter includes three sections. They are object of the study, approach of the study, and method of the study. The first is object of the study which deals with the subject of study. Then, approach of the study which is concerned with the literature approaches. Next is method of the study which deals with the sources I will use in analyzing the study .It also deals with the steps and the process in completing the thesis.

3.1. Object of the Study

This thesis studies the novel The Saffron Kitchen. The novel is written by Yasmin Crowther, an Anglo-Iranian writer and this is her first novel. It was published by Abacus in Great Britain in 2007. The story is about an Iranian mother named Maryam. This woman has conflicts in her own live which drive her to the new life. After the accident that finally killed her daughter’s baby, Maryam decids to leave her comfortable life and go back to Iran, which later makes her realize that her truly freedom is there. This moment also made her daughter understand her mother in a way she never could before. Her daughter comes to accept that only by letting her mother go, she can finally get her mother back. This novel consists of 270 pages and it is divided into five chapters.