A Probing Look at the Decent Relationships between Man and Woman in Iran's Cinema (A Case Study of the Movie " About Eli")

The type of the relationships between man and woman and demarcation of interactions between the opposite sexes has a decisive effect on one’s spirit and mind, family stability and progress of society. If an influential media like cinema, attempts to extend in society a particular kind of sex education contrary to religion and nature which results in lack of respect between man and woman, such attempts will have a destructive effect on the audience’s opinion and behavior, which cannot easily be compensated. The present paper, delving into Quranic verses and traditions, seeks to extract the components of the decent relationships between non-mahrams (those who are not related through marriage or those who are not allowed to marry each other). Then it tries, through a semiotic analysis of the movie, to examine the way between non-mahram man and woman are presented in the movie “About Eli”, an intellectual product of Iran’s cinema during the 80's to see whether or not it is compatible with Islamic teachings. The paper shows that the movie, using social and technical codes, presents a type of relationships between man and woman which is completely incompatible with the criteria of Islamic concept of chastity. The ideological concepts of the movie are both explicit and lack decency.