Zinat, One Special Day

Description: Zinat, the first woman from Qeshm in the south of Iran to remove her traditional face mask, is running for office. To work as a nurse, Zinat became the first woman from the Island of Qeshm in the south of Iran to remove the traditional veil (Boregheh). A health care worker for 13 years, she eventually got involved in social and political activities. Now Zinat, along with her husband Ahmad, is running for office in the first local elections held in Iran since the revolution. Because it is forbidden to film in public the day of the elections, filmmaker Ebrahim Mokhtari shoots inside Zinat's house. Amidst election day rumors and intrigue, Zinat engages in friendly banter with Ahmad over which of them will get the most votes. She trades spirited jibes with a man who tells her, "a woman should be like a domesticated animal," and her visitors debate the place of women in Iranian society. The following day, with the elections over, Mokhtari shows the village and the daily life of its inhabitants, while Zinat presents her intentions, as a newly elected representative, to improve the living conditions of her fellow villagers.