Caliel James Ogaro

Movie Analysis
(The Stoning of Soraya M.)

The movie that is entitled “The Stoning of Soraya” took place in the village of

Kupeyah, Iran, and based on a true story. The story was about how the journalist

unveiled the terror of the village of Kupeyah that is supervised by Mullah Hassam, the

town cleric. Soraya, a housewife like any other, she has 4 children and being abused by

her husband Ali. Due to the inequality in the village, women do now have the power to

file a case against their husband. Soraya was accused of marital infidelity, a crime

which a woman may be stoned to death under Islamic law. The accusation of Soraya

was because of Ali wanting a girl whom he cannot achieve because of his salary that

cannot support of having two wives. The Death of Hashem’s wife, led Hashem to

difficult life with his developmentally-disabled son, Soraya took the position as a

household helper and help care of Hashem’s son. As soon as Ali noticed his wife,

Soraya, have been to Hashem’s house quite a lot, with that, Ali took the advantage and

convinces Hashem to participate on his schemes. And with the Mayor Ebrahim’s

decision, he declared Soraya as an adulteress and order her to be stoned to death.

As the whole story presents, the inequality in the village led the women

powerless against men, where men could bring down every women that opposes them.

The way of scheming of Ali towards his wife was the use of power, where he used

bribery for his plans to succeed. Mullah Hassam was forced to agree to Ali’s scheme for

Ali knows the background of Mullah Hassam. As for Hashem, he took the advantage of
Hashem’s disabled son, and made it his key to success. In the end, Soraya was stoned,

with no sins attained. After the story was told by Zarah to the journalist, the journalist

took his leave with the story recorded in order to bring justice to Soraya, a housewife

who pledge her life for the best of her children.