The social life of women in Muslim countries like Saudi Arabia, Iran, etc., is unimaginable as they have to live under innumerable restrictions. As if this was not enough, the women are often subjected to sexual violence. And when they raise their voice against such sexual violence, guess what they get? Not justice, but the noose.
The fate of 19-year old Reyhaneh Jabbari, an Iranian girl, was sealed the day she went to visit the home of a man who later attempted to rape her. In self-defense, she stabbed him and fled. He died later, and she was jailed for seven years. Then in due course, she was hanged in October 2014. Faezeh Jalali, a Mumbai-based theatre-person directed the play ‘7/7/07’ based on this real-life story. The incidence of rape took place on 7th July 2007. Hence, this unusual name of the play.
The play begins with the refrain of a haunting Persian song ‘I will go to the mountains to hunt a deer/ Where is my gun?/ You have written a love letter/ With the blood of your lover’. There would not have been a more apt opening for a play about life, death and betrayal. Actor-director Faezeh Jalali has a Persian background. This is perhaps why she could put effortlessly together such a haunting play. The play premiered during the Centre Stage festival at Mumbai’s National Centre for the Performing Arts (NCPA) held in 2015.
The real-life story
The victim Reyhaneh Jabbari was an aspiring interior designer. A former civil servant Dr. Morteza Abdolali Sarbandi lured Jabbari to his home and attempted to rape her. She was left with no choice but to flee by hook or by crook. She had to stab him to let her go. Though he was wounded, he did not die on the spot, but a few days later in the hospital. Jabbari was arrested and later tried for murder of that doctor. Much of the evidence was doctored and she was finally framed. She was in jail for seven long years. While in jail, she was initially denied a lawyer. She was tortured too and thrown in solitary confinement. Finally the court found her guilty and ordered her to be hanged. The international human rights organisations the world over campaigned hard for her release, but in vain. The Amnesty International declared that ‘it was a deeply flawed investigation and trial’. She was finally hanged on 25th October 2014. By then she was 26 years old. It must be noted that the lever was pulled by the son of the man she was accused of killing.
During the entire trial she was accused of many things like being a seductress, spy and of course ‘a bad Muslim’. But till the last she maintained that she was innocent. Jabbari had written a set of 20 accounts before she was hung. Jalali requested Reyhaneh Jabbari’s mother to help her in bringing Jabbari’s ordeal to life. Ten out of 20 accounts are available to public and the others are still with her mother. Jabbari’s mother is planning to release all of them in the form of a book.
The play
Now about the play. This background information is absolutely essential as ‘7/7/07’ is not an ordinary, Broadway play. It hits you like a ton of bricks as you realise the momentariness of life, and what it means to live in an oppressive society where women’s rights are trampled upon day after day. A girl cannot raise her voice against an important member of the system. In a highly patriarchal society a man can do no wrong, and the woman must be punished. Jalali’s direction relies on voice modulation and movement of the actors. The show is completely riveting due to the sheer sincerity of the ensemble. Jalali is at her best as she gets 6-7 characters to play various shades of the central character Jabbari. This is how the very personal suddenly becomes universal. Every girl in Iran or anywhere in the world could be Reyhaneh Jabbari. This is the point driven hard by this technique. Similarly, there are three men in the cast who play the judge, the rapist, the prison in-charge – to instill the idea that it could be any man.
Two aspects of the play must be mentioned. One is the beautiful light design, and the other is the minimal usage of props. The thoughtful lighting captures the mood of each part in the play. And the minimal use of property puts demands on actors to hold the attention of the audience. The Experimental Theatre of the NCPA has balconies on both sides of the stage which were brilliantly used by the director. In some scenes of the court trial, the lawyers from opposite sides argue from the balconies which make those scenes quite stark. The cast included: Faezeh Jalali, Rytasha Rathod, Suruchi Aulakh, Srishti Srivastava, Himani Pant and others.
All in all, this is a play worth walking that extra mile for. If theatre is supposed to put the viewers in a thinking mode, ‘7/7/07’ does it extremely well. Do not miss it if it comes to your city at some point.
