The government regulation of all artistic expression-from cinema to women performing to the press-keeps citizens unaware of developments in their world, deprives them of beautiful things that could be interpreted as "offensive to Islam," and in general, decreases the potential for beauty and pleasure in society. In the U.S., for example, any government limitation of artistic expression is not only illegal, but shunned by the citizens. The vast majority of Americans want to know what is out there, even if some of it might offend their personal taste. Films that openly criticize the government, like Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11, as well as films that simply might not appeal to all genres of individuals, are not only allowed to be disseminated but are widely discussed and even encouraged in our society.

Art has traditionally been not only a reflection of society but can serve as an impetus for change and modernization. Prior to and during the French Revolution, many artists were jailed or exiled for their work protesting the conditions of peasant workers in that society. One notable example of this was the work of Gustave Courbet, who painted massive (12 feet by 20 feet and more) murals depicting what life was like in the countryside, where many citizens had never ventured and were unaware of the conditions. His work The Stonebreakers, destroyed in World War II, showed in stark detail the condition of peasant workers in the countryside. It was "emblematic expression of the ideals of the 1848 Revolution," which served to change these conditions. (Kemp 307) During that same era, Picasso's Guernica grew to have a significant ant-war meaning (Kemp 415)

Unlimited freedom of expression allows the most viable ideas in a society to flourish, instead of limiting the ideas that are expressed only to those condoned...

Imagine life in the U.S. If certain ideas had not been allowed to be disseminated-things like dress, hairstyle, and home decor, to name a few of the smaller ones, would all be so boringly similar to one another! And on a larger scale, free expression allows individuals to criticize laws or policies they find unfair, which has resulted in equal rights for minorities and women, and has given many groups of underprivileged people public notice, like AIDS victims or the unemployed. Without public discussion of these issues, either through news, the press, the spoken and written word, and artistic interpretations of them, the general public would never know the issues, and as a result the issues could never be addressed.
Ideology is not necessarily the enemy of art but it tends to become so when applied relentlessly and obsessively." (Johnson 698) This statement is sadly proven to be true when seen in light of the state of art and expression in a nation like Iran when compared to the free expression encouraged in the U.S. The populace remains uninformed, unaware of issues important to them and discussion is completely squelched in a repressive, censored society such as Iran. Social change cannot begin without the public being made aware of the situation, as realists like Courbet did during the French Revolutionary era, and for that to happen art and expression must be allowed to exist without restrictions.

Bibliography

Human Rights Watch World Report 2002, Academic Freedom, accessed 8/25/05 online at http://www.hrw.org/wr2k2/academicfreedom.html

Human Rights Watch Iran 2002, accessed 08/25/05 online at http://www.hrw.org/reports/2001/iran/Iran0501-03.htm#P157_23451

Johnson, Paul. Art: A New History. Harper Collins, New York, 2003

Oxford History of Western Art, ed. Martin Kemp. Oxford University Press: Oxford, 2000

Pirouz, Rousbeh, The Lizard: Iran in the Cinema's Gaze, 22 July 2004 online at http://opendemocracy.net/content/articles/PDF/2016.pdf

Rosenbaum, Johnathan, A Few Underpinnings of the New Iranian Cinema in senseofcinema, accessed 8/25/05 at http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/02/21/new_iranian.html

Yadegari, Shahrokh " Introduction to Persian Traditional Music," Iranian Culture, accessed 8/25/05 at http://www.internews.org/visavis/BTVPagesInews/Persian_trad_music.html#after