'Gender Roles In The Film Brick Lane'

There are the roles society decides that creates the idea of gender roles and we can see these in each nation differently according to their lifestyles and daily lives. In the Brick Lane movie we have 3 main characters presented with their accepted gender roles according to society. They are Nazneen, main woman character who is originally born in Bangladesh and moved in England when she is married with Chanu Ahmed, who is our second character, the husband. And at last we have Karim who is working as a carrier for a textile fabric. They are all muslim and all live in England. Brick Lane is a street in England, “Today, it is the heart of the city's Bangladeshi-Sylheti community and is known to some as Banglatown.” (“Brick Lane – Wikipedia,”
In addition, “gender roles are learned during development, and reinforced through-out everyday life.” (Gauntlett, 2008, p. 38)

In the following scenes, she gets prepeared to get married with an older man, Chanu, she only sees a picture of. Nazneen was 17 when married with Chanu, she never had a chance to see him before the marriage, but she was expected to be grateful for a man like Chanu, who is accepted as an educated man who lives abroad while Nazneen was only a girl whose mother died when she was young. She was prepared by people surrounding her and went to England on her own to live her expected
Thus, most women's economic and social lives revolve around the home, children, and family” ("Culture of Bangladesh - history, people, clothing, traditions, women, beliefs, food, customs, family," n.d.). She spends most of her time at home cooking for household, cleaning and tidying home. And it is seen as what it should be. So no one says anything opposite till the time she decides to work from home, her husband says “are you smarten a bit” to show that he disapproves her action and leaves the room. Because he thinks that it is not normal nor acceptable in society for women to work. Following days, he brings home a computer and says “your mother married an educated man” as he is better than her to feel better and dominated. Because, “to be "masculine" is to be active, aggressive, dominant, and ambitious.” for their understanding. (“Gender Roles are behaviors and attributes expected of individuals on thebasis on being born either female or male,” n.d.) And women are expected to be naïve and silent. We can also see that when she can not even stop her husband when he uses force on their daughter when she speaks up against her