Mustang: The Loss of Girlhood, the Preservation of Virginity, & The Pursuit of Liberty.

Mustang (2015) centers on the lives of five sisters from a small Turkish town who try to take back their freedom after being locked up in the house by their grandmother and uncle. What was solely a playful day at the beach with their male classmates turned into a fabricated rumor of behaving provocatively with boys through the source of a neighbor. Believing her rebellious granddaughters are on a path to a hedonistic lifestyle at such a young age, the grandmother does whatever she can to protect their virginity.

Following the events at the beach, the girls are confined to the house locked up with excessive fencing around the area. Each time they sneak out, more fencing is added. Treated like prisoners, the girls spend their days inside, isolated away from their school and their friends. They are without technology and internet access, prohibited from wearing makeup, and are required to wear long dresses with long sleeves, and forbidden to do anything else that will entice a boy.

Their room is being turned upside down, and boundaries are being crossed as the girls lose their right to privacy and their possessions.

As they lose their sanity and freedom, they also lose their girlhood. They are forced to put their education to a halt. Instead, they are forced to be conservative housewives who obey their husbands and take care of the house and their spouses. The grandmother saving her granddaughters for marriage can be seen as a symbol of purity culture where young women are forbidden from having sexual intercourse until they get married.

With that being said, symbolism I discovered about this issue takes place in this film as other forms of symbolism do as well. In one scene, Lale, the youngest of the five and whose perspective the majority of the film relies on, throws out a pot of what looks like burning tomatoes outside the window. This thoughtless act and the rash decision can be seen as the grandmother throwing her granddaughters out into the world of marriage despite their young age and neglecting their sexual education.

Though they are being trained to be experienced wives, they are still young girls who want nothing more than to enjoy their youth. The girls, especially Lale, still behave in a childish manner that suggests that there is a part of them that does not want to grow up or has yet to do so.

In my opinion, it is intelligible that the grandmother is trying to do what's best for her granddaughters--as she should. However, keeping them away from the very thing that they are curious about is only going to make them want to explore this life of "non-chastity" more. Not only that, but the idea is, "Whatever you don't want me to do, I'm going to do it anyway because you don't want me to do it." The question is, what are you hiding?

It is normal for young girls to behave defiantly and want to explore their sexuality. This is not uncommon at their age.

What I do find ironic is that the grandmother believes she is keeping her granddaughters safe from the real world when she is not. In actuality, she is doing more harm than good by marrying them off to other men and getting them off her hands, unprepared for how the real world works.

Furthermore, speaking of marriage, the wedding night is always something special. In some cultures, and in Turkish culture, back then, women would have to perform a virginity test that same night after the newlyweds "made love" for the first time. The groom would have to hand the bloody sheets to the elders waiting outside the door and confirm whether or not their wife was a virgin. Though the evidence of blood worked in favor of most women, it did not work out so much for the second oldest, Selma.

She showed no signs of being a virgin, and when that happened, she was taken to a doctor to see what the problem was. The doctor reported that though there was no blood, everything was still intact. Her case was different and probably the same as other young girls who went through the same thing. Except, their "issue" was possibly treated in a different and harsh manner than Selma's.

The issue with trying to control young girls or tame their wild spirits is that it is like trying to keep a fire in a jar, knowing the fire is going to break out the glass. It is impossible. There is still so much that they are curious about and have yet to learn. The world is a scary place, and by failing to teach them about essential things that will benefit them in the long run, you are neglecting their growth. It does not matter if these "things" contradict your beliefs; they are a part of life, regardless of religion. Knowledge is important, and it is powerful.