The status of women in Iran since 1979: explaining the changes driven by the Revolution and Globalisation 3/3

Temps de lecture : 5 minutes

Women’s work in Iran since the 1979 Revolution

Illustrateur Nato Tardieu

August 28, 2019

Written by Deborah Rouach
Translated by Anaïs Loye-Marangone

Women’s struggle for their rights predates the 1979 Revolution, but it will change significantly from that moment on. Through the study of the evolution of the Iranian feminist movement, we will identify the shifts in attitudes, the transformative power of women in society and their growing influence.

Women occupied a central place in the revolutionary movement of 1978-1979, their massive participation enabled them to impose themselves ‘as new actors of socio-political change^[1]LADIER-FOULADI Marie, Iran, un monde de paradoxes, L’Atalante, 2009, p. 56.” and to become aware of their capacity for protest, which they would use to fight against the discrimination and hyper-genitalisation of which they were victims. Nevertheless, the social ascent of Islamist women, who had ‘experienced the Islamic Republic as a political and social breakthrough^[2]COVILLE Thierry, Iran, la révolution invisible, La découverte, 2007, p. 82.”, will prove to be illusory.

The disruption of the patriarchal order in the family unit is an opportunity for women to make their demands known through a new impetus in the public sphere. Iranian women will then go in search of a new definition of their role in society, challenging the archaic conception established by the authorities. Whether secular or religious, traditionalist or reformist, rural or urban, wealthy or middle class, women fought for their rights, albeit not as a homogeneous movement. Indeed, although they were determined “to break with patriarchal traditions and take the path to greater emancipation^[3]LADIER-FOULADI Marie, Iran, un monde de paradoxes, L’Atalante, 2009, p. 63.”, their actions reveal different strategies.

Islamic feminism has resulted in a takeover of the religious, favouring a feminine reading of Islam that distinguishes discriminatory practices based on a religious prohibition from those based on a social prohibition. They are therefore part of a modern approach. The creation of religious associations has favoured the establishment of a network and a platform where women lead the debate and criticise the system from within by attacking the very foundations used to legitimise the injustice of their condition. Thus, “women’s questioning of male authority has spread to areas that the authorities thought were untouchable^[4]KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, Les femmes iraniennes entre Islam, État et famille, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002, p. 223.”. However, the ideas put forward differ between the defence of the complementarity of men and women and their equality. However, the debate takes place within a sacralised body and is based on an essentialised Islam, so it remains limited because ‘trying to find equality in the Koran is illusory^[5]Conference at Iremmo entitled “Women, feminists and Islam”, with TAUIL Leila and KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, given on 14/06/2019.”.

Secular activists experienced the establishment of the Islamic Republic in different ways: some left the country, others organised informal meetings or linked up with the Iranian diaspora and international feminist movements in order to exert pressure on the government, denounce ‘human rights violations – stoning, public flogging, the appalling situation of women in family courts – and […] question the capacity of Islam to treat the two sexes equally^[6]HOODFAR Homa et SADR Shadi, « Iran : politiques islamiques et femmes en quête d’égalité », Cahiers du Genre, vol. hs 3, n° 3, 2012, p. 47-67.”. They denounced the “mutilated modernity^[7]CHAFIQ Chahla, Islam politique, sexe et genre : À la lumière de l’expérience iranienne, Presses Universitaires de France, 2011, p. 160.” of their condition, because although they acquired more freedoms, they were still held back in their quest for emancipation and had to make do with incomplete autonomy, due to the state’s blocking of the democratisation of society. Their social activity will encourage the liberation of women’s voices and find a relay in the press, including Shahla Sherkat’s newspaper Zanan Emrooz, which played an important role in the dissemination of feminist ideas.

In the late 1990s, the new generation of women, still living under the subjugation of a phallocratic system, transcended the secular and Islamic dichotomy to form a united coalition for equality. The editor of Farzaneh magazine, Mahboubeh Abbasqolizadeh, said in 1994: “We know that secularists do not share our beliefs, but we have no problem with that because we are all working to promote the status of women. [We [Islamic activists] are aware that our sectarianism led to the isolation of many competent women during the early years of the revolution and that this isolation was to the detriment of all women^[8]KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, Les femmes iraniennes entre Islam, État et famille, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002, p.89.”.

This was a turning point that marked the “massive entry of women into the social arena ^[9]COVILLE Thierry, Iran, la révolution invisible, La découverte, 2007, p. 147.” and was expressed in part through the increasing number of women running for the presidential elections in 2001. Although none of them were endorsed by the Supervisory Board, they sent a strong message to society by showing the inevitability of their rise. Women’s determination took a different form in 2006 with the ‘one million signatures’ campaign to repeal laws that discriminate against women and change the Constitution. This campaign established a discourse on women’s rights in the social and political spheres. Their involvement in the Green Movement, the post-election uprising that took place in 2009 in reaction to the announcement of the re-election of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, allowed them to assert themselves in the public space and revitalise their civic struggle, reaching out to the whole of society, while disseminating their demands and attracting Iranian public opinion.

But what will prove intolerable for the state is that the women’s demands ‘include the secularisation of laws and institutions, the reconciliation of Islam and democracy, the codification of equality between men and women, the limitation of the intervention of the state and its laws on the population in general and women in particular^[10]KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, Les femmes iraniennes entre Islam, État et famille, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002, p. 284.”. Transcending issues related to their gender and condition, they called on the whole of society to move towards a way of life that corresponds to the modernisation of the country. By demanding “the social construction of secularism and the advent of a democratic system that has as a precondition the separation of the religious and political spheres^[11]KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, Les femmes iraniennes entre Islam, État et famille, Maisonneuve & Larose, 2002, p. 287.”, the women question the system and show that it is fallible.

But major obstacles to the struggle of Iranian women persist. Feminism is considered as a “vestige of the Western cultural invasion^[12]KIAN-THIÉBAUT Azadeh, « Mouvements de femmes en Iran : entre l’islam et l’Occident », in Verschuur, C. (ed.), Vents d’Est, vents d’Ouest : Mouvements de femmes et féminismes … Continue reading” and is considered incompatible with Iranian society by the authorities. Social space is muzzled. And women suffer heavy repression (fines, imprisonment, intimidation, etc.) for “undermining state security […] [which] testifies to the level of concern of the authorities because of the growing influence on the social and political scene^[13]LADIER-FOULADI Marie, Iran, un monde de paradoxes, L’Atalante, 2009, p.80.” of women and their increasing visibility.

To cite this article: Deborah Rouach, ” Comprendre les mutations qui affectent l’Iran à travers la question de la condition des femmes”, Mémoire de master, under the direction of Mr Thierry Coville, Iris Sup’, 2019, 56 p.