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Although
European nations' imperial interest in the Middle East was primarily geopolitical
and economic, it was rationalized, sustained, and propagated ideologically.
In other words, the colonization or quasi-colonization of entire peoples
had to be justified and supported. Thus, many colonizers argued that a
civilizing mission was intrinsic to the imperial venture; peoples of the
East would benefit from the great civilizational advances that the Western
conquerors would bring.
According
to this logic, the East was inherently different from the West; it was
backwards, underdeveloped, traditional. Eastern women became a primary
signifier of this difference. Helping to make the life of Eastern women
better (more modern, more equal) was sometimes set forth as a justification
for colonial involvement in Eastern nations. Even as countries like France
and England were busy colonizing most of Africa and Asia, women within
their own empires were asking for equal status as citizens. In other words,
imperialism and the suffrage movement were coterminous and interlinked
historical phenomena. Some of the leading advocates of women's rights
in 19th century Europe argued that truly civilized countries should have
liberated women; if the male leaders of their countries wanted to prove
that their societies were more civilized than those of the East, they
should grant women the right to vote. Thus, ironically, both 19th century
feminists and imperialists propagated an image of Eastern women as hapless
and powerless; harem literature flourished, paintings of imagined lascivious
harem scenes were common, even the interior decor of the Victorian romantics
was influenced by illusory Orientalist flourishes. When one attempts to
unravel stereotypes of Iranian women, this historical background is critical
to understand.
These views
also helped to shape the way women's issues were articulated within anti-colonial
nationalist movements. Some reformers and thinkers argued that the best
way for the East to be free from Western colonial influence was to "catch
up" with the West and to modernize; in this scenario, it was important
to set forth a secular, liberal manifestation of feminism as a symbol
of a modern nation. Other nationalists felt quite differently. They argued
that in the material realm, the East could never fully compete with the
West. But in the spiritual realm, the East would always be superior to
the West. The material outside realm was that of men; the spiritual private
realm was the domain of women. Though the colonial powers had taken over
the outside realm, they could never penetrate the private sphere. The
traditional Eastern woman became a signifier of a society that had not
capitulated to the Western colonial influences.
Discussions
on the proper role of women in Iranian society are best understood within
this larger historical context. In the nineteenth century, though Iran
was never formally colonized, it was subject to increasing colonial influence.
All of its neighboring states eventually fell within the grasp of European
imperial power. By 1907, the British and the Russians entered into an
agreement which divided Iran into spheres of influence. In an attempt
to insure Iran's independence as a nation-state, some leaders and thinkers
argued that Iran would be strengthened by becoming more secular and westernized;
these reformers often argued for feminist reforms such universal education
and deveiling. Others resisted these changes, arguing that they indicated
a loosening of the Iranian moral fiber, a caving in to Western influences.
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The
Pahlavi Dynasty's Modernization Programs
In 1925,
Reza Khan and a group of soldiers overthrew the Qajar dynasty that had
ruled Iran since the early 1700s. They were to establish a republic, but
Reza Khan soon crowned himself king and established the Pahlavi dynasty.
Seeking to modernize Iran, he looked to Turkey's Mustafa Kamal Ataturk
as an example. Like Ataturk, Reza Shah Pahlavi saw the symbolic modernization
and secularization of women as central to his social program. In the 1930s,
he made the wearing of the veil illegal. During the second World War,
the Allied Powers overthrew Reza Shah in order to have more easy access
to Iranian resources such as oil, which was critical for the success of
the British navy. Additionally, Iran was increasingly important as a route
for the Allies to supply the Russians. With the obstinate Reza Shah in
permanent exile, his 21-year-old son Mohammad Reza Pahlavi took over the
reigns of power.
From the
start of his reign, then, the second Pahlavi Shah was closely aligned
with Western powers, especially the United States. In the 1950s, certain
members of Iran's Parliament sought to nationalize the oil industry so
that Iranians themselves would be the main beneficiaries of the oil revenues.
Until then, Great Britain had reaped most of the financial benefits of
Iran's oil reserves. The leader of the oil nationalization movement was
the Prime Minister Mossadeq. In 1952, Mossadeq was Time Magazine's Man
of the Year. By 1953, the popular Mossadeq threatened not just the British
oil apparatus but the Pahlavi regime itself. The Shah left the country
for an Italian exile. Within days, the CIA helped to overthrow Mossadeq
who was tried for treason and sent into internal exile until his death.
The Shah was returned to power. He never forgot this vulnerable epoch
in his reign or the role that the United States played in returning him
to his throne.
The West
became even more greatly imbricated with the Pahlavi regime. As Iran's
oil wealth grew, the Shah sought to modernize the country and instituted
various programs that affected gender relations. As part of his White
Revolution of 1963, he granted women the right to vote and to hold a seat
in the Parliament. In 1967, he passed the Family Protection Law which
granted women certain rights in marriage, divorce, and child custody.
In 1976, he appointed the first woman cabinet member; Mahnaz Afkhami became
the first minister for women's affairs. The Pahlavi kings articulated
a secular version of modernization, one that included a liberal view of
gender relations.
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Backlash
by Traditionalists
In the 1960s,
when Ayatollah Khomeini began to publicly oppose the Shah, his strongest
criticisms were voiced against the new family laws which granted women
more rights. In effect, these changes had impinged on the powers of the
Muslim clerics by extricating personal and family laws from the religious
domain and integrating them into the sphere of the monarchical state.
The balance of power between the monarchy and the clerics had been disrupted
by these changes in women's rights. Following his vociferous opposition
to these changes, Khomeini was exiled by the Shah and was sent to Iraq.
Southern Iraq has a great historical significance to the Shi'ites and
proved to be a hospitable site from which Khomeini could garner greater
support for his own vision for the future of Iran.
The 1960s
and 1970s proved to be an arduous time for many Iranians. The economic
changes ushered in by the oil wealth were a mixed bag. While some flourished,
others were excluded from the economic boom. The country's demography
shifted radically as more people migrated to the cities. Because of massive
unemployment, the ranks of the urban poor grew. More and more Iranians
became disenchanted with the Western, modernized lifestyle promoted by
the Pahlavi regime. They began to look for other ideologies and lifestyles.
Increasingly, many came to feel that close ties with the West had weakened
Iran and left it vulnerable to Western imperial incursions and internal
autocracy. One young intellectual by the name of Ali Shariati began lecturing
on an alternative vision of modernity, one that incorporated Islam. Having
studied at traditional Islamic schools and at the Sorbonne in Paris, Shariati
was able to address some of the social struggles of Iranians within an
Islamic framework that was appealing to many. He argued that true liberation
for Iran's women lay within Islamic paradigms. Gradually, some of Iran's
women began to eschew Westernization and took on the veil as a way to
gain greater spiritual strength. Some women felt they could be Marxists
and Muslim; modern and Muslim; liberal and Muslim.
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The
Revolution and the Return of the Veil
By 1978,
when the revolution against the Pahlavi king was well underway, women
became important actors. They joined the street protests. Often, they
chose to wear the veil, a powerful symbol of their rejection of the western
secular lifestyle that the Pahlavis advocated. As the revolution succeeded,
it became increasingly Islamic in its tenor. Eventually,  the
Ayatollah Khomeini became the leader of the revolution and then the leader
of the Islamic Republic of Iran. His views of women which were originally
coalesced in opposition to the Shah's family laws of the 1960s now came
to affect millions of Iranian women. One of his first proclamations as
the leader of Iran was to call for all Iranian women to veil. Iranian
women took to the streets in protest and the Ayatollah's position was
modified, calling for Iranian women to wear modest Islamic clothing in
public; the full length black veil was not the only expression of modest
Islamic attire for women. Many women chose instead to wear a scarf and
long overcoat.
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As the Islamic
Republic established itself in Iran in the late 1970s and early 1980s,
gender relations took center stage. Many public spaces were segregated.
Women were to ski on different slopes, use different areas at the beach,
and sit in different areas of the university lecture hall. Women were
to ride in the back of buses. They were barred from being judges. Certain
professional areas were closed to them. The legal age of marriage for
women was lowered; their rights to divorce were limited. Importantly,
after children reached the age of maturity, the fathers were granted sole
custody of children. In courts, a woman's testimony counts for half that
of a man's. A woman must attain permission from her father (if single)
or husband (if married) in order to leave the country. If the Pahlavi
regime had articulated a vision of Iranian women as being modern and Western,
then the Islamic Republic sought to reverse that process. The question
of women's place in society was located within the larger debates on Westernization
versus Islamization and imperialism versus nationalism. Women played an
important role in establishing a certain cultural authenticity which was
now articulated in primarily Islamic terms. This vision of the new Iranian
woman is one you have seen articulated by Mrs. Daad in "Beyond The
Veil". It is the particular definition of an Islamic woman propagated
by the Islamic Republic of Iran.
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Contemporary
Struggles for Women's Rights
But this
vision of the proper role for Iranian women is not shared by all Iranian
women, within Iran or in exile. In the recent Presidential elections,
women played a big role in bringing President Khatami into power. He ran
on a platform calling for a more liberal stance on women's issues. The
power system in Iran, however, is established in such a way that the President
has only limited authority. The head of the legislative branch and the
head of the judiciary do not share President Khatami's views on social
reforms. The spiritual leader Ayatollah Khamenei remains extremely powerful
as well. Nevertheless, some Iranian women have been struggling to garner
more rights for Iranian women within the legal system, especially in relation
to the custody of their children. Some women have been arguing that recent
legislation which proposes the gender segregation of the health system
might jeopardize women's access to essential medical care. While the restrictions
against showing women without the veil in movies has been eased recently,
another ruling has banned the publication of any images of women on the
cover of any magazines or newspapers. Contradictory rulings on women's
issues continue as people with differing views on gender issues have access
to various arms of the government. It remains to be seen how the status
of women will finally be settled in the Islamic Republic of Iran.
_______________
Shiva Balaghi,
Ph.D., is Associate Director, Kevorkian Institute for Middle Eastern Studies,
New York University
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Suggested
Readings on Women in Iran
Mahnaz Afkhami
and Erika Friedl, In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary
Iran (Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1994).
Abbas Amanat,
Crowning Anguish: Memoirs of a Persian Princess (Washington, D. C.: Mage
Publishers, 1983).
Simin Daneshvar,
Savushun: A Novel: (Washington, D.C.: Mage Publishers,1990).
Sattareh
Farman Farmaian, Daughter of Persia (New York: Crown Publishers,1992).
Fatma Muge
Gocek and Shiva Balaghi, Reconstructing Gender in the Middle East: Tradition,
Identity, and Power (New York: Columbia University Press,1994).
Farzaneh
Milani, Veils and Words: the Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers
(Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 1992).
Ziba Mir-Hosseini,
Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law (London: I. B. Tauris,
1993).
Eliz Sanasarian,
The Women's Rights Movement in Iran (New York: Praeger Publishers, 1982).
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