During the last two centuries, efforts to secure women’s rights in different countries have been structured, with or without authorities’ permission, as underground or open activities, radical or moderate movements, on an interrupted or continuous basis according to prevailing local, political, or social conditions. Iran has not been an exception. The women’s movement in Iran has never been a unified, universal, or harmonious process.

Historically, Iranian women have effectively contributed to the revolutionary, civic, or political movements of their country, especially during the 1979 revolution. One might have expected the Islamic government to prize women who had sacrificed their lives, freedom, beloved children, family, wealth, and other aspirations for the revolution, and reward them with new positions on the country’s corporate and administrative levels. That never happened.

After the first few years, one may argue that women’s participation in the fifth parliamentary election and their attempt to elect Fa’ezeh Hashemi were their most distinguished ventures in the political arena of the post-revolutionary period. During the presidential election on May 22, 1997, women of various social ranks went to the polls to vote for Seyyed Mohammad Khatami as a reformist president. Khatami received so much support by women that he was named “the women’s president.”

Women who had cheered for Khatami’s moderate promises were now watching, after eight years of waiting, the enthroning of the new conservative government in 2005. The conservative Mahmood Ahmadinezhad was inaugurated by the spiritual leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran in August 2005. A year prior to that, the sixth Majlis (Parliament), with its majority of moderates, had handed over the legislative responsibilities to the seventh conservative Parliament. Thus, by the summer of 2005, a political turnover bundled the executive, legislative, and judiciary branches into one conservative whole. This conventional and unanimous composite sounded a serious alarm for the issue of women’s rights and position in Iran. A quick glimpse at the performance of this conservative government will confirm my point.

Introduction
On June 11, 2006, a group of women decided to announce their demands for social, legal, and economic equality with men in one of the major intersections of Tehran in a non-violent gathering. Those who participated in this gathering were women (and men) of diverse cultural and social strata.

During the last year, and as a result of the conservatives’ victory, we have repeatedly observed numerous restrictions against women and violation of their rights. The government and Parliament have followed a new policy—the policy of “women-versus-women.” The new policy is imposed upon Iranian women and society by women in power, such as members of Parliament or women administrators, in legitimate forms. When women follow an anti-woman agenda, who is to blame or considered responsible?

The peaceful gathering of women on May 11, 2006, was violently stifled by policewomen who had recently graduated from police academies. These women, armed with batons and chains, ruthlessly attacked the unarmed women who, intending to stand up for their violated rights, had filled the streets.

Women in Iran have strived for years, bit by bit, to gain their rights. The rise of a conservative government and Parliament, together with an effort to forcefully restore the old times, presents dangers to these efforts. It is beyond question that no previous governments have seriously and fundamentally contributed to the recognition of women’s rights; most of them have resorted to using women’s issues for the purpose of propaganda. Understanding the present critical situation and their own dispossessed status, women, and only women themselves, have risen individually or in groups to advocate for their own rights. Women’s movements spring from the heart of society and cannot be subjugated to the state by force. Women’s movements are undeniable parts of a nation’s historical and inevitable passage to democracy.

This article is a short introduction to the antifeminist policy of the conservative government and Parliament, with an emphasis on clarifying the government’s strategy of using women against women. 

Women in the Seventh Majlis
Ttwelve women presently serve in Parliament, one member less than in the sixth Majlis. Statistically, women are occupying 4 per cent of the total seats during the present term of Parliament. Five of them have political connections with a conservative party called Abadgaran-e Iran-e Eslami (Islamic Cultivators Party). Ten of them are either members or supported candidates of Zenyab Community, an affiliate of Jamiyate Mo’talefe-ye Eslami (Islamic Coalition Party).

Board of Administrators
From the very beginning, women Members of Parliament (MPs) did not show any interest whatsoever in the board of administrators. Before the end of the sixth Majlis, two women were members of the board. However, Fatemeh Alia, a member of the seventh Majlis, says, “Women members of Majlis are not interested in taking part in the board of administrators”  . It seems the women of the seventh Majlis mostly follow the orders of the conservative party they represent, while the women of the sixth Majlis, during their four-year performance, showed a totally different face. Ali Emami Rad, a conservative hardliner in the sixth Majlis, says, “The women of the sixth Majlis are very active, lively and joyful.” He adds, “Although I am not fully in accord with them, I cannot ignore their activities”  .

Parliament’s Internal Committees
Just as women MPs did not show any enthusiasm for election to Parliament’s board of administrators, neither did they actively take part in Parliament’s internal committees.  Rather, they chose to be mere observers. Twelve of the women MPs in the seventh Majlis are active only in five committees:. Education and Research; Health and Treatment; Cultural; Judicial; and National Security and Foreign Policy. The degree of participation of the Women MPs participate in just half the number of committees of the seventh Majlis as of the sixth Majlis, a fact that proves their inactive presence. 

The Women’s Parliamentary Fraction

• Women’s Parliamentary fraction was first created by the women MPs of the sixth Majlis, originally a coalition act directed to support women and their rights. Some of the achievements of this Parliamentary fraction included:
• assertion of age of majority for girls
• sending female students abroad
• defining cases of usr (hardship) and haraj (impediment)
• increasing the age of hazanat (custody) of child by mother to 7 years
• increasing the amount of nafaqa (maintenance) during the period of usr and haraj

None of these laws could compensate for the deficiencies and shortcomings of the existing laws on Iranian women; however, after many years, they initiated some positive action inside the restrictions of these laws.

Women of the seventh Majlis, however, are not too eager to resume women’s Parliamentary fractions. Immediately after the beginning of the seventh Majlis, the women’s Parliamentary fraction declared its existence, However, after the rivalry for the fraction’s leadership intensified, the women MPs decided that each would act as the fraction’s leader for a term of three to six months. By October 2005, it was announced in the media that “women’s fraction of Parliament” had dissolved itself”  . Effat Shari’ati, the leader of the fraction, explained the reason for this decision: “There is a committee in the Majlis called ‘Women and Family.’ It is a subcommittee of the Cultural Committee, which follows a number of objectives similar to those the women’s fraction was preoccupied with. That is why we do not need the fraction”  . Eshrat Shayeq, the deputy leader of the fraction, added her opinion on the matter: “About eight months ago, the last official meeting of the fraction was held. This is an inactive fraction and has no identity.”   One must keep in mind that the role of a fraction in Parliament is political and its objectives and functions are different from those of Parliamentary committees. These differences are confirmed by the definitions presented on the official website of the Majlis. Based on these definitions, the functions of the two inter-Parliamentary institutions are:

Cultural Committee: “The committee is established to function within the limits of culture, art, guidance and promotion, Seda va Seema (the state-run radio and television), the mass media, sports and physical education, youth, women and family.” 
Fraction: “Groups of MPs who belong to a party or parties. Members of such fractions can express different opinions than other MPs about the functions and applications of Parliament.” 

Bill of Equal Share of Beneficiary for Women:
Thanks to the efforts of women MPs, and despite great resistance from the opposition conservatives, the draft of the bill of equal share of beneficiary for women was approved by Parliament and sent to the Guardian Council of the Constitution around the last days of the sixth Majlis. The draft requested adjustments in certain articles of the civic law on the share of women beneficiaries. According to this draft, women as beneficiaries could inherit arseh (land). After the sixth Majlis had ended its term, the Guardian Council of the Constitution reported its view on the bill to the seventh Majlis, calling the bill against sharia (religious law). The judiciary committee of the seventh Majlis accepted the Guardian Council’s vote without any resistance and rejected the bill. One must not forget the time and effort the sixth Majlis spent on the draft that was passed.

Speaking about the rejection of the bill of equal share for women beneficiaries by the judicial committee of the seventh Majlis, Fatemeh Alia says, “The draft seemed an appropriate law for women to have a share of land as well; nobody is against the material interest of women. But when we dig into the matter, we find out that, based on the frequent discourse of ulama (the clergy), it is unacceptable and we cannot endorse a loose and general judgment as an exception against the Qur’an’s lucid wording.” 

The Draft for the Bill of Clothing and Fashion:
Immediately after the beginning of the seventh Islamic Majlis, and particularly after the election of Mahmood Ahmadinezhad as president, the issue of women’s hijab turned into a hot topic among the legislative and administrative circles. (Hijab has a more extensive meaning than simply the veil; it also includes scarves and manteaus). Girls and women in Iran who, due to the compulsory rule of veil, have no personal choice whether to follow or reject hijab’s religious rule, have tried some novel designs and colors for their clothes in order to create some diversity within the limits of compulsory hijab. Even this limited amount of freedom within the closed circle of repression is beyond the endurance of the fundamentalists. They insist stubbornly on limiting the diversity of clothing under the pretext of fighting against the “inobservance of Islamic dress code.” Following the accession of the fundamentalists to power both in the executive government and Parliament, a group of fundamentalist women gathered in front of Parliament in Tehran on April 18, 2006, and requested the MPs to take action against the problem of the “inobservance of Islamic dress code.”

Mohammd Bahonar, the deputy speaker of the Majlis, attended the gathering of the women and announced, “Parliament and the government have seriously decided to revive the passed laws on hijab to salvage them from neglect.”   Mohammad Taqi Rahbar, a member of the Cultural Committee of the seventh Majlis, said, ‘The clothes sitting in the stores have no roots in our Islamic and Iranian culture… the disgraceful appearance of some of our women and girls is an embarrassment to us and we cannot raise our head around the world.” 

The fourth Economic Development Plan and Women’s Share
One of the key achievements of the Centre for Women’s Participation, which we will discuss in the next section, was the effort to secure Parliament’s agreement with the inclusion of the articles related to gender equality in the fourth economic development plan. The first and second plans did not include a single article about women’s issues. Zahra Shoja’i, the director of the centre, said, “In the third 5-year plan there was only one article regarding women, article 158; but in the fourth plan, there are more than 43 sections, articles, and phrases about women.”   In response to the media’s questions about the future of these 43 sections and articles in the hands of the new conservative government, she went on to say: “This is a law passed by Parliament and any government in office has to implement it.” 

This optimistic view did not last long. The fourth economic plan, passed by the sixth Majlis, was waiting to be approved by the Guardian Council of the Constitution. The council returned it to Parliament stressing some articles. The MPs of the sixth Majlis refused to alter the sections the council had found fault with. The bill was referred to the Expediency Discernment Council of the System in order to be amended. It was then that Eshrat Shayeq requested the reconsideration of the bill in the seventh Majlis. This would have been a novelty in the history of the Majlis: For the first time, a bill passed by a previous Majlis was going to be considered as rejected and all its details were to be discussed and revised from scratch. Eshrat Shayeq’s proposition to revise the bill led to the total omission of the articles on gender equality and the shrinkage of 90 percent of the budget of the Centre for Women’s Participation by the seventh Majlis.

The most important loss that Iranian women suffered, due to the revision of the fourth economic development plan, was the crucial elimination of the phrase “gender justice” from the bill. “The relevant organizations and institutions, which had to plan and carry out their work within a framework based on gender justice, are not obliged to follow this directive from now on,” says Fariba Davoodi Mohajer, a women’s rights activist.   She has listed in detail the sections regarding gender justice that were eliminated from the fourth economic development plan. (Appendix No.1)

The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women
During the first few months of 2003, the Islamic Republic accepted the convention on a conditional basis and asked the sixth Majlis for approval. Thanks to the efforts of the women MPs, it was approved on a conditional basis in July 2003. The bill endorsing the convention was sent to the Guardian Council of the Constitution, but the council found it in conflict with religion and the Constitution, and rejected it. The conflict between the sixth Majlis and the council once again went to the Expediency Discernment Council of the System.

With the change of the power structure in both Parliament and the executive government, Iran’s joining the convention seems unlikely. “As long as I am alive and the director of this centre,” says Zohreh Tabibzadeh Noori, the director of the Centre for Women and Family, “I will not allow our joining to any international conventions or agreements about women’s rights.” 

Nayereh Akhavan Bitaraf, an MP of Isfahan, summarizes the views of the Majlis on the subject of joining the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women: “According to the MPs of the seventh Majlis, joining the convention means passivity. We do not believe that, by joining the convention, our penal laws will improve. For instance, there are inconsistencies about women’s rights and children’s rights in the convention. Islamic laws are superior to all.” 

Fatemeh Alia says, “Passing the bill of joining the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women is an evidence of copying the alien laws and culture of the west.”   The majority of the MPs of the seventh Majlis, particularly the women, openly show their persistent disagreement with joining the convention. State officials, such as Minister of Justice, have explicitly announced their disagreement with joining the convention.

Women MPs on Women’s Issues

Polygamy
“The idea of polygamy,” says Fatemeh Alia, “on the question of having more than one wife, is, ultimately, to the benefit of women, and women have to do their best to guide it toward its proper course.”  

Executing the Street Women
Eshrat Shayeq, an MP from Tabriz, expressed her opinion about one solution for fighting profanation and obscenity and, in particular, managing the problem of street women: “We do not have any legal vacuum about street women; if ten of them are hanged, we will not have any street women at all”  .

Prohibition on Sending Female Students Abroad
The efforts of the women’s fraction in the sixth Majlis ended the prohibition against sending single girls abroad. Thus, Iranian girls were able to obtain scholarships to study in the educational institutes outside Iran. After she began working as an MP in the seventh Majlis, Fatemeh Alia, in an effort to criticize the achievements of the sixth Majlis on women’s issues, complained about the removal of the prohibition. “If our girls go abroad, won’t they create more problems later on? Not to mention that those, who have gone abroad for some years, have already created these problems. We then have to pay the damaging costs of this act, both in terms of honor and culturally.” 

The Conservative Government and Women’s Issues

The Center for Women’s Participation and Its End
During the presidency of Mohammad Khatami, one of the measures taken on behalf of women on the governmental level was the establishment of the Centre for Women’s Participation, under the management of Zahra Shoja’i. This marked the first time a centre was identified to advocate for women’s issues within the structure of the government since the revolution. Although the policy of the centre was always of a moderate nature, its positive role cannot be denied.

Only a few months after the presidency of Ahmadinezhad, the seventh Majlis eliminated the specified budget that had been approved with the aim of increasing and developing the social and cultural participation of women in various dimensions,. The planning and budget committee of the government declared that the budget assigned to women had not been eliminated in the new plan, but was directed to other fields. Through the committee’s explanations, one can surmise that, in the new plan, the budgets assigned to education and other issues concerning women are eliminated in order to channel them to religious establishments for women. (Appendix Number 2)

A few months after the release of this news, the Centre for Women’s Participation began its activities under the new name, the Centre for Women and Family, with a different management, structure, and nature. Zohreh Tabibzadeh Noori, the manager for the new centre, explained the reason for name change, “A woman outside home,” she said, “has a social identity. But the best identity is the identity formed at home, where her presence gives comfort and ease to the family members.”   One can clearly understand the directions of the new government’s policy as to the issues related to women. The omission of the word participation, which has sociopolitical weight and application, from the title and the emphasis on family, which in a tradition-based society such as Iran has always been used to deprive women of their serious social, political, and cultural participation, proves the point.

Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance
With the new cabinet in office, and the prominence of its fundamentalist leanings, Saffar Harandi, who has been appointed as Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance, ordered the reduction of women’s work hours in the ministry. “Taking note of the sensitive role of women in our country and the necessity of their effective presence in the warm embrace of their family to perform the sensitive task of raising their children,” the announcement noted, “it is essential, according to the order of the revered minister, to prevent the presence of female colleagues in all units and offices after 6:00 p.m.”

The staffs of all government news agencies and news centers are considered as the staff of the ministry. “Women’s hours of work should be enough to allow them to take care of their homes,” sayid Fatemeh Alia about the memo. “We can’t say the family bonds should be according to Islamic views and the hours of work according to western standards; that is contradiction in terms.” 

Ministry of Justice
In an effort to clarify some issues about women’s rights, Jamal Karimi, the conservative government’s Minister of Justice, has written a series of articles. In these texts he has attempted to justify the sociolegal discriminations against women. He clings to the theory that equality is different from similarity, and difference does not mean discrimination. In this way he tries to prove the fairness of the existing laws concerning women. “If women had the body, soul, and manners of men,” he argues, “they could not use the service of men. And if men had the same physical and psychological qualities, it would be impossible for women to regard them as the idols of their lives… The humane and innate rights of women and men require them to be dissimilar in certain rights; and what we have in the law is difference and not discrimination.”   Karimi, after condemning liberalistic and feministic ideas, concludes, “The researches of recent decades prove that the root of all the tragedies and sufferings of women lies in words similar to equality.”  ..

The Last Word
A brief overview of the one-year performance of the conservative government of Mahmood Ahmadinezhad and the two-year functioning of Iran’s Parliament with a fundamentalist majority clearly shows their platforms, beliefs, and plans in relation to the issues of importance to women. In this respect, it seems the fundamentalist government and Parliament, in an unpronounced but unanimous effort, are trying to suppress any possible movement to revive women’s rights and ensure their well-being. The presence of conservative women in the Majlis as Members of Parliament and their conventional and reactionary views on women have prepared the road for statesmen to violate women’s rights under religious and legal excuses. Women who, by their own words and deeds, reject approved budgets for educating women, close down the women’s Parliamentary fraction, recommend hanging the members of their own gender, and those women equipped with batons and handcuffs who beat the members of their own gender for demanding their rights and then throw them in jail—these women play a destructive role as they undermine the efforts of those individuals, institutions, and nongovernmental organizations that fight for women’s trampled rights in this time in the history of Iran.

Women-versus-women is a new policy of the new government, a policy that seems to be well-organized, purposeful, and carefully orchestrated. For a country like Iran, that is miles away from even minimal gender equality, this retreat in the field of women’s issues is a painful and irreparable tragedy. A Parliament whose women MPs openly violate women’s rights and consider the revival of the rights of their own gender as unnecessary and even as heresy; a government whose ministers, in an official memo, recommend that women to stick to housekeeping and sit in closets; a police force that equips female bullies with batons and uniforms so that they can batter and imprison right-seeking women; combine to increase the repression of nonviolent movements of women who demand their equal rights in Iran at this critical moment. Although none of the previous governments have seriously and fundamentally paid attention to the legal, social, and political rights of women, they have occasionally, by injecting some relative social freedom, helped organizations advocating women’s rights grow in the society. Women who, in the quest for their rights, have met with prison, trial, and terror, are irrepressible. More pressure, sanction, and oppression will eventually force open passionate movements into slow underground activities. But women are waiting for a glimpse of hope and a small window to come out with their demands again. The process of women’s movements can be hindered, but it will not be stopped.

Appendix 1- Quoted from Nameh vol.32
-housing for women who support a family. (chapter1, article 62, section C, no. 7)
-equal educational opportunities and improving student coverage. (chapter 4, article 92, section C)
-equal education opportunities and improving education’s quality and attaining equal opportunities, especially for girls, and providing suitable possibilities to reduce educational adversity and develop education and the materialization of education for all, particularly for girls. (chapter 4, article 97, sections A and B).
-suitable education environments and anticipation of necessary facilities and possibility of renovation; strengthening, standardizing and making the educational environment suitable, particularly the schools for girls (chapter 4, article 96, section L).
-instructional courses during work, improving career skills for women, particularly through short courses. (chapter 4, article 102, section A, no. 1).
-comprehensive plan for women’s rehabilitation, supporting women’s rights, gender equality on legal, social, economical and administrative levels in related administrative centers (chapter 8, article 155, section 5).
-essential employment rights, such as the freedom of establishing associations, supporting the right of establishing civic societies of work-oriented relations, the right to organize and the right to group negotiations, equal pay for men and women for the same job, prevention of work-related discriminations. (chapter 8, article 158, section A)
-essential employment rights, expansion of social support and equal opportunities for men and women, rehabilitation of women by providing them with access to proper employment opportunities. (chapter 8, article 158, section C)
-increasing cooperative sections and rehabilitation of youth, graduates… (chapter 8, article 158, section A) 

Appendix 2: Quoted from the site of The Unity of Iran’s Republicans-February 2005
The members of the Cultural Committee have reduced 1200 billion rials [every American dollar is approximately 9,000 rials] from the budget specified for the Centre for Women’s Participation and have assigned that budget to women’s religious organizations. In another proposal, 3900 million rials were also cut from the budget of this centre and channeled to the budget for women’s religious seminaries. At the same time, another 1 billion tomans [every American dollar is approximately 900 tomans] from the budget of the Centre for Women’s Participation was transferred to the Seda va Sima’s budget.  

Appendix 3: The site of Iranian Women-the Fall of 2005
“Taking note of the sensitive role of women in our country and the necessity of their effective presence in the warm embrace of their family to perform the sensitive task of raising their children, it is essential, according to the order of the revered minister, to prevent the presence of female colleagues in all units and offices after 6:00 p.m.”

1 Shargh Newspaper, Vol. 1 No. 210, Wed June 20, 2004
2 BBC Persian, Sunday May 23, 2004
3 www.roshangari.net Oct 8, 2005
4 www.roozonline.com Sept 26, 2005
5 See No.3
6 http://mellat.majlis.ir glossary of parliamentary terms
7 see No.6
8 Hoora, No. 16, Women In The Eyes of the Seventh Majlis
9 http://mellat.majlis.ir Wed April 19, 2006
10 E’temad-e Melli, April 12, 2006
11Gooya website, Aug 24, 2005 quoting BBC Persian
12 see No.11
13Nameh, vol. 32
14 Aftab website: www.aftabnews.ir May 29, 2006
15 www.roozonline.com Oct. 25, 2006
16 see No. 8
17 Women magazine, June 2004
18 www.iftribune.com Iranian feminist tribune, Nov 21, 2004
19 see No.8
20 see No.15
21 see No.8
22 Shargh newspaper, Vol. 3 No.808, July 15, 2006
24 see No.24