WUNRN
Direct Link to Full 37-Page UNRISD
Document:
___________________________________________________________________________
IRAN - CAN WOMEN ACT AS AGENTS FOR
DEMOCRATIZATION OF THEOCRACY IN
IRAN? (Draft)
Authors:
Homa Hoodfar, Shadi Sadr
Programme Area: Gender
and Development
Project Title: Religion,
Politics and Gender Equality
The 1979 Iranian revolution resulted in the establishment of an Islamic
Republic under the leadership of religious leaders. The complete amalgamation
of state and religion has had considerable implications for women’s legal and
social equality. The question of women’s rights and women’s public life had
been one of the central themes in the opposition of Ayatollah Khomeini and his
followers to the fallen modernist regime. Indeed, the role of women had formed
an axis around which religious leaders and diverse conservative forces had woven
solidarity bonds. To reward these alliances, the new regime moved immediately
to cancel the family law reforms and reintroduced men’s right to polygamy and
compulsory veiling for women. The new regime’s ideologues envisioned an Islamic
society based on nearly complete gender apartheid in which men and women
intermingled only in the realm of the family and not in public.
The large-scale participation of women in the revolution, and the fact that
their black veils had become an icon of the revolution, presented a new
complexity for the leaders who hitherto had only viewed women as an object of
politics and not as political citizens. Women did not readily accept the
Islamic state’s gender vision. The state tried to use women to boost its
legitimacy. Secular women, who were completely excluded from power structures,
continued to document injustice. For their part, religious women tried to
re-read Islamic texts to call into question the regime’s exclusion of women
from public life and full citizenship. Islamist women launched a widespread
public campaign focusing on “Islamic justice for all and not just for men” and
managed to re-instate many of their cancelled rights gradually. Women, also,
occupied the few public spaces that remained open to them, such as in education
and social volunteering. Furthermore, women used their votes and contributed
enormously to the election of liberal and reformist religious and political
leaders. These developments encouraged an optimistic vision of the
democratization of Shia Islam and the reformation of women’s place within it.
Reforms alarmed many conservatives including, powerful, non-elected life-long
officials in control of the state apparatus. They viewed women’s reforms as
evidence of creeping secularism and western feminism. Thus, using the resources
at their disposal they launched a counter strategy. Notably, conservatives
invested heavily in women’s religious schools where thousands of women
religious leaders were trained, immersed in the most conservative interpretation
of women’s role in Islam. By 2005, conservatives had recaptured both the
parliament and the government which meant that Islamist and reformist women’s
room to manoeuvre in the political sphere was substantially reduced. Through
various case studies, this article demonstrates that the way religion has been
re-introduced into formal politics in Iran, and the manner in which it has been
appropriated and re-appropriated by different social and political forces
reveals how religion, like secularism, can lend itself to a variety of
interpretations, with variable impact on women. It is clear that reformist
forces have not been able to democratize their institutions and to respond to
women’s needs, nor have they been able to organize women at the popular level
with the same degree of success as have conservative forces. It now appears
unlikely, given the present state structure and the triumph of the religious
right in government, that women will be able to make inroads unless the state
structures become more democratized.
================================================================
To contact the list administrator, or to leave the list, send an email to:
wunrn_listserve-request@lists.wunrn.com. Thank you.