The Islamic Republic and the Issue of Women

Iranian society is witnessing the rebellious behavior of girls and women who, these days, are determined to raise the voice of the 'other half' of the Iranian population by removing their hijabs in public spaces, aiming to reach those who seem to have long lost the ability to hear the people's voice. While this phenomenon holds special symbolic significance in the current conditions of Iran, to better understand it, one might need to explore the background and the complex relationship between the Islamic Republic and women, as well as the endless suffering that has become part of their daily lives due to over four decades of discrimination, humiliation, inequality, and frustration. The Islamic Republic has faced challenges from women and Islamist forces with the slogan of mandatory hijab and limiting women, not as a war against the Shah's government. This project gradually found its place in the discourse of the Islamist movements after February 1979 and became one of the main aspects of the internal politics of the Islamic Republic after two years. Events in the years following 1979 showed that the meaning of mandatory hijab and other restrictions against women was not solely due to religious concerns and a return to tradition and the past. The issue of women gained significant political and symbolic importance for the Islamic Republic in terms of power relations, as the imposition of discriminatory norms and laws on women became one of the main symbols of the authority of the religious order in society and social control. One of the initial consequences of policies against women was a severe decline in employment between 1979 and the 1986 census (a 35% drop in the number of working women). The religious government that emerged from the revolution aimed to control women's bodies and impose legal and practical barriers to their comprehensive presence in politics and society, in the labor market, and in the worlds of science, art, and culture, which has been and continues to be an inseparable part of what is termed the Islamization of Iranian society. Ahmad Khatami, the Friday prayer leader of Tehran, once stated in response to a reporter that if women's hijab is not observed, the Islamic Republic loses its meaning (ISNA, October 7, 2013). While from a religious perspective, issues such as usury and theft are much more prohibited than women's hijab in Islamic jurisprudence and traditions. The tense relationship between the clergy and traditional circles with women in Iran did not begin in 1979. This issue was at the center of the historical tension between a large part of the clergy and traditional circles with the complex processes of modernizing Iranian society. A review of Iranian history from the 19th century to 1979 clearly shows that the issue of women and their freedom was one of the main axes of criticism from the clergy and Islamists against modernization and the renewal of society. The transformation that gradually shaped women's status in society following the Constitutional Revolution was intolerable for religious leaders, believers, and traditionalists. The emergence from the home, the removal of the hijab, access to education and the labor market, liberation from the guardianship of fathers, husbands, brothers, and sons, and becoming individuals with autonomy over their bodies and destinies weighed heavily like a nightmare on the mental world of a large part of the clergy and their supporters. What is referred to in the words of fanatical and fundamentalist believers as prostitution and immorality is nothing but this liberation from the shackles of religious and traditional culture and the attainment of the status of autonomous citizens with equal rights and positions. Concepts like honor, dignity, and also jealousy are key cultural terms that regard male dominance over women as self-evident and religiously sanctioned. Instead of understanding the human and societal transformations, they viewed advancements in women's domains as a Western import and a result of Western cultural influence, and their deep-seated skepticism and hatred towards the West largely stemmed from this understanding of the West's impact on Iranian society. The Islamic Republic, from the very next day of its establishment, sought to shape a new model for the Muslim woman in today's world and place it against what it considers the Western model of women. The leaders of the Islamic Republic knew well that a return to the traditional world and the reintegration of women into homes was impossible. At the same time, the modern woman with independent individuality and equal rights with men was also incompatible with their religious culture and traditional view. Although government officials were not united on the model of the Muslim woman, they all rejected complete equality between men and women, modern freedoms, and the contemporary lifestyle of women. Iranian laws in various fields and textbooks may be two suitable areas where the desired identity of the Muslim woman from the perspective of the leaders of the Islamic Republic is clearly articulated. In Iran's civil laws, especially those related to family, inequality between men and women is the norm. In criminal laws and the judicial system of Iran, the scales also tip in favor of men (testifying, becoming a judge, honor killings...). In Iranian textbooks, women are more often depicted as mothers, sisters, wives, and daughters of this or that man rather than as independent social individuals, and their presence in the public sphere is conditional. Men and women are not equal, and this inequality is justified from a religious perspective. In the official discourse, men and women are 'complementary' to each other, with men naturally being the 'guardians' and the primary power holders in the home, society, economy, politics, and the judicial system. Women can attend school and university, enter the labor market in limited fields, especially in women's domains (education for girls, health, agriculture, and handicrafts), but their primary duty is motherhood, wifeliness, and homemaking. While in a large part of the world, the issue of gender equality is a concern for political systems, in Iran, the situation is reversed; in the discourse of a significant part of the clergy and officials, women's subordination and men's superiority are justified religiously, and discussions are held around the virtues of this inequality and forms of discrimination. The insistence on gender segregation in education, the workplace, society, and sports competitions is also part of a policy that, under the pretext of religious justification, seeks to preserve the model of the Muslim woman. In this context, the central issue in the desired model of the Muslim woman is the body and hijab. In this view, a woman's body can turn her into a seductive creature that deceives men and opens the door to sin and divine punishment. Thus, men acquire the right of ownership over women's bodies, and it is they who must keep women away from the eyes of 'non-mahram' (those who are not closely related) and protect them under their shelter. The Islamic Republic, on a national scale, seeks to possess women's bodies in the name of religious order, and dominance over women's bodies is part of its exercise of power in society. The failure of the Muslim woman model The Islamic Republic, with all its propaganda, legal, and educational tools, attempted to impose its desired model of the Muslim woman on Iranian society from above by controlling social spaces, the socialization processes of youth, and the media. Government officials naively believed that it was enough to educate girls in schools and other social arenas or through media and religious centers with Islamic culture for their desired model of the Muslim woman to gradually become widespread in society. Their understanding of the complex processes of youth socialization resembled brainwashing and training devout robots without individual identity and independent mindset. Women were expected to abandon their individuality and internalize this culture, to take pride in their subordination, to submit to what men say in the name of the sacred, and not to question it. This ideal religious model, however grim, was very alien to today's world and the culture and mindset of the youth. The use of authoritarian and police methods caused the gap between the culture and mental world of youth, especially girls, and the government model of women to widen even further, leading to both overt and covert forms of resistance against official policies. Thus, Iranian society became a battleground of sorts between the Islamic Republic's policies to impose the model of the Muslim woman and a society that did not want to submit to a culture regressing and incompatible with the current world. The 1980s and 1990s can be called the era of silent resistance of women. They cleverly wielded the weapon of education against the Islamic Republic itself, and through significant successes in acquiring knowledge and culture, they not only transformed their social status but also became a new power in society. The ideological educational system that was supposed to impose the model of the Muslim woman with hijab and submissiveness on the youth through ideological indoctrination and brainwashing became a place for gaining power against the official value system and culture. This silent female rebellion shifted the balance of power in the social struggle in their favor. The transformation of macro indicators and behavioral patterns, including in demographic, educational, cultural, and labor market areas, indicates profound sociological changes of this era and the unique internal dynamism of a large part of Iranian women. Iranian society is witnessing the expansion of a new mindset that views women not as secondary citizens in the roles of motherhood and wifeliness or as complements and subordinates to men, but as citizens and equal rights human beings. Women’s victory in an unequal war Iranian society has experienced four decades of tension and crisis between women and the Islamic Republic. In this unequal war, what has perhaps been less visible is the silent and internal suffering of generations who have lived through humiliation, various forms of violence, frustrations, and discrimination. Externally, however, women have become a significant power in various scientific, cultural, and social domains in today's Iran. Important areas of social and cultural life have become feminized, and women writers, poets, artists, researchers, specialists, scientists, and social activists, from Maryam Mirzakhani to Nasrin Sotoudeh, Narges Mohammadi, and Shirin Ebadi, are symbols of a generation that has disrupted the balance of power in favor of women. Today's demands of women are a mirror reflecting the profound yet silent transformations of the past three decades in Iranian society. They seek their rightful place, the removal of discriminatory and unjust prohibitions that constrict the path to advancement for women. Mandatory hijab, in this context, may be the most symbolic and tangible discrimination, violence, and oppression that women deal with daily and are humiliated by. However, instead of understanding the profound changes in society, the authorities persistently continue their anti-social war against women, determined to turn back the wheel of societal progress. Women have demands that are incompatible with the value system and official culture of the Islamic Republic, and this significant gap constitutes one of the main crises in Iranian society. Women and contemporary social movements The anger of women from the endless sorrows and sufferings of life in a world full of discrimination, inequality, and violence has perhaps played a significant role in bringing them to the forefront in the past 20 years. They have been the main activists in a significant portion of the protest movements over the past two decades. The current feminine dynamism of Iranian society also indicates a new historical awareness that distinguishes it from the type of participation in the 1970s. If in the distant past, women's activism had meaning in the shadow of men and women's demands were secondary and subordinate to other social demands, today women's demands are part of democracy, and they have become the main force for change in society.