The Struggles and Achievements of Women in
The constitutional
movement, and the aftermath of the constitutional revolution was the starting
point of awareness amongst Iranian people to get rid of the yoke of despotism
and the tyranny of the rulers. It was also a starting point for the Iranian
women’s activists to put forward their demands to be free of the gender oppressions
in a paternalistic society whose attitude was against the women.
The women’s
struggle in this period of time was based on the two pillars, first the
struggle to achieve political and citizenship rights, to be elected and to have
the right to elect to the national assembly, and their rights to be ratified in
the national assembly and to become part of the body of laws that safeguarding
the interests of the women, that their voice to heard affecting the fate of the
country, be able to express themselves ,to be able to criticize the
shortcomings and the weaknesses of the administration and national assembly and to provide some solutions in the
face of these problems arising hereof.
The second was
focused on the struggle for limited objectives, whose achievements would be
more practical in the political environment of the time but with wider
implications in the future. These objectives were for constructing schools for girls,
which faced with the opposition from the government and reactionary clergy.
However the collective struggle of the women with a progressive and vanguard
women like Nessah Khanoom, Mrs Toubaroshtieh and Mrs Vazirov, led to the
creation of these schools in 1908.
Struggle against
the paternalistic society which was dominant and change in the general mentality
towards the women was carried out with the intellectually enlightened women,
for which the literature and the publications of the Constitutional era is the
best indication of it.
Women were active
in the Constitutional Revolution by demonstrating their social awareness
against despotism, by participating in the political and civil demonstrations,
by their propaganda activity.They understood the advantages of a constitutional
government and defended of it, supporting financially the democratic movement
and even playing their own role in the armed uprising against the discredited
monarchy.
During this period
in Iranian history, two women’s associations named Women of the Fatherland
(Mokhadarateh Vattan) and Association of Women’s Will (Anjomanneh Hematteh
Khavateen) were involved in the political matters of the country. They were
criticising the political administration that was acting more on behalf of their
supportive foreign countries rather than their own constituency that presumably
were representing it.
Women also were
persuading their national assembly representatives to resist against anti
national stand and political behaviour of the government.
In reality the
socio-political posture of these women was more nationalistic rather than
putting forward specific gender issues of the Iranian women. They had a firm
belief that the women’s questions and gender discriminations could be generally
solved by the industrial and economic progress of the country; for this reason
they were supporting the internal products in contrast to the anti
nationalistic policy of the government of the time, which was opening the internal
market to the unrestricted competition of the foreign companies.
In such a social
environment, the slightest change in the social status of the women, like
education and participating in the artistic and public associations or working
outside of their home, required hard work and sacrifices.
As most of the
women activists had come from the higher sections of the society and well off
families, they were not able to influence the unprivileged populace and to get
the mass support off them for the endeavours that could be a heavy instrument
of pressure in the change of social and economic situation of the women.
Nevertheless, these women in spite of their
different standing in the face of complexity of issues, they had a consensus
and a common stand to persist for the creation of more schools for girls and a
better education for them.
This was a hurdle
that they had to overcome. However their efforts got the results by the
creation of the 57 primary schools for girls in 1911 with an attendance of 2172
students. This number increased to 18050 schools in 1925, in which 17624
students attended in primary, and 426 in secondary education.
In the period of
constitutional revolution, seven feministic journals were being published,
which was a progressive step. Unfortunately, all of the women’s efforts were
encountered with the resistance of religious canons and the despotic government
trying to stifle these efforts and prevent the nascent blooms coming from the
darkness of the time to reach the light of the modern world.
We may summarise
the achievements of women’s struggle in the constitutional revolutionary period
as follows:
in spite of
participating in the revolution, they
failed to get tangible results such as the right of the citizenship for women
and to have the right to a universal suffrage, as was the case even in the French revolution.
After the removal
of the Ghajar dynasty from the thrown by a military coup in a 1921,
masterminded by British Intelligence Services and carried out by Reza Khan,
another period of dictatorship was started by the Pahlavits. Paradoxically, it
was the period of the initial stages of industrialisation of the country and
reforms from the above, by relying on bureaucratic methods which was
accompanied by violent repression of any sign of democratic movements by the
people.
One of the major
reforms initiated by the government was to forbid the use of the veil (Chador)
in the public places. There were also reforms in the body of civil laws,
increasing the age of marriage of girls, from 9 to 15, and for boys 15 to
18. There were also improvements in the
employment status of women.
The democratic
movement of the women flourished in the early 10 years of Mohammad Reza Shah’s
reign, reaching its heights within the general democratic movement between 1948
and 1953.
Women were able to create their own
organisations. Nevertheless the 1953 coup tried to repress these democratic
activities and it lasted until 1961, when the Shah initiated himself a new set
of agrarian and civil reforms. The reforms changed the economic and social
structure of the society. Urbanisation became more widespread and as a result,
new opportunities were opened for women in education and employment. More women
entered into education and work and they were benefited from relatively more just
statuses within the society. The legal system as well, even if on a limited
scale, was reformed in support of women’s rights in divorce and granting the
right of the care of their children, which have been reversed by the Islamic
government.
In spite of
compulsory education for girls and the removal of some hurdles for the women’s
employment, the ratification of the laws permitting the women to elect and be
elected, the repressive presence of the dictatorship everywhere deprived Iranian
women to have their own independent organisation for themselves and to put forward
their demands within the democratic framework of their own institutions. Such
an environment was one of the main motives to pushing the women towards
clandestine activities and in joining underground organisations that were
carrying out armed struggles.
With the toppling
down of the Pahlavits dynasty and with the start of the revolution in 1979, the
huge population of the women from any section of the society and within all of
the cities poured out into the streets like an eruption of volcanoes. This was
a massive force unrivalled in comparison to any revolution in the world. The
women entered into history by revolution, raising their voice against the
dictatorship of the Shah. However the democratic demands of the constitutional
period and their dream for freedom and democracy was shattered by the Islamic
government in power, which its anti-women stand was part of its ideological
tenets.
These freedom loving
women who sacrificed their lives and many of them having been killed during the
revolution and having lost their husbands, brothers, daughters, sons, were now
a target of the most barbaric methods of repression, unprecedented in the
history of the country.
The fanatic clergy
took the helm of political power in hand. It employed every method to deprive
the women from education and pushing them back into their homes. They initiated
a set of reactionary laws emanating from pre-history values ,legalising
compulsory veils, reducing the age of marriage of girls, cancelling the
supportive family laws, forbidding any type of organisation, preventing any
type of artistic activities for the women, revival of the prehistoric laws of
revenge, stoning, and finally torturing, executing and imprisonment of women
active in society.
Notwithstanding, they were less successful in
spite of their harsh and barbaric methods. The mass participation of the women
in the revolution and their social presence had given them a new awareness of
themselves, and new experiences which was hard for the government to overcome.
The struggle of the women in the
post-revolution period could be distinguished from the past in many ways and it
has its own particularities. It has become an everyday clash and challenge with
the government, religion and fanatism.
They are bearing
more than any section of society the burden of struggle for a secular and
democratic world.
Now the women are active in all levels within
the society, in every field, from the political, social, legal, civic, cultural
and artistic, without being formally recognised and respected by the government
and their reactionary allies within the society.
However, the
associations are volatile and in loose forms because of the repression.
The struggle of
the women has become so widespread and has influenced all the sections of the
society that nobody can neglect it. This has become a common fact to the
government and to the opposition alike.
The compulsory
veil which is a symbol of religion and ideological logo of the government has
become one of the areas of resistance of the women. The veil is now synonymous
with a joke rather than being approved by the society. It has become an instrument
of sarcasm rather than a religious belief.
A glance at the statistics of educated women
is the best indication of their struggle against the resistance against the
discriminatory policy of the Islamic government.
The number of
students in universities and higher education, between 1996 and 1997, was
209163. According to statistics, in 2000, the number of books written by women
only in the
Surprisingly the number of books authored by
the women jumped from 358 in 1999, to 1309 in 2000. And the number of poets
from 28 to 106, translators from 207 to 708. Accordingly the number of editors
and painters were 258 and 127 respectively.
The numbers of the
publications by women in 1999 were as follows: 32 newsletters, 26 analytic
publications, 16 general information, 30 education and 10 in different research
fields.
The ignorant in power, failed to recognise the
power and capacity of women who compose half of the society. These facts are
the sign of awareness and the bold steps that women have taken in our country
in the dark days of Islamic government.
Nahid
Nazemi. 2March 2005