LSESU AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

Emma Thompson

         

It has been nearly six months since 22-year-old Mahsa Amini died in police custody in Iran, sparking a wave of anti-government protests that have continued to this day with no imminent signs of stopping. Amini had been arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory hijab rules. Following her death on September 16, 2022, simultaneous rallies took place across the globe in solidarity with the protestors in Iran. The rallies focused specifically on women and women’s rights with slogans such as “Women, Life, Freedom”, “I Stand with the Women of Iran”, and “Say Her Name: Mahsa Amini”. While the outpouring of international support has somewhat faded into the background, attention having shifted to other stories and causes, the effects of this event and the protests that followed have continued to be felt in Iran.

The evolution of the Iranian Women’s Rights Movement is a story of resilience, adaptability, and perseverance. It is also a story deeply intertwined with modernity as well as Iran’s relationship with the West (Paidar 1995, 356-357). These protests are not the first time Iranian women have taken centre stage in the political discourse both nationally and internationally. Nor is it the first time that women’s bodies and mandatory hijab policies have been the subject of these conversations. The purpose of this article is to examine this evolution and some of the ways in which women have navigated the complex environment that has characterized their struggle for equal rights. It will examine challenges they have faced, with a particular focus on transnational solidarity and international support, and the ways in which they have continued to adapt and overcome these obstacles.

The Iranian Women’s Rights Movement refers to the broader political activities and campaigns conducted with the goal of furthering gender equality in Iran. The use of the term “movement” risks suggesting a homogenous entity. However, this would be a reductionist interpretation of the diverse views and perspectives it includes. Iranian women’s political participation can be traced back to the turn of the century with the anti-imperialist anti-tobacco uprising in 1890 (Rostami-Povey 2012, 17-18). From the 1906 Constitutional Revolution until the establishment of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1925, “the first generation of women activists emerged mostly through their involvement in the proconstitutional and anticolonial activities” (Tohidi 2010, 384). During this time, women pushed for opportunities to improve their circumstances and participation in public life, with success in areas such as education (Esfandiari 1997, 22).

Women’s rights during the Pahlavi regime from 1925 to 1979 under Reza Shah and his son, Muhammad Reza Pahlavi, remained a key political issue. The Iranian Women’s Rights Movement continued to make progress in the areas of education, professionalism, and legal reforms during this time despite increased state control leading to the limitation of women’s associations (Tohidi 2010, 384-385). Key milestones included obtaining the right to vote and the reform of the Family Protection Law in 1975, however, progress was uneven and did not achieve the same levels of equality as men (Rostami-Povey 2012, 21-23). Reza Shah’s Westernisation of society and the economy proved to be as dividing an issue within the Women’s Movement as it was in Iranian society among secular and Islamic forces. Nevertheless, they were united in opposition to the Shah’s regime, leading to the 1979 Islamic Revolution (Tohidi 2010, 385-386).

Large numbers of Iranian women participated in the 1979 Revolution. In addition to being anti-imperialist in nature, it was in part a reaction to the imposition of Western ideals on Iranian women during the Pahlavi era (Rostami-Povey 2012, 24). Islam was presented as a revolutionary alternative in which the women’s movement could continue to make gains for equality (Paidar 1995, 214). However, following the end of the revolution, women’s position in society once again became the subject of political control. In an effort to consolidate support from conservative religious clerics, Ayatollah Khomeini began repealing certain laws and rights that were present during the Pahlavi era, such as the Family Protection Law, soon after the end of the revolution (Ghamari-Tabrizi 2016, 125). By early March, women were no longer allowed to serve as judges and Khomeini announced on March 6, 1979 that women “must respect hejāb” when appearing at work and in ministerial buildings (Ghamari-Tabrizi 2016, 125). These changes and the movement towards mandatory hijab policies led to thousands of women protesting in the streets on March 8th, 1979.

The March 8th, 1979 protest was initially successful in reversing the announcement that women had to wear the hijab in the workplace. However, the new regime continued to re-negotiate women’s place in society through other laws and policies (Tohidi 2010, 386). With subsequent government crackdowns, the exile of many opponents of the regime, as well as the Iran-Iraq War from 1980-1988, the momentum gained during these protests by Iranian women slowed (Tohidi 2010, 387). In April 1983, the headscarf became obligatory by law for all women in Iran (Maranlou 2022), a law which has been symbolic of the curtailing of women’s free choice. Despite the crackdowns on many areas of women’s lives, women have made other gains in Iranian society. Women have continued to advance and gain high-level positions in society. Furthermore, the Islamification of society opened up a number of positions previously closed to women during the Pahlavi era (Rostami-Povey 2012, 27).

There have been a number of movements and campaigns in support of women’s rights since 1979 originating both in Iran and internationally.  For instance, the One Million Signatures Campaign to End Discriminatory Laws was launched in 2006 in an effort to address gender discrimination within the Iranian legal system. Inspired by a similar campaign that took place in Morocco in 1992, the goal of the campaign was to collect one million signatures to present to parliament in order to gain support for a change in these discriminatory laws as well as to promote dialogue and discussion on the subject (Tohidi 2010, 401). This campaign garnered both local and international support with branches among the Iranian diaspora in many countries due in part to the championing of the campaign by Shirin Ebadi, winner of the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 (Povey 2016). While not all goals of the campaign were met, “the campaign successfully negotiated the dilemmas of working transnationally in an age of war, feminist governmentality, neoliberalism, and Islamophobia, indicating new possibilities for transnational feminist solidarity” (Sameh 2014, 183). 

Another campaign, launched in May 2014 by Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-born journalist, started a social media movement on Facebook called My Stealthy Freedom, protesting mandatory hijab laws in Iran. She initiated this campaign by posting two pictures of herself without the government-mandated veil. One taken in London and an old photograph taken in Iran (My Stealthy Freedom 2019). Alinejad encouraged women inside Iran to take similar pictures of themselves and post them. The campaign has since evolved into various different social media initiatives such as #MyForbidden Song, #WhiteWednesdays, and #GirlsofRevolutionStreet. (My Stealthy Freedom 2019). The virtual nature of the MSF campaign used the internet to reach across state lines and connect individuals in solidarity through a transnational cyber-space. This transnational virtual space has played an increasingly important role in local activism as it has allowed for increased information-flow and communication among activists and the diaspora (Ghorashi and Tavakoli 2006, 98).

While international support and transnational solidarity have played an important role in these campaigns, they have also at times distracted from local issues by placing international matters at the forefront. Despite intentions, transnational solidarity and support from international governments have previously harmed local activists and their causes in Iran by jeopardizing the safety of activists and making them a national security target for the state due to their transnational ties (Sameh 2014, 174). Furthermore, transnational solidarity has often led to reductionism by limiting the nuance particularly in its treatment of unitary groups such as the diaspora and the Iranian Women’s Movement, or politicizing issues such as the hijab. Women in Iran have therefore had to navigate the complex domestic and international political reality and carve a place within this reality on their own terms.

The 2022 protests in Iran have returned the Iranian Women’s Rights Movement to the focus of the world’s stage. Similar themes have appeared during the protests which reflect previous themes in the Iranian Women’s Rights Movement, such as the focus on women’s bodies as political subjects, the re-emergence of the debate surrounding the mandatory hijab laws, and the connection between women’s rights and broader anti-regime protests. Despite the complex environment in which they operate, Iranian women have continued to negotiate and re-negotiate the limitations and challenges it has brought in order to continue fighting for gender equality. Their adaptability and resilience serve as an inspiration for all those who hope for a better, more equal future for all.

References

Esfandiari, Haleh. 1997. Reconstructed Lives: Women & Iran’s Islamic Revolution. Baltimore: John Hopkins University Press.

Ghamari-Tabrizi, Behrooz. 2016. Foucault in Iran: Islamic Revolution after the Enlightenment. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Ghorashi, Halleh and Nayereh Tavakoli. 2006. “Paradoxes of Transnational Space and Local Activism: Iranians Organizing Across Borders”. Focaal- European Journal of Anthropology 47: 90-102.

Maranlou, Sahar. 2022. “Hijab law in Iran over the decades: the continuing battle for reform.” The Conversation, October 7, 2022. Accessed March 4, 2023. https://theconversation.com/hijab-law-in-iran-over-the-decades-the-continuing-battle-for-reform-192037

My Stealthy Freedom. 2019. “FAQ”. Accessed January 9, 2023.  https://www.mystealthyfreedom.org/faq/.

Paidar, Parvin. 1995. Women and the political process in twentieth-century Iran. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Rostami-Povey, Elaheh. 2012. “The Women’s Movement in its Historical Context” In Women, Power and Politics in 21st Century Iran, edited by Tara Povey and Elaheh Rostami-Povey, 17-33. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing Limited.

Sameh, Catherine. 2014. “From Tehran to Los Angeles to Tehran: Transnational Solidarity Politics in the One Million Signatures Campaign to End Discriminatory Law”. Women’s Studies Quarterly, 42, no. 3/4 (Fall/Winter): 166-186. https://www.jstor.org/stable/24364999.

Tohidi, Nayereh. 2010. “The Women’s Movement and Feminism in Iran: A Global Perspective” In Women’s Movements in the Global Era: The Power of Local Feminisms, edited by Amrita Basu, 375-414. Boulder: Westview Press.