Islamic Feminisms

Rights and Interpretations Across Generations in Iran

Roja Fazaeli

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2016
• ISBN:
  9781315411439
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Diritto
• Subtopic: Teoria e pratica del diritto

This book explores the contentious topic of women's rights in Muslim-majority countries, with a specific focus on Iran and the Iranian women's movement from 1906 to the present. The work contextualizes the authorial self through the use of personal narrative and interviews. A new critique of Islamic law is produced through an in-depth study of the Iranian Constitution, civil and criminal codes. The work presents a novel reconceptualization of the term "Islamic feminism" by revisiting the arguments of various scholars and through analysis of interviews with Iranian women's rights activists. It is contended that the feminist movements can play a critical role in Islamic law reform and consequently the eventual implementation of international human rights law in Muslim-majority countries. What emerges from this study is not only a feminist critique of two major regimes of law, but also the identification of possibilities for reform in the future. The study transitions from the Iranian national context to the international by way of a comparative legal study of international human rights laws and Islamic laws. The book will appeal both to academics and human rights practitioners.

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Iranian women’s movement

Narratives of dissent

Overview

An overview of the Iranian women’s movement from the later 1800s to the present is necessary to contextualize the current state of the movement. This chapter examines patterns in the Iranian women’s movement from its origins to the present time, including its struggles with institutions of power, its relationship to religion and religious authority, and its dependencies on national and international institutions, as well as its innovations in the face of setbacks. The past three decades have witnessed a revival in historical studies of the early Iranian women’s movement. Scholars such as Parvin Paidar, Afsaneh Najmabadi, Ali Akbar Mahdi, Eliz Sanasarian, Hammed Shahidian, Homa Hoodfar, Nikki Keddie, Mehrangiz Kar and Shirin Ebadi,¹ to name a few, have all written on aspects of the Iranian women’s movement from historical, sociological and politico-legal perspectives covering the movement’s beginnings until the time after the 1979 Iranian Revolution. As Janet Afary observes, following the 1979 Iranian Revolution academics and female activists “began to search in the dustbin of history for the origins of feminism in literature and politics”.² This search is particularly noteable in books such as Senator: the Works of Senator Mehrangiz Manouchehrian for Legal Rights for Women by Noushin Ahamadi Khorasani and Parvin Ardalan. By way of Manouchehrian’s story, this work explores the history of the women’s movement in Iran from the post-constitutional era to the Pahlavi dynasty. It also includes the early period following the 1979 Islamic Revolution.³ More recently, Ahmadi Khorasani’s book Bahar Jonbesh Zanan (The Spring of Iranian Women’s Movement), published in 2012, gives an intimate account of the movement.

Following 1979 an important part of the history of the women’s movement in Iran has been the transition of women’s publications from print to online media. This transition has facilitated a broader range of activism, both nationally and internationally, and has blurred public and private divides, for example, between the home and the prison. The media transition has also had implications for censorship and must be understood alongside the closure of many reform print media outlets⁴ as well as in light of changes in the political discourse, particularly those leading to the harassment and arrest of journalists, human rights activists (in particular, women’s rights activists) and bloggers.

One forum where women’s rights activists and reform-minded intellectuals traditionally voiced their concerns regarding discrimination, and where debates and discussions of a religious and secular nature took place, was that of women’s reformist media. The role of women’s reformist media has been the topic of many articles and books.⁵ Women’s magazines such as Zanan, Farzaneh and payam-e Hajar have been thoroughly studied as platforms where women’s issues were discussed and religious texts were reinterpreted.⁶ These previous studies form the basis for understanding the present women’s movement. However, there is a clear paucity of academic study when it comes to Iranian online publications and blogs. These sites have become an integral part of the women’s movement and are places where collective and individual narratives join together in innovation in the fight for equality.

The final section of this chapter examines a new medium for women’s public voices: prison narratives from women rights activists that are published online. These narratives afford women prisoners a voice and raise questions about the nature of private and state-owned prisons. By giving these testimonies, the women defy the state, which has otherwise imprisoned them, and also create a new space for their activism. These narratives from the band nasvan (women’s ward) are important as they not only give a human face to women who are otherwise dismissed as criminals, but also because they critically analyse the reasons for which these women have broken laws.

The Iranian women’s movement: a brief historical account (1872–2012)

The beginning of the Iranian women’s movement can be traced back to the late nineteenth century. It is intrinsically linked to Iran’s relationship with Western powers, in particular Russia and Britain, and consequently to the Iranian nationalist movement and the so-called Constitutional Revolution (1905–1911).⁷ Women became part of the active nationalist opposition to territorial and commercial concessions gained by both Russia and Britain. They actively opposed the Reuter concession of 1872, “which sold almost all of Iran’s resources at a very low price”, and they joined the Tobacco Protest (1891–1892).⁸

The Tobacco Movement, sparked by a fatwa issued in December 1881 by a leading Shi’a cleric, Haji Hassan Shirazi, resulted in a nationwide boycott of tobacco. This occurred against the background of near-constant public criticism of Naser al-Din Shah’s concession to a British company that cured and sold tobacco.⁹ Women played an effective part in the protests. During the public protests, women attacked shops, forced them to close down and shouted insults at the Shah. Among other things they called him “the female with the moustache”, “the scarf wearer” and “unbeliever”.¹⁰ His submissiveness to the West had feminized him in the eyes of the public and brought his masculinity into question. The Shah’s wives also took part in the protests by refusing to smoke tobacco. The Shah’s wife Anis al-Dawlah took a lead in boycotting tobacco in the andarun and a boycott of tobacco in the harem was announced in the following way: “Tobacco has been boycotted by those who have married us to you.”¹¹ This statement highlights the power the clergy possessed during that period and how closely it was linked to women’s activism. Having succumbed to the pressure of the mass protests, in 1892 Naser al-din Shah cancelled the concession.¹² According to Ali Akbar Mahdi this “was the first of a series of collective protests” staged in the hope of establishing a constitution and bringing about “parliamentary rule and democracy” by limiting the relative power of the monarch.¹³

The movement culminated in the aforementioned Constitutional Revolution and was centered on the debate over the relevance of “Western” modernity to Iranian society. It was a movement intimately concerned with Qajar vulnerability to Western intrusion. Opposition to the state was articulated in strong nationalist terms. Alliances between the groups that constituted this opposition movement included “the Shi’a clergy, the business community and the secular intelligentsia”.¹⁴ Both men and women supported these movements, with class and education remaining a significant predictor of support. The educated upper classes were more inclined to be supportive. This was especially true for the women who took part. The Shi’a clergy were also supportive and supported, both because of their institutional base within the Iranian community and their autonomy. Paidar summarizes the power of the clergy before and after the Constitutional Revolution. She states:

Under the Qajars, power and authority were invested in both the king and the mojtahed, and the state and the religious establishment maintained a relationship of mutual interdependence. During the Constitutional Revolution the clergy’s influence in political affairs increased. With the establishment of parliamentary democracy, the clergy consolidated its role in politics by taking up seats in the Majles as people’s representative. The Shii establishment had throughout the post-constitutional period exerted tremendous power and influence in the affairs of state, nation and individual. It had, on the other hand, lost control over education after the establishment of a national education system in 1918.¹⁵

The events leading up to and following the Constitutional Revolution marked the beginning of the women’s movement and activism in Iran.¹⁶ The movement was formed against the backdrop of a new nationalism and supported by a number of the Constitutionalists. Women also supported the Constitutional movement through protests, strikes and other financial means. According to Afary, “In 1905 women reportedly created human barriers and protected the ‘ulama’ who had taken sanctuary at the Shah ‘Abd al-‘Azim Shrine from the armed government forces.”¹⁷ The signing of the August 1906 royal proclamation was followed by women’s involvement in a “plan to form a national bank” and support “the boycott of foreign goods”.¹⁸ Women’s patriotism was demonstrated by their efforts to collect and donate funds to the national bank, with some of them giving their inheritance share and others selling their jewelry and household items.¹⁹ Either in spite of, or because of, the history and extent of women’s dependencies during the Qajar dynasty, women recognized the importance of autonomy for national aspirations and attempted to boycott European imported textiles by wearing “native fabrics”.²⁰ “It was believed that the boycott of European textiles in Iran would free the nation from its dependence on European merchants and manufacturers.”²¹ In one instance, driven by fear of the newly formed Majlis-e Shoraye Eslami²² (Islamic Consultative Assembly) delegating unlimited power to the Russians, the following plan was executed:

Women whose husbands and male relatives made up the majlis, met secretly in one another’s homes and planned a dramatic protest. Three hundred strong, they marched to the majlis building; there the women, heavily veiled and in chadors, demanded to see the President. When he appeared the women brandished their revolvers and declared that they would kill all their men folks if the deputies did not uphold the integrity of the Constitution. The women won their point. Similarly, when the Ministry of Finance delayed paying their employees, women relatives stormed the Ministry offices and demanded payment.

²³

Women participated in the national struggle by “circulating information, spreading news, acting as informers and messengers, participating in demonstrations, and taking up arms in protest”.²⁴ Traditional gatherings such as rowzehs also turned into political meetings. Mosques were used as spaces for political knowledge sharing. Consequently, a number of secret or semi-secret women’s societies were formed. Women’s participation in the national movement led to the establishment of anjumans (societies) and schools by women for women. Two noteworthy societies were Anjuman Azadi-yi Zanan (the ...