Experts on What’s Next for Iranian Women

 

 

The recent Iranian parliamentary elections will be a game changer for women in three ways. First, a record number of women will enter parliament. Second, women candidates were seen as critical members of coalition lists to signal to Iranian moderates to get out and vote. Therefore, the large turnout of women voters was critical to sway the pendulum in favor of moderates and reformists. Third, a campaign was underway to elect candidates with more gender egalitarian views. The significance of these three factors is that the drive for improving women’s rights is broad-based, includes men and women as change agents, and puts women’s demands at the center of a desire for moderation and rejection of extremism. To underscore the importance of women’s participation, President Hassan Rouhani appealed to them to vote, leading to a large turnout despite the sweeping elimination of qualified reformist candidates.

 

Iran was initially not a pioneer of women’s rights in the Muslim world. Women in many Muslim countries obtained the right to vote sooner than women in Iran. But after Iranian women obtained the right to vote in 1963, they progressed quickly on many fronts mainly because gender equality was integrated effectively into the country’s economic development planning. The widely used economic models of the 1960s and 1970s saw growth as a function of increases in capital and labor. Since men participate roughly around the same percentage across countries, a marked increase in the size of the labor force over the medium to long term that would result in growth could only come from women’s participation. Thus, Iran set out to increase women’s capabilities and remove legal and institutional barriers that impeded their access to opportunities. From 1963 to 1979, Iranian women were as close to equal with men as was possible for that period.

 

From the onset, however, women’s liberation was met with strong conservative clerical opposition, and by the time of the Islamic Revolution of 1979, the changes seemed quite entrenched. Few people—not even women—remembered the obstacles that had been overcome, and even fewer fathomed that it would be even possible to turn the clock back on two important hallmarks of women’s rights: the choice to veil or not, and the family law that, for instance, gave them the right of divorce and forbade polygamy. Sadly, these were the very first changes that the incoming authorities introduced. In shock, women staged a widespread demonstration to protest against the changes. Even sadder, secular intellectuals from left, right, and center, who had advocated for democracy and human rights for decades, joined those who condemned the women.

 

Nearly every law changed, but the right to vote remained. Despite setbacks, Iranian women had tasted equality, and that taste lingered. Women embarked on a quiet revolution to change the Iranian mindset, to transform the society from within. One of the ways women began to exert their views was to infiltrate in greater numbers professions that were previously (and still are in most countries) male-dominated. Among the many examples, it is noteworthy to mention women’s involvement in publishing, film, and arts—professions that influenced culture, opinions, and identity. The number of women novelists in Iran soared; women publishers became numerous and could now decide what society should read; and women movie directors and artists visualized the injustices of the society. A visit to any Tehran bookstore would surprise anyone, because shelf after shelf is filled with fiction written or translated by Iranian women. Thus, the youth of today is well-read, moderate, and far more open to gender equality than his or her parents 40 to 50 years ago. They will pressure the state from the bottom up for a more open society that values every member.

 

 

On the eve of International Women’s Day 2016, 14 women were elected to the Iranian parliament. Eight more have made it to the second round in April, holding out the possibility that their number will increase. Among the 14 already elected, 11 were members of the “List of Hope,” endorsed by President Hassan Rouhani, an indication of their likely moderate leanings. Three ran as independents. The majority of the new women deputies are professional women in their forties and fifties.

 

It remains to be seen whether these women will push for legislation on issues important to women, but Iranian women needed this good news after a difficult year. Iranian women did not fare as well as expected in 2015. President Rouhani and his vice president for women and family affairs, Shahindokht Mollaverdi, an outspoken critic of discrimination against women, tried but were met with little success in improving the status of women in Iran in the past year. They were stonewalled by conservative resistance.

 

Nothing changed in the Family Law. The age of marriage remained at 13 for girls, and instances in which girls were married off at a younger age were not uncommon. Polygamy and temporary marriage continue to be permitted under law. Divorce is still the prerogative of men.

 

The employment rate of women went up slightly, and more women rose through the ranks in the civil service. The first Iranian female ambassador, Marzieh Afkham, was sent to Malaysia. Marzieh Shahdaii was the first woman ever to be appointed as the director general of the National Iranian Petrochemical Company. However, female unemployment remains twice as high as for men.

 

The government successfully blocked efforts to bar women from a number of fields of study in higher education, but the number of women entering universities has dropped to under 60 percent of entering classes.

 

The Rouhani government also failed to curb the excesses of the security agencies. Women’s rights and human rights continued to be routinely violated. The morals police, officially sanctioned vigilantes, and security forces targeted women from all walks of life including women activists. There were cases of acid attacks on women, harassment on the streets, domestic violence, female genital mutilation, trafficking of young girls, and execution of minors. The authorities imprisoned women activists, artists including poets and even cartoonists, as well as lawyers defending activists.

 

Yet Iranian women have learned for over three and a half decades to look ahead and, like soccer players, to continue to deftly dribble the ball until they score a goal. The year 2016 might well prove to be a year when they score several.