Women's rights in Iran

The Persian Constitutional Revolution

Iranian women played a significant role in the Persian Constitutional Revolution of 1905–11. They participated in large numbers in public affairs and held important positions in journalism and in schools and associations that flourished from 1911 to 1924. Prominent Iranian women who played a vital part in the revolution include Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi, Noor-ol-Hoda Mangeneh, Mohtaram Eskandari, Sediqeh Dowlatabadi, and Qamar ol-Molouk Vaziri.

At the turn of the 20th century, many educated Persian women were attracted to journalism and writing. Danesh (1907) was the first specialized journal focusing on women's issues. Later, Shokoufeh, Nameie Banovan, Alam e Nesvan, and Nesvan e Vatan Khah were published in Tehran. Moreover, Nesvan e Shargh in Bandar Anzali, Jahan e Zanan in Mashhad, Dokhtaran e Iran in Shiraz, and Peik e saadat in Rasht addressed women's issues throughout Persia (Iran). Although the defeat of the constitutionalists (1921–25) and the consolidation of power by Reza Shah (1925–41) destroyed the women's journals and groups, the state during these years implemented social reforms such as mass education and paid employment for women. Reza Shah also began his controversial policy of Kashf-e-Hijab, which banned the wearing of the Islamic hijab in public. But like other sectors of society in the years under Reza Shah's rule, women lost the right to express themselves, and dissent was repressed.

Women and the Iranian Revolution

Women participated heavily in the Iranian Revolution of 1979 that overthrew the Shah.

When the Iranian Revolution started, in 1977, many women protested by marching in frequented areas and women chose to wear chadors as a sign of protest. Because the first Pahlavi Shah banned the use of the hijab, many women decided to show their favor for Ayatollah Khomeini, by wearing a chador, thinking that this would be the best way to show their support without having to be vocal. Many women that did not previously choose to wear the chador (before the banning of the hijab) only wore this highly modest garb to show their high levels of support for the Ayatollah and aversion to the Shah. Another way the chador helped in Iranian society was it enabled women to be a unified force. Similar to many societies, women were separated into different social classes and by the use of the chador many would feel equality amongst all classes of women fighting for the same cause.

Not with-standing this, in the Islamic Republic of Iran, Ayatollah Khomeini severely curtailed rights that women had become accustomed to under the shah. Within months of the founding of the Islamic Republic of Iran, the 1967 Family Protection Law was repealed; female government workers were forced to observe Islamic dress code; women were barred from becoming judges; beaches and sports were sex-segregated; the legal age of marriage for girls was reduced to 9 (later raised to 13); and married women were barred from attending regular schools.

Almost immediately women protested these policies. The Islamic revolution is ideologically committed to inequality for women in inheritance and other areas of the civil code; and especially committed to segregation of the sexes. Many places, from "schoolrooms to ski slopes to public buses", are strictly segregated.

Hijab

The hijab today in Iran includes the choice of either a chador or a roopoosh and veil. The chador is a highly modest, usually black or dark outfit that covers the top of a woman’s head and loosely covers her body to her feet. The roopoosh or manteau is a long top similar to a trench coat. “The dress needs to be appropriate according to the Islamic custom of hejab (veil): women are not required to be veiled in front of mahram relatives such as husband, father, son, brother, but are required to be “modest” if they are likely to be seen by na-mahram males."

The distinction between private and public space often depends on a woman’s social class. There are places that have an obvious public distinction such as markets, offices, and streets that are public to all; but when homes are considered there is a difference. Many upper-class homes in Iran have a reception room where na-mahram guests are received and entertained. This room is usually very well decorated and women typically do not go in this room but stay in the rest of the house while a guest is over. A woman that does not have a reception room in her house would have to rush to get properly dressed before her husband would answer the door. If a woman is by herself or just in the company of other women in the home, the door would not be answered because na-mahram men and women would not have business together.

"Bad hijab" ― exposure of any part of the body other than hands and face – is subject to punishment of up to 70 lashes or 60 days imprisonment. In April 2007, the Tehran police, (which is under Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei's supervision), began the most fierce crackdown on what is known as "bad hijab" in more than a decade. In the capital Tehran thousands of Iranian women were cautioned over their poor Islamic dress and several hundred arrested.

In 2016 the government cracked down on Instagram models for photos in which the women had "inappropriate clothing". Laws which require veiling have promoted some foreign women to boycott trips to Iran.

Post-Khomeini era

The early 1990s brought a marked increase in the number of women employed in Iran. Dramatic changes in the labor force might not have been possible if Khomeini had not broken the barriers to women entering into the public sphere unchaperoned. Women were also more likely to pursue higher education, a product of the free education and the literacy campaigns. Today, more women than men are pursuing higher education in Iran even though the Islamic Republic tries to limit women to domains exclusive to women. For example, the government has set quotas for female pediatricians and gynecologists and has made it difficult for women to become civil engineers.

In May 1997, the overwhelming majority of women voted for Mohammad Khatami, a reformist cleric who promised more political freedom. His election brought a period during which women became increasingly bold in expressing ideas, demands, and criticisms. The awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize to Shirin Ebadi, an Iranian human rights and women's right activist, further emboldened women's rights activists inside Iran and cemented their relationships with Iranian feminists abroad.

During the Sixth Parliament, some of Iran's strongest advocates of women's rights emerged. Almost all of the 11 female lawmakers of the (at the time) 270-seat Majlis tried to change some of Iran's more conservative laws. However, during the elections for the Seventh Majlis, the all-male Council of Guardians banned the 11 women from running for office, and only conservative females were allowed to run. The Seventh Majlis reversed many of the laws passed by the reformist Sixth Majlis.

Sexual law and zina

In the Iranian penal code of 1991, extramarital sex (zina) is punishable by stoning or slashing. An entire chapter of Iranian penal code deals with punishments for extramarital sex. Another chapter details how such relations can be proved and verified in the court. The definitions for extramarital sex are dealt with in Chapter First.

Marriage law

In 1997, it became legal to sign a new kind of prenuptial document in Iran, with the object of giving them more rights than regular marital contracts. Under the terms of this prenuptial contract, the groom forfeited rights to polygamy and unconditional divorce, and the bride acquired rights to initiate divorce, divide assets, claim joint custody of children, and receive child support. As most men would not sign such contracts, the possibility of signing had little practical effect. A small number of family courts have returned, and divorce is referred to these courts. Women can function as judges but do not have the title. Mahriyeh ("bridal treasures", a stipulated sum that a groom agrees to give or owe to his bride) is indexed and linked to inflation. Women have more legal options for initiating divorce than they had in the past.

In 2008, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's administration introduced a "family support bill" in the parliament that would have allowed men to marry a second wife without his first wife's permission, and put a tax on Mariyeh – which is seen by many women "as a financial safety net in the event a husband leaves the marriage and is not forced to pay alimony." In September 2008, however, the bill for the tax was returned by Iran's judiciary to the legislative council with complaints about the polygamy and tax articles, and these were removed from the bill.

During the Ahmadinejad administration, the use of Siqeh, or temporary marriages (that can last from 30 minutes to a lifetime), was used, especially in response to the financial demands of prenuptial agreements. The temporary marriages, enacted by fatwa in 1983 under Khomeini, are heavily criticized as a form of legalized prostitution.

Divorce law

Divorce law in the Islamic republic of Iran was initially based upon the general rule in Shari'a law that gives men the sole right to end a marriage at any time. This is based on Article 1133 of the previous Civil Code (1928) that states: A man can divorce his wife whenever he wishes to do so.

This law in the Iranian constitution was modified in 1967 by the Family Protection Act which granted women more rights regarding divorce and established procedures that were mandatory regarding divorce. This also served as an amendment that made all private divorces illegal."

More divorce rights were given to women including the right to apply for a divorce under specific conditions, Article 1130 of the Civil Code which gave the court more power to grant a judicial divorce requested by a woman as well as specific circumstances in which the wife can attain power of attorney and expedite the divorce process.

Education

The writer and activist Bibi Khatoon Astarabadi founded the first school for Persian girls in 1907. In this school, Iranian women could study a variety of subjects, including history, geography, law, calculus, religion, and cooking.

Iranian women rights activists determined that education was a key for Iranian women and society. They argued that giving women education was best for Iran, in that the mothers would raise better sons for their country.

Enrollment of 12 women into the Tehran University in 1936, marked the entry of women into university education in Iran.

As of 2006, women account for well over half of the university students in Iran and 70% of Iran's science and engineering students. Such education and social trends are increasingly viewed with alarm by the Iranian conservatives groups. A report by the Research Center of the Majlis (controlled by conservatives) warned that the large female enrollment could cause "social disparity and economic and cultural imbalances between men and women."

In 1994, Ali Khamenei, Supreme leader of Iran, declared percentage of female university was 33% before Islamic Revolution but after that on 2012, became 60%.

The Iranian Revolution initiated social changes that helped more women enroll in universities. Today more than 60% of all university students in Iran are women.

Many Iranian women have been influential in the sciences, such as Jaleh Amouzgar, Eliz Sanasarian, Janet Afary, and Alenush Terian. Maryam Mirzakhani won gold medals in the 1994 and 1995 International Mathematical Olympiads, and in 2014 her work on dynamics made her the first woman in the world to win the Fields medal, which is widely considered to be the most prestigious award in mathematics.

In 2001, Allameh Tabatabaii University, Tarbiat Modares University, and Azzahra University initiated a Women's Studies academic field at the Master of Arts level, and shortly thereafter Tehran University organized a similar program.

Sports

Women contributed to the development of polo, which originated in the royal courts of Persia 2,500 years ago. The queen and her ladies-in-waiting played against the emperor and his courtiers.

Women on the other hand are not allowed to ride bicycles in Iran pursuant to an Islamic fatwa issued by Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s Supreme Leader and autocrat. According to the Muslim clerics of Iran, if a man observes a woman riding a bicycle, it will lead to corruption in the society with all kinds of terrible consequences, including corruption that will lead to crime, sexual offenses, financial crimes, spiritual infidelity, religious disobedience, and many others.

Today, Iranian schools offer sport for Iranian students, including girls. National Iranian women's teams take part in football (soccer), taekwondo, chess, and track and field events. Despite restrictions, Iran has many female athletes who have won medals in international competitions. In 2004, Zahra Asgardoun won a silver medal in the sanshou (sparring) competitions of the Asian women's wushu (martial arts) event. In December 2005, Iran won the Asian women's canoe polo crown.

On May 30, 2005, Farkhondeh Sadegh, a graphic designer, and Laleh Keshavarz, a dentist, became the first Muslim women to make a successful ascent of Mount Everest. In 2006, Iranian wushu athletes won five medals in the Third Grand International Wushu Festival in Warsaw, Poland. Iranian women's national team athlete, Elham Sadeqi, won three golds in taolu (wushu forms) events. Iran's top race car driver is Laleh Seddigh, who is skilled in both circuit and rally driving. However, in December 2007 it was reported that Seddigh, known as the "Schumacher of the East", was banned from racing for one year for allegedly tampering with her car's engine. "I did not commit any irregularities," said Seddigh, "They simply want to exclude me from racing because I'm a woman."

Acts of protest against sex segregation of women includes an event of the 1997 so-called "Football revolution" when an estimated 5000 women defied the ban on entering football stadiums and stormed the gates to join 120,000 men in celebration of Iran's national football team which had returned to the country from qualifying for the World Cup.

Female Iranian athletes are all but prevented from participation in the Olympic Games. In December 2007 the vice president of the Iranian Olympic Committee, Abdolreza Savar, issued a memorandum to all sporting federations about the "proper behavior of male and female athletes" and that "severe punishment will be meted out to those who do not follow Islamic rules during sporting competitions" both local and abroad. Men are not allowed to train or coach women. Iran's female volleyball team was once considered the best in Asia, but due to the lack of female coaches it has been prevented from international competition.

Iranian women are allowed to compete in sports that require removal of the hijab, but only in arenas that are all female. They are banned from public events if spectators include unrelated men. Thus, of the 53 Iranian athletes in the Beijing Olympics, there were only three women: Sara Khoshjamal Fekri (taekwondo), Najmeh Abtin (shooting) and Homa Hosseini (rowing).

Women may not wear Lycra as it is too form-fitting; when Homa Hosseini competes in rowing she must wear her hijab secured by a hat, a long-sleeved baggy top and tracksuit bottoms. If women do not conform to the dress code rules, they face severe punishment and a ban on participation in any future national or international competitions.

At the 2004 Athens Olympics there was only one female athlete from Iran.

In 2000, Atousa Pourkashiyan became a world chess champion.

Even with progress such as Iran's Olympic team in 2016 being lead by Zahra Nemati their still remain restrictions for women in Iran. Women are not allowed to enter stadiums to watch male sports tournaments in Iran.

Women's health

The average life expectancy for Iranian women has increased from 44.2 years in 1960 to an average of 75.7 years in 2012 and the maternal mortality rate dropped from 83 to 23 per 100,000 between 1990 and 2013. In the 20th century, female social activists, health workers, and non-governmental organizations promoted the health of women by stressing the importance of regular check-ups such as the Pap smear, mammography, and blood tests. Vitamin D and calcium supplementation and hormone replacement therapy were emphasized with the goal of preventing osteoporosis. Even with the increased life expectancy that Iranian females have gained within the last 50 years, HIV/AIDS has become an alarming health problem among Iranian females. The HIV/AIDS rate with Iranian females has increased over five times between 2007 and 2015. As for concerns with mental health, depression in Iranian women was ranked first among diseases in 2011 compared to their second-place ranking in 2003. As for their social health, the delinquency of women has increased in recent years with crimes related to drugs and violence compared to Iranian men.

In 2005, the Iranian parliament approved abortions carried out before four months gestation if a woman's life was at risk or if the fetus was malformed. With technical support from the United Nations Population Fund, the government undertook literacy and family planning initiatives. The fund's specific contributions to the Literacy Movement Organization of Iran included training more than 7,000 teachers, developing a nine-episode television series on women's health issues (including family planning), and procuring computers and other equipment.

Women's rights movement in Iran

The Iranian women's movement involves the movement for women's rights and women's equality in Iran. The movement first emerged some time after the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. The first journal published by a woman in Iran was Danesh, started in 1910. The movement lasted until 1933 in which the last women’s association was dissolved by the Reza Shah’s government. It heightened again after the Iranian Revolution (1979).

During the Iranian civil rights movement of the 1990s, Muslim women from different political groups espoused more pro-feminine interpretations of Islamic theology and shari’ah. This led to a new significance of women’s issues in the public discourse and politics. Traditionally women had not been able to lead prayers, but due to reformists’ efforts women became employed as leaders of congregation prayers. Politically, 297 women were elected to city councils and 484 women to rural councils in municipality council elections in 1999. In 56 cities, women led the list of elected councilors in terms of votes received, and in another 58 cities, they came second. During the first two years of the Khatami administration beginning in 1997, almost 1000 women moved up to executive positions or maintained their executive duties. In terms of economics, the Iranian cabinet made minimum wages for female state employees the same as that for male state employees.

Iran’s civil law system can be seen as very gender distinct, with numerous laws pertaining to favor men over women and usually never vice versa. Iran follows strict Islamic laws, which is seen as very different. One of the civil laws that are recognized in Iran is the age of puberty. In Iran, children that reach the age of puberty also gain penal responsibility, meaning that once a child has surpassed the age of puberty, he or she is legally tried as an adult. This can be seen as disadvantageous towards women, as female children reach puberty around the age of ten and boys around the age of fourteen. This means that girls as young as the age of ten can be prosecuted as a criminal. Punishments can vary from prison sentences to lashes and rarely, this can lead to the death penalty.

Laws in Iran forces gender equality to be practically non-existent. Numerous women continue to face mistreatment, especially by the law enforcement officers. An example would be the mass amount of violence that occurred towards women, during the 2009 Iranian presidential election, where many women were arrested for voting for Mir-Hossein Mousavi. One anonymous woman recollected what happened in the prison, and said that one of the prison guards said, “I will do something you will never forget. I'll make it so you never want to leave your house again, so any time you hear my name, you will tremble." In the end, these women’s votes were never counted. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the election by a landslide and as a result, massive protests against this election occurred, saying that the election was a fraud, however, Ahmadinejad took office regardless.

Soon after the 2009 elections, authorities of Iran censored many of the Internet applications, including Facebook due to high amount of outside influence. However, many Iranian resorted to the use of blogs to spread awareness. Shirin Ebadi used blogging for the purpose of defending human rights, especially women's and children’s rights. She is highly criticized for disagreeing with Islam; however, she has won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2003 for her effectively starting human’s rights movement regarding Iran. Today, many Iranians use blogging for entertainment, sharing stories, and even to start a movement.

"My Stealthy Freedom Campaign"

Although women’s rights in Iran are still patriarchal to a great extent, both women and men are challenging it. With the help from social media applications, women and men are starting online social movements to change the patriarchal ways of Iran. A journalist Masih Alinejad, used the hashtag #MyStealthyFreedom to encourage her fellow Iranians to take off the hijab. Iran follows strict Islamic law, which forces women to wear a hijab at all times. The purpose Alinejad’s movement was to spread awareness of choosing the right to freely express one’s bodies. Her Facebook page My Stealthy Freedom regarding this movement reached over a million followers. Although major social media apps are forbidden in Iran, many Iranians still use alternative applications to spread awareness and personal ordeals.

"One Million Signatures" campaign

On August 27, 2006, a new women's rights campaign was launched in Iran. The "One Million Signatures" campaign aims to end legal discrimination against women in Iranian laws by collecting a million signatures. Examples of such laws include one that gives lower value to legal testimony by women than to legal testimony by men, and one that limits punitive damages in cases of the wrongful injury or death of a woman to half of that of a man. The supporters of this campaign include many Iranian women's rights activists inside Iran and also international activists including many Nobel Peace Prize laureates. However, according to California State University professor Nayereh Tohidi, women collecting signatures were attacked and arrested, which has slowed the campaign and caused it to extend its two-year target.

After the victory with the marriage bill in September 2008, a court sentenced four of the women leaders, all involved in the One Million Signatures campaign, to jail for contributing to banned websites. They were identified as Mariam Hossein-khah, Nahid Keshavarz, Jelveh Javaheri and Parvin Ardalan.

Zanan magazine

In 1992, Shahla Sherkat founded Zanan magazine (Women magazine), which focused on the concerns of Iranian women and tested the political waters with its edgy coverage of reform politics, domestic abuse, and sex. Zanan is the most important Iranian women's journal published after the Iranian revolution. Zanan criticized the Islamic legal code. Article topics covered controversial issues including domestic abuse and plastic surgery. It argued that gender equality was Islamic and that religious literature had been misread and misappropriated by misogynists. Mehangiz Kar, Shahla Lahiji, and Shahla Sherkat, the editor of Zanan, led the debate on women's rights and demanded reforms. The leadership did not respond but, for the first time since the revolution, it could not silence the movement. However, at the end of January 2008 the Iranian regime closed the magazine down as a “threat to the psychological security of the society” claiming it showed women in a “black light.” It had been the only Persian women's magazine.

The Persian cultural sphere

Women of modern Iran have close contacts with the women from the Iranian cultural sphere, that is, Persian-speaking countries, primarily Tajikistan, Afghanistan, and the Kurdish areas of Iraq and Central Asia. Many women's rights activists, artists, and literary figures in the region cross borders to assist each other. For example, Iranian journalist Jila Bani Yaghoub and filmmaker Samira Makhmalbaf have contributed to the culture of Afghanistan. Iranian intellectual Farah Karimi wrote a book entitled "Slagveld Afghanistan" that criticizes Dutch military policies in Afghanistan, and in 2006, she was appointed as the representative of the United Nations in Afghanistan affairs. In 2003, Sima Bina, the voice of Khorasan (a region of northeastern Iran), performed secular threnodies at the Théâtre du Soleil for the benefit of the "Afghanistan: one child one book" project created by the organization Open Asia. Moreover, in 2004, the World Bank funded a "network of Persian women" for promoting the welfare of women in Persian-speaking lands.

Tajik women founded more than 100 non-governmental organizations (NGOs) in recent decades to defend their rights and improve their quality of life. Nobel laureate Shirin Ebadi acted as a role model for a new generation of Tajik women. Many Tajik businesswomen have economic ties with Iran. In 2005, a conference on poverty among women was organized in Iran, and a group of Tajik journalists, activists, university lecturers, and athletes were invited to Iran to exchange experiences.

In 2006 Anousheh Ansari, a woman whose family fled the country after the 1979 revolution was the first Iranian woman in space. The feat, undertaken in Kazakhstan, was reportedly an inspiration to many Iranian women.

Relationship with western feminism

Some suggest that only by accepting help from western feminists, whose progress has been recognized within western society, can the Iranian Women’s Movement be recognized. This perspective suggests that western feminism can offer freedom and opportunity to Iranian women that their own religious society cannot. In addition, advocates of this view argue that no matter what the Iranian Women’s Movement is able to achieve within Iranian society, the status of individual women within this society will always be less than what has been achieved by western feminists.

By contrast, others suggest that parochial movements of women will never be successful, and that until a global sisterhood made up of women from all nations and religions has been established, feminism has not truly arrived.

There is a third perspective suggesting that a global women’s movement will inevitably ignore and undermine the unique elements of indigenous Iranian feminism which have arisen as a result of their history and religion.

Crimes against women

Amnesty International noted in 2008 that the extent and prevalence of violence against women in the Kurdish regions of Iran is impossible to quantify, but discrimination and violence against women and girls in the Kurdish regions is both pervasive and widely tolerated. Furthermore, Kurdish cultural norms which facilitate the practice of forced and child marriage perpetuate the fear of violence amongst Kurdish girls in Iran. According to the UN, discriminatory laws in both the Civil and Penal Codes in Iran play a major role in empowering men and aggravating women’s vulnerability to violence. The provisions of the Penal Code relating to crimes specified in the sharia namely, hudud, qisas and diyah, are of particular relevance in terms of gender justice. Many Kurdish organizations have reported that Kurdish women rights in Iran are threatened by Islamic influence. UNICEF’s 1998 report found extremely high rates of forced marriage, including at an early age, in Kordestan, although it noted that the practice appeared to be declining. In 2008, self-immolation, "occurred in all the areas of Kurdish settlement (in Iran), where it was more common than in other parts of Iran". It was reported that in 2001, 565 women lost their lives in honor-related crimes in Ilam, Iran, of which 375 were reportedly staged as self-immolation.

In Iran, some studies estimate the Type I and II female genital mutilation (FGM) among Iraqi migrants and Kurdish minority groups to be variable, ranging from 40% to 85%.

The first and so far only documentary about FGM in Iran, In the Name of Tradition, was filmed by KameelAhmady during conducting the study the aforementioned study in the Kurdish villages and neighborhoods of Mahabad, some villages of the nearby Kurdistan province and regions of Hawraman (located between Kurdistan and Kermanshah province. This anthropological documentary, now re-edited and publicly accessible alongside this study, contains recorded footage and interviews from the regions and villages of Kermanshah and Hormozgan province, and from its islands (e.g. Qesham, Hormozgan and Kish), as well as interviewing local women and women circumcisers (Bibis/ professional cutters), the documentary records the opinions of local men, medical staff, doctors, and clerics.

FGM in Iran is not new; however, the unavailability of data made it difficult for researchers to dig out truths about its presence in Iran. From the beginning, the government was reluctant to admit its existence and ordinary people were also silent as the whole subject became taboo. Some studies estimate the Type I and II FGM among Iraqi migrants and other Kurdish minority groups to be variable, ranging from 40% to 85%.

In Iran, honour killings occur primarily among tribal minority groups, such as Kurdish, Arab, Lori, Baluchi, and Turkish-speaking tribes, while honor-related crimes are not a tradition among Persians who are generally less socially conservative. Discriminatory family laws, articles in the Criminal Code that show leniency towards honor killings, and a strongly male dominated society have been cited as causes of honor killings in Iran.