Women On The Front Line

Background: Women’s Situation In Iran

The core of the women’s rights movement in Iran goes back to the Constitutional Revolution of 1906-1911 and the emergence of civil rights guaranteed by the Constitution.  Iran’s first Constitution, however, did not grant suffrage rights to women.  In the next half-century, the women’s movement in Iran was more or less subsumed under, and sidetracked by, major political movements of the time. 

It was not until 1963 with the aggressive development of Iranian society under the rule of Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi that Iranian women gained the right to vote.  Subsequently, women grew into the higher ranks of societal and political significance, occupying high administrative and even ministerial positions, while at the same time in many family and civic laws they were legally discriminated against. 

The Islamic Revolution of 1979 undid the achievements of Iranian women, as the new state of Iran placed the traditional Shari‘a laws (Shi‘i jurisprudence) above all other laws.

As a result, the social and political status of women quickly deteriorated.  With passage of time, many of the rights that women had gained under the Shah, were systematically abolished through legislation in an attempt to encourage Iranian women to stay at home and play the traditionally-celebrated role of wife-mother. 

Women who worked as civil servants were systematically pressured by the administration to work part-time, apply for early retirement, or simply quit. Today, aspects of such discriminatory practices include the following: married women require their husband’s permission to apply for a passport; legally, a woman cannot leave her home without her husband's permission, even to attend her father's funeral; the legal age of marriage for women is nine years; and last but not least, a woman’s testimony in court is given half the weight of a man’s, which is especially harmful if the accused is a woman facing a man who stands as a witness against her.

The Revolt

The legalized deprivation of women of their human rights has led to a vast human and civil rights movement by Iranian women to change the discriminatory laws. This movement is the largest civil rights movement in the world.  Iranian women hold protests, rallies, and sit-ins; they lobby legislators and resist discriminatory laws. 
The significance of Iran’s women’s movement lies in the fact that the extent of the success of this movement will determine the extent to which the Islamic Republic of Iran will reform itself. The women’s rights movement in Iran, if successful, will bring Iran democracy, human rights, and secular constitutionalism.  It will advance human rights in Iran, and it is hoped, will take initiatives to ground Iranian laws based on the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.