Role and Achievements of Women in Constitutional Revolution of Iran (original) (raw)
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In Support of a Constitutional Government: Women's Voices in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution
Afriche e Orienti, 2022
Topics in the historiography on the Iranian Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911 are extensively male-dominated. This dominance is favoured by the written materials that researchers can use, as the predominance of male authors is undeniable when looking at the publications from that time. Consequently, it is more difficult to reconstruct what women thought about the constitutional form of government. At the same time, several scholars who have investigated the origins of feminism in Iran have set its starting point at the time of the Constitutional Revolution. Therefore, this article will reconcile these two historiographies by shedding light on the voices of some women who supported the constitutional government during the revolution. Thanks to archival documents and printed publications, including the memoirs of Tāj al-Soltaneh, the telegram of the Committee of Iranian Women Resident in Istanbul to the Italian Queen, and letters to newspapers, this essay will stress women’s involvement in the events both at the domestic and transnational level and devote attention to their role as both thinkers and actors during the Constitutional Revolution. The article is part of the special issue "Donne, genere e politica in Asia. In ricordo di Anna Vanzan", edited by Elisa Giunchi and Jolanda Guardi.
Socio-Political Rights of Iranian Women before and after the Islamic Revolution; a Comparative Study
JCRIR, 2019
Feminism, as a social uprising, today is being considered by many thinkers and researchers. Proponents of this tendency believe that women are discriminated because of their sex and state they have certain needs that are not fulfilled in the society by governmental administrations. Therefore, fundamental changes must be made in the social, economic and political system to achieve females' basic rights and needs. Women's rights are among the issues to be addressed in various aspects and dimensions. In Iran, the women's movement has roughly coincided with the Constitutional Movement (1905-11) and continued throughout the Pahlavi regime (1925-79) and thereafter the Islamic Revolution (1979-present) in various forms. Applying a comparative and descriptive-analytical method, the present research aims to study the status of political-social rights of women in Iran before and after the 1979 Revolution, regarding the Iranian Constitution. Findings show that after the Islamic Revolution, the Constitution obliged the government to respect the rights of women in all aspects, including their civil participation, and then ensure and create favorable conditions for the development of women's personality and the revival of her material and spiritual rights. According to the Iranian Constitution, woman as an esteemed human being has the right to enter and control her own destiny. In other words, the guarantee of Iranian females' rights is the Constitution itself, which has initially focused on their political and social rights. Hence, it is proved that the situation of women has improved at least in the area of decision-making, and consequently their general status has grown since the Iranian Islamic Revolution.
Women In Iran: A Struggle For Socio-political Rights During The 18 th To 20 th Century
International Journal Of Research And Analytical Reviews (IJRAR), IJRAR GUJARAT, INDIA, 2019
Historical enquiry helps us in knowing the status and position of women in society. It proves that women have always occupied a subordinate position and enjoyed limited freedom in the patriarchal society. The women have not been treated as men due to their sex. The behavior expected from men by the women was completely negated. The women wanted to be free from the traditional male dominated society, but for bindings of the society they themselves had to stop. Therefore, the religious leader succeeded to keep the women in the traditional society and they compelled the women to live like a puppet, at their own house the women had to spend their lives like staying in a prison. Women had also been looked at as second-tier members of the society and had too many restrictions. Therefore, women's Movements were the key figures for achieving the socio-political rights for women. This paper tries to highlight how the women demand through the Movements and their strategies for the development of the status and position of women in 18 th , 19 th and 20 th century. The socio-political rights of women were a historically controversial issue in the world. Iranian women too couldn't escape of it. Present Iran formerly known as Persia is a country where Iranian women were once upon a time deprived of some basic legal, social and political rights. The woman had to take written permission of their husband if even they go to work or travel outside the home. They lived a life like a servant in their own house. The women had no power to take right decision about their future, their aim or career depended upon the male power, socially and politically after all women are harassed by their husband and father. Education is the prime social index for coming out of traditional thinking. Regarding this essential variables the women had to face a lot of problem. The women could not go to schools for study, even passing primary level education they were stopped from taking admission in colleges and universities. According to religious leaders Shaykh Fazlullah Nuri and Seyyed Ali Shushtari, going school for girls is detrimental for the status of women and is against religious principles. Therefore, they couldn't do job in Government offices and they had to depend upon their males for their all kind of expenditure. Thus, knowledge of women for upgrading a society always been less and they have been misguided by their fathers, brothers and husbands also. They were associated with household works only. Prevention of participation in political fields was one of the main issues for Iranian women. They were not getting attention and support from the Government to cast vote in election for choosing political leaders. The women had no rights to give speeches freely and they have not got opportunity to participate actively in social activities. The number of women's participation in socio-political fields is very rare. Likewise, they encountered with wearing dress which they wished. Hijab or veiling became the compulsory dress for women and it was one of the political issues. Movements for women's rights: "Necessity is the mother of invention". The woman of Iran needed all kinds of social variables that can improve their thinking for the society, their talents into extraordinary , their dreams into real life. Their expectations and hopes were always left before male's wishes. The deprivation and unlawful situation woke up the women from the hereditary system, the woman wanted to change this indiscipline order for woman but they had to face too many problems which was occurred by male power. This environment made woman different that discovered women as one of the most essential social groups in Iranian civil rights movements and brought in such a time which helped women to participate in the Movements viz., The Constitutional Movement which was the first steps of Iranian women for getting their rights. The political activities of the Iranian women are found in the Food Riots of the late nineteenth century 1. During this time, some enlightened women established some secret societies like "Anjoman-e Aazadi-ye Zanaan" or "the Women's Freedom Society" and "Anjuman-e Zanaan-e Neqabpush" or "the Society of Masked Women" to discuss the position of women by sharing their personal problems, experiences and feelings. 2 In 1911 A.D there proposed a bill in the Majles i.e. parliament of Iran that grants women the right to vote and gives permission to establish the women's associations. This movement forced the government to establish school for girls in major cities like Tehran, Tabriz, etc. In 1913 Tehran saw 63 schools for girls and 9 women's societies. During twenty years from 1910 to 1932 A.D women establishes many organizations and publishes a number of weekly magazines such as Daanesh, Jahaan-e Zanaan, Shekoufeh, Zanaan-e Iran and Nameh Baanouvaan which all dealing with the issues related to conditions of women. In mid-1930s Iran had 14 women's magazines discussing about the rights of women, education and veiling. Secondly, after the fall of Qajar dynasty, Reza Shah founded Pahlavi dynasty and began to rule over Iran. Reza Shah Pahlavi had no tolerance for any independent and non-conforming organizations. The main rivals of women at that time were the Ulama and the Government forced Reza Shah to ban a women organization named 'Jamiat-e-Nesvaan-e-Vatankhaah-e-Iran' (The Patriotic Women's League of Iran). In 1931, by the pressure of the women organizations a bill was passed in the Majles (Parliament of Iran) that gave women the right to ask for divorce. The Government compelled to release a huge sum of money and resources in constructing of school for girls 3. In 1934, Reza Shah had controlled a women's organization named "Kaanoon-e Baanovaan" or "The Ladies Center", led by his daughter
Iranian Women from Private Sphere to Public Sphere, With Focus on Parliament
Iran and The Caucasus, 2009
Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979 there have been eight parliaments (Majlis) in Iran. Based on my experience as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the 6 th parliament, which was dominated by reformists MPs, this chapter will provide an analysis of the role of women in this parliament in comparison with the 7 th (2004)(2005)(2006)(2007)(2008) and the 8 th (2008)(2009)(2010)(2011)(2012) parliaments, which were dominated by conservatives. To contextualize the role of women in Iranian politics, this chapter will first briefly discuss the role of women in the modern political history of Iran. It will be argued that the 1979 revolution provided opportunities for women to participate in the public sphere of politics. However, patriarchal gender relations and conservative traditions continued to persist. Secondly, I will discuss the role of women in the parliament since 2000. I will demonstrate how in the 6 th parliament, female MPs although few in number, succeeded in promoting the idea of gender equality.
The Status of Women in the Iranian Constitution
Journal of international women's studies, 2020
The purpose of this article is to explain the status of women in the Iranian Constitution. The methods of the study are legal analysis along with a systemic and holistic approach. The findings indicate that the status and the rights of women have been unequivocally articulated in the Iranian Constitution in Articles 10 and 21 and the responsibilities for the government have been assumed in this regard. Regarding the basic rights like the right for education, the right for dwelling and the right for employment and so on, women have been included by using the general terms such as “everyone”. However, there are some ambiguities concerning the issue of women’s political participation. There is a serious ambiguity with reference to the qualifications required for the presidency. According to Article 115, the president of the Republic must be elected from among the religious and political elite. The word used in the Persian text for the “political elite” is the Arabic word “Rajol” which ...
Comparative Studies of South Asia, Africa and the Middle East, 2005
ince the late 1970s and early 1980s, women's studies and, more recently, alongside and interlaced with it, gender studies have developed into a full-fledged and broad-based subdiscipline of Middle Eastern studies. Suffering generally, however, from a lack of historical record, the field has tended to focus on the contemporary period, and, accordingly, many of the main contributions have been made by anthropologists, insight sociologists, and political scientists. Historical studies of women and gender in the Middle East have been slower to emerge. In general, relatively little work was done before the mid-1990s; 1 research on Iran and Egypt, however, has been somewhat exceptional in this regard, and the echoes of the rise of women's public voice and action at the end of the nineteenth and in the early twentieth centuries, when a public discourse on women began to take shape in the Middle East, have received relatively considerable treatment. 2 In the case of Iran, many of the historical studies on women point to the turn of the twentieth century and, more specifically, the 1905-11 constitutional revolution period as the I thank David Menashri, Rami Regavim, Liora Baavur, and an anonymous reader for their thought-provoking comments on earlier versions of this article. I am also grateful to Houri Berberian for sharing with me her knowledge on the subject and for offering her wisdom and insight. 1. For assessments of the state of the historiography of women and gender in Middle Eastern studies conducted in Europe and the United States, see the 1999 volume edited by
Against All Odds: The Building of a Women's Movement in the Islamic Republic of Iran
2008
Immediately after the overthrow of the Reza Shah Pahlavi by a popular movement in 1979, the new Islamic regime introduced a series of discriminatory laws, annulling the meagre rights that women had secured in the previous seventy-five years. This was done despite the massive participation of women in the revolution bringing about the newly established regime. Although there was some protest on the part of middle class women, mostly in Tehran, the unbelievably discriminatory laws were passed with ease. Among other things, the value of women’s lives legally became half that of men; two women witnesses became equal to one man; women were banned from becoming judges; and a notoriously misogynistic orthodox Muslim family law was introduced (Paidar 1995, Hoodfar 1998). All this indicated that while women had acted as political agents, the regime’s leaders were not politicized regarding the specific concerns of women.1 This realization became the starting point and a building block for tho...
Position of Women in Iran: An Analysis of Pre and Post Islamic Revolution 1979
South Asian Studies, 2017
Socio, economic and political involvement of women as half of the total populace is important to reinforce society and state. In every sphere of life, women have been found under-represented one way or the other. The women of Iran are not exempted from this. This paper evaluates women‟s position in two different periods in the history of Iran, i.e., during the rule of the Pahlavi Dynasty, and during the period of the post Islamic Republic. The objective of the paper is, first, to highlight the treatment meted out to women in Iran and shed light on various spheres of social life while comparing the two periods. Secondly, to examine factors that have affected the position of women in Iran.