Women in Iran

Women in Iran are known to be more assertive than women in most other Islamic countries. Their beauty is surpassed only by their confidence and boldness. Since the early twentieth century when the first policies regarding the hijab, or scarf, have deprived Iranian women of a free, self-determined choice of fashion. This website features pictures of Iranian women protesting just after the Islamic Revolution of 1979. At that time those who didn't want to don the scarves were called prostitutes and were spat at. As in years prior women were forced to follow male-forged policy--like in 1979, as men sought to make them where scarves, or as was the case during the Shah's rule, when he sought to criminalize religious scarf-wearing. Today modesty police roam streets of Iranian cities. They publicly scold and ticket women in places like North Tehran, where the women have started a lipstick revolution and have commandeered scarf-wearing, turning it into more than just a fashion statement, but also a political one.

Dolls are no exception: Barbies are sold only through the black market as the Islamic Republic found the dolls Western and immodest--entirely inappropriate. Porochista Khakpour wrote a deeply insightful Op-Ed for the New York Times last March, titled "Islamic Revolution Barbie." In it she talks about how the IR raided stores and even pushed its own dolls--the more modest and Islamic "Barbie and Ken", Sara and Dara have stocked Iranian stores since 2002. Khakpour emphasized her dread of looking nothing like her Barbie dolls: "I even attempted to 'tan' Peaches ’n’ Cream Barbie’s skin for hours one day," she writes, "praying for her lotion-slathered skin to turn brown like mine, which it never did."

For years women have fought tenaciously for their rights--participating in countless movements, weathering arrests, beatings, and public castigation all for the sake of their desire for freer lives. The One Million Signatures campaign in Iran has been gathering signatures slowly but surely for years--signatures buttressing women's rights in the face of discriminatory Iranian laws (for instance, in Iran a women's testimony in court worth half that of a man's). Nobel laureate and Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi continues to fight for women's rights in Iran. In November 2009 her Nobel prize was confiscated by the Iranian police and her bank accounts were frozen. In the post election protests in Iran her sister was arrested. Nonetheless Ms. Ebadi is still visible and still vocal in her fight against the Iranian regime: just last week she called for diplomatic sanctions against the Iran government (she condemned economic sanctions "as hurting the Iranian people" -Reueters).

Many Iranian women have also found a role model in the recent elections. A PhD, the former chancellor of Alzahra University, former advisor to ex-president Mohammad Khatami, and wife of presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi,Zahra Rahnavard did something a woman had never done before in the Iranian political scene: be a presence. Ever-visible, she was vocal force in her husband's election efforts and many women related to her and supported her husband for it. She was the Michelle Obama of Iran, said the Huffington Post. She served as the newest stage in the evolution of the paradigm of the Iranian woman--a strong, intellectual, and vocal political participant.

A week ago Jean M. Geran of Foreign Policy magagzine wrote about the women of Iran in an article titled "The Women Behind the Green." Geran writes: "The Iranian women's movement has a proud history of fighting for women's rights and has been a driving force behind the green movement's push for reform." She continues saying, "Iranian authorities censor dozens of websites and blogs, especially those covering women's issues." As she notes at the end it is important to support the green movement in Iran, and I agree. But I say it is especially important to support those who have been fighting for democratic rights for over century: Iranian women


Here is some more great content about women in Iran:
CNN's "Women in Iran March Against Discrimination"
In 2008 interview Shirin Ebadi discusses the US's Iran Policy and women's rights
ABC News Coverage of the Lipstick Revolutiuon in the post-election period