Women Pre and Post Iranian Revolution

Iranian women have endured a long and struggling roller-coaster ride filled with inequality, segregation and torture. Perhaps they have yet to achieve their ultimate goal of equality, however Iranian women have not stopped fighting for their rights. In 1918 when women were demonstrating outside the parliament demanding equal rights, it was clear that they refused to accept inequality as a way of life. [1] In 1953, President Mossadegh submitted a bill to the parliament for gender equality however,  a handful of ayatollahs rejected the bill.[2] Finally in 1962, their efforts proved effective when voting rights were granted to women by the Shah. The Pahlavi era sought to discourage veiling of women and encouraged mixed participation in a variety of public gatherings. [3] Not everything was perfect for women but in comparison with other countries in the Middle East region where women lacked rights, Iranian women were ahead of the times and globalization was in their favor. Unfortunately this shift was short lived.

When there were talks about Revolution in the late 1970s, women supported the Islamic Revolution as it was an uprising created by a public that was educated, literate, informed who wanted a better life; a democratic life. What was not realized at the time of the 1978-79’ rebellion against the Shah was that any freedom, equality or dignity women had, was about to be swallowed by the Islamic Republic.

Following the 1979 Revolution, the status of women changed drastically. The public female identity was to be hidden under a chador (veil) where all hair and skin had to be covered with the exception of the face and hands. Although some women wore the chador prior to the Revolution, this became a major and controversial issue among non-veiled women. All of a sudden, showing hair and skin became too “sexy” and too “Western” for the Islamic Republic of Iran. All of a sudden, the new Islamic government who women supported and helped overthrow the Shah became the enemy. Regular clothes became threatening to the state and new policies against women reflected the injustice concerning women. The Islamic veil was a sign of resistance to the West. The implementation of the veil in Iran was a certified stamp of Islam’s arrival in Iran and the exit of imperialism. This request, soon to be a demand by the government, was not taken lightly as the women of Iran had historically worked hard to achieve their rights. Women were brave and strong and not willing to let a new regime tell them how to dress and act.

In March of 1979, just one month after the Shah was overthrown, hundreds of thousands of women demonstrated against the mandatory veil. Ironically, the ruling of the obligatory veil came a day before the scheduled celebrations throughout Iran to mark International Women’s Day.[4] From hopeful regime promises of change and democracy to an extreme authoritarian government that had turned their backs on the trusting society. Anything pre-Revolution was deemed as a result of Westernization.

Women soon became subjects of men under the Islamic Republic of Iran. The government repressed women and many rights they previously had under the Shah. Gone were the days where Iranian women could wear the latest runway fashion in public.  No, these days were gone. Instead, women had to wear loser clothing that did not show off the shape of the body nor skin. In the eyes of the state, this modest dress code provided a public dress code which allowed men and women to work together without any sexual distractions.

In addition to their identities being confiscated, women were also segregated from men not only in the court room but also in public environments such as transportation services. In public, women by law have to sit in the back of the bus. At home, a proper Islamic woman is supposed to represent Fatima Zahrah, daughter of Prophet Mohammad and wife of Emam-Ali who is modest, honest and chastise. [5] Despite the lack of historical evidence that supports this description, the all Iranian woman is still by law supposed to embody Fatima’s characteristics.

Moreover, under Iranian Islamic law, women are worth half of a man’s worth in court. As such “women can only ask for divorce if she can prove that her husband is either impotent, a drug user, unable to provide financially or has been absent from the home for six months.”[6]  The gender segregation in Iran shows that Iranian women are still being treated as second class citizens. In an already conflicted and oppressed society, the implications of gender discrimination increase the identity crisis of the Iranian youth. How is a young Iranian woman supposed to think, feel, dream, or act when her identity is subjected to religion, gender discrimination and tyranny?

With a rampant unemployment rate and about half of the population consisting of female youth, the only hope women have to assure security and mobility is a good marriage.[7] This common trend to “freedom” becomes difficult when there are very few opportunities for men and women to meet in public. This lack of freedom forces many marriages to be pre-arranged with a few meetings before the formal engagement. This pressure has caused the average young women to be very concerned about the first impression she will have on her future husband. One of the outcomes of this first impression pressure has created an insecure Iranian woman who uses cosmetic surgery to hide imperfections or better yet, the “Persian nose.”  The hijab has made the face be the most prominent part of the body, making Iranian women a face fixated people. While the purpose of the hijab is to lessen the focus of external beauty, Iranian women in contrast have made plastic surgery an accepted part of present day Iranian culture. In fact, Western media has nicknamed Iran the nose capital of the world.[8]  The influence of Western media plays an important role here, explains photographer, Newsha Tavakolian. [9]  With the amount of foreign media that infiltrates the Iranian satellites; it is natural that women want to emulate these Western celebrities.

As a result of gender oppression and the identity crisis present in Iran, women have revolted aesthetically with defined eyebrows, bright lip stick colors, drawn out eye liners and an increasingly popular demand for cosmetic surgery. One would think that in no shape or form can plastic surgery or makeup pose a threat to the state but the Islamic Republic plays a game of its own.  In theory, the ethic moral laws of Iran forbid women from wearing makeup or disobeying the hijab dress code but women display their independence by pushing the laws as far as they can with their elaborate makeup and clothes. Women can and are violently beaten or tortured if they are caught wearing cosmetics. It is not known what is and is not acceptable as the moral police, also known as the Basij, use their own discretion and mood to evaluate the seriousness of the “offense.” Dr. Navab, a plastic surgeon in Iran, explains that some of his patients need surgery to “cope psychologically” with their lives. [10] Similarly, the emphasis of makeup is a method of coping with the identity crisis as well as a rebellion towards the state.

Iranian women live a double life where at home they are one person and on the street they are a victim of the Islamic Republic society. Women face a dual identity crisis where she not only faces the discrimination of the state as a regular citizen but as a female. Indirectly this gives a woman a disadvantage of being a status below men. Patriarchy is not only a part of the Iranian culture instilled by the state now but it is also a dominating attitude possessed by the government. [11]