Gender and Islamic Fundamentalism in Iran

Over the last few years hard-line fundamentalism has faced a severe crisis in Iran. The majority of the youth and women openly reject fundamentalist Islam. The generation brought up under Islamic rule, is amongst the most secular sections of Iranian society, campaigning for the separation of religion from the state. It is this section of the population who, with women, played a crucial role in the presidential elections of 1997 and the local elections of 1999 allowing “moderates” and religious reformists to gain influence in Iran. During this period Iran has witnessed an intensification of the battle between the two factions of the Islamic government, this has allowed a more open expression of secular opinion, and the women's movement has subsequently flourished.

In this atmosphere the economic and academic activities of Iranian women has increased, a number of women's journals and publication have tried to beat the censors. This movement is quite independent of the factional fighting inside the Iranian regime. It is independent of Shi’a clergy who are an integral part of the state and independent of Islamic ideology which is the basis of the Iranian state.

After 20 years of Islamic government, the constant struggle by Iranian women against Islamic dictatorship, against religious interference in their private and public life has had some effect. Most of the women who have taken an active part in this struggle do not consider themselves Islamist, quite the contrary. For example Mehrangiz Kar, the lawyer who has campaigned for an improvement in the law regarding divorce, Simin Behbehani, a poet with links to Iran's Writers Association and many other women activists are secular women, hated by the Islamic establishment. There is no doubt that working and campaigning in one of the worst dictatorships of this century has forced some of these women to avoid an outright challenge to religion and Islam, thereby creating illusions amongst some Western academics.

Islamist women

In the last two years only, a minority of Islamist women have taken up a limited defence of some of the issues concerning women's rights. Many would argue advocating minor reforms, too little, too late. These women are identified as political supporters of one of the factions of the Iranian regime ( that of the current president Khatami). They do not consider themselves feminist and therefore far from representing an independent women's movement form part of the ruling establishment and are considerably annoyed when Western academics refer to them as feminists.

Islamist women in Iran and the moderate faction they belong to, have not even challenged the medieval laws of Hodud and Qessas [see Islamic Republic of Iran and Penal Codes - this issue] or the supreme rule of the religious guardian of the nation, Valiy-e Faghih.

The newspaper Zan who dared question the issue of stoning women to death has faced many closures and bans. In other words as far inside Iran is concerned, Islamist women are not feminist and feminist women are not Islamist .The term “Islamist Feminist” created by Western academics remains an abstract idea as far as Iran is concerned.

Twenty years after the February uprising, it is ironic for Iranian women to witness the Iranian regime criticising the Taliban government in Afghanistan for bringing Islam into disrepute especially regarding the treatment of women. Iranian women who for 20 years have witnessed Islamic fundamentalism's treatment of women in their country, those of us who still remember the days when Hezbollah threw acid on the face of Iranian women who were not wearing adequate hejab, (veil) can't believe there is any reputation left for Islamic governments, especially as far as women's rights are concerned.

Although it is true that over the last two years urban Iranian women have succeeded in asserting themselves and influencing aspects of their lives and the country's politics, notably in the elections of a more tolerant Islamic president, Khatami, any improvement in the plight of Iranian women is due mainly to their perseverance, traditions of struggle against dictatorships, their courage and indeed despite the majority of Islamic clerics in Iran.

Of course arguments within Islam on issues regarding women's right are not new and for decades reformist Islamists have tried to present more moderate interpretation of Islamic laws and teaching on this and other issues. However, the current attention to the position of women in Iran is a reflection of major dissatisfaction with the Islamic government and opposition to its authoritarian rule. It crystallises the opposition to the interference of religion in every aspect of private of political life in Iran.

This article will argue that although the debate within Islam, regarding reform and modernisation has challenged some of the more repressive aspects of the anti women laws for centuries, the limited successes of Iranian women has its roots in traditions of secularism in urban society in Iran, a consequence of the development of productive forces and women's involvement in economic activities and their subsequent involvement in political movements against dictatorships of the Shah and the current regime, rather than the post modernist notion of “Islamic feminism” [1].

Second class

There is no doubt that with the exception of a minority of middle class and upper class women, most Iranian women have traditionally suffered from patriarchal laws and practises both in the family and at work (the Shah's policies regarding women's education and job only affected a minority of middle class and upper class urban women in Iran ). However, since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979, the plight of Iranian women has become worse. The rigid imposition of the veil (hejab) has reinforced discrimination and prejudice against women. Many families refuse to send their daughters to high school. In higher education girls are discouraged or prevented from studying or working in fields and activities considered “masculine”, such as engineering, mining , in the judiciary ….Until last year women were considered too emotional and irrational to be judges .

According to Iran's Islamic laws women are considered too stupid or emotional to be witnesses where their power of observation is considered half that of a man and where their testimony in a murder trial can never count unless it is supported by a male witness. There is discrimination against women in sport and recreation where participation in some sports particularly cycling, horse riding is discouraged, in recreation where most facilities are rigidly segregated and rarely available to women. Many have called this a system of apartheid against women. The ministry of Education in the Iranian government recently reported that 94 percent of school girls were unfit as they did not participate in any sport.

The combination of enforced hejab and segregation is used to limit women's access to limited state education and sport facilities .In other words the system is geared to institutionalise women's confinement to the house. These policies facilitate the objective of turning women into second class citizens. Many have called this a system of apartheid against women. The ministry of Education in the Iranian government recently reported that 94 percent of school girls were unfit as they did not participate in any sport.

The combination of enforced hejab (veil) and segregation is used to limit women's access to limited state education and sport facilities. In other words the system is geared to institutionalise women's confinement to the house. These policies facilitate the objective of turning women into second class citizens.Although over the last few years, some of these policies have been successfully challenged by women in major cities especially Tehran, in rural areas and small cities little has changed since the days of Ayatollah Khomeini.

As they become teenagers, girls are driven more and more into a world dominated and manipulated by their male relatives. They can be given away in legal marriage without their knowledge or consent while still in their childhood. The legal system allows fathers or male guardians to marry off under aged girls in return for financial gains. The legal age of marriage for girls is nine.

Discriminatory Islamic laws govern the private and public life of women: they have to follow a very specific and restrictive set of dress codes, a full veil or complete head scarf and long overcoats are the only accepted forms of dress. The law discriminates against women in inheritance, giving them at most half of the share of their male counterparts. According to the laws of Hodud and Qessas (talion and punishment) the life of a woman is worth half that of a man, with the implication that a man killing a woman and sentenced to death may only be executed if the victim's family pay the murderer half of his death dues. Article 6 of this law states, the bereaved family has to pay the murderer's family to get “Islamic justice” (life for a life). Article 33 of the law of Hodud and Qessas states that women's testimony is not valid in homicide cases unless it is supported by at least one male witness.[1]

Of course in other religions equally anti women rules and regulations are to be found. What differentiates Iran or Afghanistan or other Islamic states, however, is that the Qur’an dictates civil and judicial law. In other words the basic democratic demand to separate state and religion does not apply .

Unequal marriage

Islamic marriage laws as applied in Iran are amongst the most repressive in the world in terms of discrimination against women. While men are allowed to marry up to four wives at a time in permanent marriage and an unlimited number of women in what is known as “temporary” marriage (siqeh), women who do not adhere to strict monogamy are “legally” considered criminal and may be brutally and savagely punished by publicly being stoned to death. This is the legal/Islamic punishment for extra-marital affairs executed regularly in Iran. Abortion is illegal, while the rising number of abortions is testimony to its use as a form of “contraception.

Men control the life of their wife/ves, their daughters and their unmarried sisters. In Islamic societies women need a male guardian throughout their lives, to give them legal permission to travel to study, to marry etc.... As no consent is required for sexual relations inside marriage wife-rape is common and even wife-beating is tolerated in the process (with a Qu’anic verse that legitimises wife beating in the case of “disobedient women”).

Until 1996, as far as divorce was concerned, the man had almost a free hand to divorce his wife while the woman had a limited recourse to the legal system. Even after the more recent relaxations, a woman can only file for divorce in unusual circumstances. The extent of this discrimination was best exemplified by reports recorded by Iran Human Rights Working Group [2] that an Iranian court had taken fourteen years to approve a divorce request from a woman who complained she was tortured by her husband. She was reporting new incidents of abuse every year. She had agreed to drop all financial demands against her husband, and finally had to contact Iran's Prosecutor-General (who reported that she “shivered violently” whenever her husband was mentioned) to get her divorce. In another case, the process took eight years.

The divorce law is also designed to punish women, destined to bring poverty and destitution to women, leading them to resort to unusual tactics in order to obtain minimum maintenance for their children. In most cases women have to forfeit financial claims in order to obtain divorce even if the proceeding were initiated by the man. Iranian law states that a male child above the age of two and a female child over the age of seven must live with their father. Even the father's father is given priority over the mother in custody matters.

In marriage discrimination against women goes still further. A virgin woman (whatever her age) has no right to marriage without her father's consent (or her father's father, in the absence of the former). A Muslim woman has no right to marry a non-Muslim, (a right her male counterparts have - with some limitations). And a divorced woman has to wait for a set period before re-marriage (no waiting period for a divorced male) [Iran Human Right Working Group]. The Islamic practise and laws mentioned above have created favourable conditions and a suitable environment for widespread abuses and atrocities against women.

Rape

Most women do not report incidents of rape outside marriage because the victim has more to lose, first she will be accused of bringing “dishonour” to her own family and might be killed by members of her own family. Second she fears prosecution under the State morality laws, the punishment for “un-Islamic” behaviour is to be flogged or stoned to death, especially if a women is judged by the court as being a willing partner.

While the law of Hodud and Qessas prescribes “equal” punishments for men and women, it is the women who suffer most from these most barbaric measures. A married man having an affair with unmarried women can always claim (true or false) that they were “temporarily married”. But a woman in a similar position would have no such defence and would be punished and face humiliating death by stoning.

The discriminatory laws regarding women's rights cover a wide range of areas in marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance, as well as anti-women labour laws and social policies. These have had devastating results, causing economic deprivation and social isolation of women and their children. Iranian women have been fighting hard against these injustices, but have had very limited success in the face of the overwhelming power of the religious State and its many institutions.

Secular resistance

In Iran women have never forgotten that in the 1960s one of Khomeini's main objections to the Shah's regime concerned the voting rights given to Iranian women. Although it is true that during dictatorships, the right to vote is meaningless however Khomeini objected in principle to a women's right to be elected or to elect. One of the first demonstrations against the Islamic regime was the women's demonstration of 10th March 1979. Khomeini's decree that women should cover their hair, rallied women of many classes and background in a major demonstration against the regime. Since then women have constantly opposed attempts at eroding their social and political rights.

In return the Islamic clergy and its government in Iran have consistently used enforced hejab and medieval morality laws to suppress Iranian women. Especially in urban areas, women have fought back in a persistent struggle that is only beginning to bear fruits, very often despite the clergy and the array of Islamic women's magazines and Islamic women's organisations. Inevitably some of the “tolerated” Islamic women's journals publications and institutions have tried to catch up with this movement however they are at best tailing the movement and doing too little , too late.

The history of women's struggles in Iran goes back to the early years of this century, Iranian women participated in the Constitutional revolution, they were active in the nationalist movement of the 1950s and throughout the Shah's repression when women formed a large part of leftwing underground organisations as well the Mujahedin-e Khalgh. Hundreds of thousands of women participated in the demonstrations against the Shah's dictatorship and no one could have forced them back into the middle ages. Economic factors, the role of women in production the development of productive forces have all played part.

In the early years of the Islamic regime, Iranian women fought the expulsions, the enforced redundancies, they refused to adhere to strict Islamic hejab. The fact that it took over 18 years for the more enlightened members of the Islamic regime to realise that it would be impossible to turn the clock back, shows the limitations of the Islamic movement. It is an insult to the courage and perseverance of Iranian women to label this long and complex struggle as an Islamist movement.

Whatever interpretation of Islam we take the Qur’an is quite specific that women who disobey their men should be beaten up. Should we accept this on the pretext of respecting Islamic values, and in order to combat racists ? Of course many other religious books contain similar anti women statements, the difference is that in Iran , in Afghanistan or any where else where a religious state is in power this becomes part of the legal system. That is why the notion of separation of state and religion is a fundamental basic demand.

In addition such opinions fail to see what has been done to secular women in Islamic societies, women who choose not to obey the rules. In Teheran teenagers who don't obey full Islamic dress code (show a fringe under their head scarves) are regularly arrested ,flogged and made to sign a statement saying “they will not behave as prostitutes any longer”.

Hejab: good or an evil?

In Islam the most reverend woman is the daughter of Mohammed who died at the age of 18 having already given birth to 3 sons. Her short life symbolises the ideal woman. Islamist women claim that the veil, far from restricting women's social activities plays a liberating role .I would argue that anyone with a superficial knowledge of Islamic theology realises that the primary role of the veil is to subjugate women, segregate them and classify non-veiled women as evil temptresses whose sole role on earth is to corrupt men.

In Iran secular women, Christian women, Jewish, Baha’i, Zaratostrian women are all forced to wear the veil against their will. Their basic human right is taken away because some Muslim men find it insulting to see non-veiled women. It is also argued that the veil, like a uniform, hides class differences. Anyone who has seen the elaborate veils of Iranian women in the affluent suburbs of Iranian cities as opposed to the veil worn by working class women can see how absurd such statements are.

As Hammed Shahidian asserts: Defenders of "Islamic feminism" in the West have founded their arguments in cultural relativism, a dangerous precedence both for feminists and human rights activists." Others defend the veil as they see any attack on it as a form of Western racism. One has to point out that combating racism has nothing to do with accepting double standards, women's rights for white /Western women, Islamic rights for Muslim /Eastern women. [3]

Unequivocal Qur’anic message

The main problem for Islamist women and Islamist moderates is that reinterpretation of Islamic ideas regarding women in a progressive light is impossible within the framework of an existing Islamic state. Mohammed is the final in the long line of prophets. His book, the most complete message from God. The Qur’an's clear and explicit anti women message cannot be changed. The current bitter struggle between the moderate and the conservative Islamist in Iran can either lead to the overthrow of the Islamic state or to a compromise with the conservatives at the expense of any “moderation”.

Islamists have by no means a monopoly on Iranian culture. 20th century Iran is dominated by strong secular/progressive non Islamic culture. Iranian women's limited achievements against Islamic law, both under the rule of this regime and in the past has its roots in this tradition. Defenders of “Islamic feminism” write extensively on the relative freedom and status of women in Iran compared to women in Afghanistan or Saudi Arabia, in defence of moderate, progressive Islam.

Here it is important to remind ourselves that Iran's contemporary history, the level of development of productive forces have played a far more significant than the role of “moderate” Islam. Traditions of secular politics have a far more significant role to play than “modern or progressive Islam”. Islamist women in Iran, as part of the reformist faction of a brutal dictatorship will try to give some women better opportunities in education and government. They will try and improve family law, within the limits of Sharia’ law with all its anti women facets.

In Iran Islamist women are middle and upper class, professional, heterosexual Muslim women in stable traditional family relations. Many are immediate relatives of the highest ranking clerics. They have no intention of challenging the religious state and as long as the basic demand for the separation of state and religion remains unfulfilled, as long as secular, non-Muslim Iranians, Sunni Iranians and non-believers are second class citizens, there can be no reform, no improvement in the plight of majority of Iranian women.

Apologists

The defenders of Islamic feminism occasionally challenge us to define what we mean by “progress”. I would argue that stopping the stoning of women for adultery, an end to flogging teenage girls who have dared to show a fringe, stopping the Hezbollah throwing paint at women who wear colourful scarves, an end to the segregation of hospitals, buses, schools, universities marks progress in any culture. It is ironic that political correctness has discouraged many Western feminists from challenging “Islamic feminism”. Iranian women, who are amongst the worst victims of Islamic fundamentalism have no intention of following this trend and indeed over the last two years have written extensively against defenders of “Islamic Feminism”.

If feminism is to abolish patriarchy, if women's liberation means freedom from economic social political cultural constraints then the women's movement in Iran cannot find the answer in Islamic discourse .

Yassamine Mather

May 1999

Yassamine Mather is on the editorial board of the journal Critique and works closely with the journal International Socialist Forum. She is currently a member of academic staff in the Departments of Aerospace and Mechanical Engineering at Glasgow University. She is a left activist.

Footnotes:

1. Nayereh Tohidi - Islamic Feminism

2. Women's Right Are Human Rights And Human Rights Are Universal. Iran Human Rights Working Group Sept 1995

3. Islamic Feminism and Feminist politics in Iran -Hammed Shahidian. University of Illinois at Springfield