One of the struggle and resistance that I have witnessed through my life is fighting over the Hijab (veil) by Iranian women, government, and supporters/opponents of wearing veil for 100 years. In Iran’s modern history, there are three instances where the hijab gained political meaning. The first being Reza Shah’s forced unveiling; the second before the 1979 Revolution and the last during the creation of the Islamic Republic.
The last Shah's father (Reza Shah Pahlavi) decreed that all women must unveil. Women who had been veiled and secluded all their lives were suddenly compelled to appear with uncovered heads in public. For many, this felt like being naked, and it drove them deeper into seclusion. Stories are told of women whose husbands
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carried them in sacks on their backs when they had to travel. Of course, other women welcomed the change as an opening up of social restrictions. When Reza Shah Pahlavi came to power in 1921, one of his modernization goals was to encourage the education of women, but he also demanded that women give up the veil and the chador, the wide cloak those women wore in public. He instructed the police to enforce the ban. This movement sought the elimination of the Hijab from Iranian working society. Supporters held that the veil impeded physical exercise and the ability of women to enter society and contribute to the progress of the nation. This move met opposition from the Mullahs from the religious establishment. Despite the rigorous efforts of the government to enforce the ban on veil, the resistance of women proved to be much stronger than what the government had predicted. Many women continued to observe a modest Hijab. When Mohammed Reza Pahlavi became the Shah following the abdication of his father in 1941, the ban on the veil was lifted. This "renewed interest in the veil" coincided with the implementation of reforms in Mohammad Reza Shah's White Revolution. These reforms, which were generally seen as a move toward Westernization and industrialization, "resulted in poverty and chaos that followed mass migration from country to city." The masses of people, who were already concerned about the growing gap between the rich and the poor, became more alarmed and an opposition movement slowly began to take shape. As the media and the press were controlled by the government, university campuses and religious venues, mainly mosques, became the major outlets for the outcry against the pro-Capitalist, pro-Imperialist, and generally pro-American policies of the Shah's government.
That in turn encouraged a move towards more traditional values and ways of living, which included dressing more modestly for both men and women and even wearing the scarf or the veil for some women. For many women making the decision to wear the chador was not based on religious grounds, but it was a conscious effort to make a statement against the Pahlavi regime. It was against this backdrop that the Islamic Revolution of 1979 took place; a revolution, which one could argue, could not have taken place without the active involvement of women.
After the 1979 revolution overthrew Shah (Mohammad Reza Pahlavi), what women wore in public again became an issue, though in this case the new Islamic Republic of Iran insisted that they return to more traditional forms of dress. Ironically, Khomeini's decree, requiring women to wear Hijab, came on March 7th, 1979, a month after his return to Iran and one day before International Women's
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Day. Energized and excited women that they had achieved what they had fought so hard for, various women's organizations in Tehran and all across Iran, had planned celebrations for marking International Women's Day. However, those celebrations quickly morphed into massive protests and demonstrations; "the protesters included young and old, rich and poor, veiled and unveiled", just as women from all walks of life had marched in support of the revolution and Khomeini, they now were protesting against his policies on women's rights. Thousands of women participated in spontaneous and massive protests against the Hijab. Once again women were demanding their rights, only this time they were demanding it from the very government that they had hoped (and had promised) would ensure the protection of their rights. Despite the numerous meetings and protests that were held on Tehran University campus, the streets, and even at the Ministry of Justice, the women were unsuccessful in reversing the compulsory veiling decree. However, thirty-seven years after the Revolution, things shifted, even under locked-down conditions, or maybe because of them.
Literacy rates among women are drastically increasing and the parliamentary polls have been hailed as models of transparency. Despite the government-biased rulings against women, more and more women can be found working as engineers, doctors and nurses. In Iran today, many young women resist the hijab requirement by allowing their hijab to slip back, or hair to escape from their scarves, or by wearing colors. Today, while a large sector of Iranian women voluntarily wear the hijab, women from all parts of Iran and all socioeconomic backgrounds are still defying hijab restrictions, and the struggle between them and the authorities and conservative citizens continues.
According to Farzaneh Milani in “Veil and Words”, it was not long before that there was a "renewed interest in the veil". This time the traditional and religious women were not the only ones who observed some degree of Islamic Hijab; some of the more liberal and non-traditional women of middle and upper classes also took up the scarf and the observance of the
Hijab. When observing the veiled women of Iran or anywhere else around the world, one must not allow biases to take control of one’s judgment. Generally, when the West encounters the veil or the hijab, it is usually interpreted as a symbol of the oppression of women in Islam or as an essential part of the exoticness and sensuality of the Occident. Many women in Iran believe instead of being anti-feminist, the hijab is a sort of reverse-feminism. Women who neither want to reject their cultural values nor want to embrace Western culture can find a solution in the hijab. Therefore, wearing the hijab allows women to embrace two main points: protest against the erosion of values and identities while accepting the cultural roles of and for women.
Professor Leila Ahmed, active Islamic feminist, in her article “Reinventing the veil” published in the Financial Times assumes that there is a connection between “advancement” and veiling, which means that unveiled women are advanced and vice versa. In addition, she supports that it led to increasing rate of violence. She questions why women wear veil, that is considered as “symbol of patriarchy and women’s oppression”. However, research changed her position towards wearing veil. Firstly, she states that wearing veil was essential for women, because it could be beneficial and influence to how people treat women, in terms of job, marriage and free movement in public. Secondly, her assumption was explained while interviewing women, who stated
One of Sultana Yusufali’s strongest arguments in “My body is my own business” is her scrutinization of the exploitation of female sexuality. Initially Yusufali writes about the injudicious individuals that assume she is oppressed by her hijab. Thereafter, she describes them as “brave individuals who have mustered the courage to ask me about the way I dress”. Moreover, Yusufali’s word choice is intriguing as she utilizes the word “brave” when laymen hear this word they habitually associate the aforementioned with heroic, valiant and courageous. Consequently, Yusufali ensues to comprise her opinions on the hijab and how it carries a number of negative connotations in western society. Furthermore, Yusufali proceeds to strike on the importance
Fakhraie launches her essay by explaining how Muslim women struggle every day because of what they wear. In her essay, she talks about a teenage girl that was killed by her father because she refused to wear her hijab. Also, many women that wear a hijab are being banned from sporting events in the United States. A hijab is a “traditional Muslim garment” (Fakhraie 461) that several Muslim women wear every
The article “My Body Is My Own Business” by Naheed Mustafa is about an Islamic women’s principle that putting on her usual headscarf, or Hijab, actually empowers her as a female, contrary to the popular principle that the hijab represents male oppressiveness. She ex...
Prior to the Islamic Revolution, Iran was ruled by the Shah, Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and furthermore, not governed by religion. The Shah’s White Revolution launched a series of reforms in 1963 that are indicative of where women’s rights for Iran were heading prior to the Islamic revolution. The reforms included, giving women the right to vote, run for office and to become lawyers and judges. This large of a reform in regards to women’s rights, was far more drastic than anything Iran had experienced in the past, and the shock of these “extreme” measures, received a large backlash from over 90% of the population1, the Shia Muslims.
The author talks about how this was not something that happen overnight, but has been discussed about from a very long time such a 1989. The views of people that the author chooses to look at are Ernest Cheniere, who raised the statement of banning headscarves in public schools in 1994 and Francois Bayrou minister of education in 1994 who saw muslim headscarves as a way of proselytizing. Then Joan Scotts talks about why the timing played into affect, how racism such as colonial legacies were effected, secularism, individualism of the veil, Muslims being looked as threats, how uncivilized Muslim people were, and sexuality. Joan Scotts goes into detail in all the sub topics and shows how does this affect a common Muslim girl that wears a hijab and how does the French government view
There are many examples throughout the text that specifically focus on the overbearing treatment of women. During the country's revolution there is a shift to extremely conservative religious conviction that force women to cover themselves head to toe while in public. Ultimately, Nafisi refuses to wear a veil while teaching at the University of Tehran which leads to her expulsion. These examples presented throughout the text along with various outside sources, can be a tool to interpret and scrutinize the oppressive treatment of people in unjust societies like that of Iran's.
People have tried to attain freedom for at least as long as there is a historical record. It is and always has been something everyone wants, throughout history and today. There are many parts to freedom, although generally it means being able to do whatever one wants, whenever one wants, within reason. In her graphic memoir, The Complete Persepolis, Marjane Satrapi explores her own personal freedom and that of her family through the enforced veil covering women’s hair in Iran, opposed to dressing however she wanted in Europe. Satrapi’s telling of the history of Iran is somewhat skewed. As explained by Esmaeil Zeiny in his essay, before it became compulsory to wear the veil in public, it was illegal to wear the veil; in the middle was some time
The religion of Islam was imposed upon Iranians, whether they liked it or not. Marjane and her classmates “...didn’t like to wear the veil, especially since we didn’t understand why we had to”(Satrapi 3). The young girls were against wearing the veil because they were not practicing
People who see women as “second-class” or as an “object”, when they fail to realize that the reason that people continue to be on this world is because of a woman. Document #4 is a picture of the former president of Iran, Ruhollah Moosavi Khomeini, saying that he is looking to take Iran back 1400 years to the time of Rasool’ Allah, who is the Islamic god. During those times women were treated even worse than now. Document #3 is an article titled “Behind the Veil”, which speaks of Muslim women who have a religious commitment and their reasonings to why they wear veils. Many years ago the Shah tried to westernise the Middle East. People who don't really like change, like to be independent, or have specific beliefs felt as if their Islamic identities were being threatened. Some women had stopped wearing burqas, which lead to oppression, while on the other hand, some women had been subject to prejudice for wearing them. Women’s rights have never been favored in the middle east. In the Middle East there is a justice system called, Jirga, which is an assembly of leaders, who are all male, that make decisions by consensus and according to the teachings of Islam. This justice system is never in favor of women, and they see women as objects to trade. The Jirga believes that women can't go out without a male figure, can’t really be educated, don't have a voice, or that women are an equivalent to men. Document #8 speaks of women specifically in Saudi Arabia not being able to drive. It quotes “The vast majority of women do not drive in [Saudi Arabia] and there remains much opposition to female drivers.” A 25 year old Saudi Arabian man said “I think women driving is the key to a lot of things”. Basically saying that women shouldn't be allowed to drive because women in the Middle East will be thinking that they can go or do whatever they want. Then he proceeded to compare women driving, to how women
A revolution is a mass movement that intends to violently transform the old government into a new political system. The Iranian Revolution, which began in 1979 after years of climax, was an uprising against the Shah’s autocratic rule resulting in much religious and political change. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi made efforts to remove Islamic values and create a secular rule and “westernize” Iran through his White Revolution. In addition, his tight dictatorial rule and attempts at military expansion felt threatening to the people, who desired a fairer governmental rule immensely influenced by Islam. Afterwards, governmental affairs became extremely influenced by Islamic traditions and law which created changes religiously and politically for years to come. Although the Iranian Revolution was both a political and religious movement in that it resulted in major shifts in government structure from an autocracy to a republic and that Islamic beliefs were fought to be preserved, it was more a religious movement in that the primary goal of the people was to preserve traditional ideology and in that the government became a theocracy intertwined with religious laws and desires of the people.
The Iranian Islamic Revolution of 1979 created a lasting affect on the societal role of women through modern day Iran. Women in Iran before the revolution were not entirely treated equal to men, but despite some cultural perceptions of women being inferior to men, they had made progress to become socially equal under the Shah. Several misconceptions and theories have been published and studied to show the inequality of women versus men because of Islam. However, contrasting theories have also been made to show that inequality has little to do with the religion, but instead with the forceful nature upon which it was implemented in the revolution. The purpose of this paper is to highlight the Islamic and political history of Iran and its social implications over Iranian women.
Most of these things it is possible to see through the analysis of the situation that exists in practice and analysis of several court cases. In France, for years women with Hijab encounter problems, both in education and in ...
In 1979 sex segregation occurred in the schools of Iran as one of the many changes due to the Islamic Revolution. The girls were now forced to wear the Hijab, including to school. In 1980, universities in Iran and some high schools were temporarily shut down to make changes. They ended up being sh...
Though outward appearance should not determine how people view others, it contributes to vital first impressions and influences even the most intelligent. When those in the west view Arabic women, they often see the hijab, their veil, as a symbol of oppression, rather than a religious choice. Though Queen Rania has never worn the veil, she understands the reasoning behind it. “We think it’s a personal choice. Unfortunately, in the west people look at the veil as a sign of oppression or weakness. This is not true as long as a woman is wearing it because of her belief. I always say we should judge a woman according to what’s going on in their heads rather than what’s going on top of their heads” (“Women Changing the World”). In a 2008 interview with CNN, Rania stressed that outside pressure to dress modestly comes from conservative cultures, not Islam itself.