Jewels of Allah: The Untold Story of Women in Iran

by Nina Ansary

  Despite women’s commitment to advocate for their rights online, the International Business Times recently reported that Iran’s crackdown on Internet activists, human-rights groups, and cyber-dissidents “reveals a split at the top between moderate President Hassan Rouhani and hardliners associated with Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.” The author of the article, Erin Banco, related:

  Access to the Internet…is the latest battleground in the fight between the two camps. Leading human-rights advocates say there has been a clear increase in the number of activists arrested, detained and tortured because of their activity on social media, particularly on Facebook, since Rouhani took office in August 2013. The detentions come as Iran’s hardliners struggle to keep tabs on a growing population that wants greater freedom of speech, a right Rouhani promised he would fight for when he was elected.31

  PAYING A PRICE FOR PURSUING FREEDOM

  The likelihood of being arrested and serving time in prison has not been a deterrent for many reformist women. Many who have been imprisoned remain committed to the struggle within Iran once they are freed; some leave the country in order to advocate for change from abroad.

  Perhaps the government’s failed ideology has been most obvious to a defiant female population that continues to boldly protest their enforced status of inferiority. In a country where freedom of expression is rarely afforded, women of all ages and from all walks of life relentlessly pursue equal rights, despite the fact that their earlier hopes have been shattered. Their resolve remains strong even though some 4,000 students, women’s rights activists, and journalists continue to be detained in Iranian prisons.32 Among those paying a high price for speaking out in favor of women’s rights:

  ♦In 2006, Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and Parvin Ardalan were part of a large contingent of peaceful protestors at Haft-e Tir Square who were arrested, tried, and sentenced on various fraudulent charges.33

  ♦In 2007, Parvin Ardalan was awarded the Olof Palme Prize for courage in Stockholm, Sweden, and although she was banned from leaving the country to accept the honor in person, the recognition itself was sufficient validation.

  ♦In 2008, Ardalan was arrested along with thirty-two other women’s rights activists, receiving a two-year suspended sentenced for organizing a peaceful protest at Haft-e Tir Square in Tehran. She was charged with the intent of “endangering national security” and “propaganda against the state.” As with many of her predecessors, when Ardalan eventually fell prey to the Iranian authorities, it did not go unnoticed among Western nations.34

  ♦In 2011, Maryam Majd, twenty-five, one of only a handful of Iran’s female sports photographers, and filmmaker Mahnaz Mohammadi, thirty-seven, were arrested for “unspecified reasons.” Mohammadi understood her detention in this way: “I am both a woman and a filmmaker—sufficient to be arrested.”35

  ♦Controversial screenwriter Tahmineh Milani, fifty-one, who has endured numerous arrests for her fearless onscreen portrayals since her career began in 1989, is adamant “that a society which reduces women to mere sexual objects would have a high price to pay.”36

  ♦Faezeh Rafsanjani, journalist, founder of the magazine Zan (Woman), women’s rights activist, former member of Iranian Parliament, and daughter of former president Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, recently served a six-month prison sentence for her relentless criticism of the regime’s discriminatory practices. Asked by a reporter from reformist newspaper Etemaad about her protests against certain enforced customs, she stated:

  Some customs in our society have been imposed, and an imposed custom is without value and cannot persist. Therefore, when I do not believe in that custom and I do not believe them to be logical or I do not value them to be beneficial to society, especially to girls and women, I do not see it necessary to follow them.37

  ♦Jila Baniyaghoub, the award-winning freelance journalist mentioned earlier, served a one-year prison sentence and wrote about her experiences in her book, Women of Evin: Ward 209. According to Baniyaghoub, she was initially “blindfolded, and.… interrogated.”38 However, she is unshaken when recalling her interrogation session and the manner in which she boldly stood up for and defended her actions throughout the one-and-a-half hour process:

  You call a peaceful protest radical? In your opinion, I’m a radical because I came out to cover a peaceful protest as a journalist? … Does the fact that women are demanding legal equality endanger national security? What’s your definition of security anyway?”39

  RESTRICTED BUT PERSISTENT

  Regardless of perilous consequences, Iranian women continue to pursue their rights. It would appear the tides of change, so desperately anticipated, cannot be stemmed.

  Activist and journalist Shahla Lahiji estimates that despite the fact that female publishers and journalists continue to be handicapped by conservative restrictions,40 there are still more than 400 female publishers in Iran today who are “younger and better educated than their predecessors.”41 The percentage of female journalists in Iran has increased from 2.5 percent in 1971, to 10 percent in 1997, to 22 percent by 2006.42

  In 2012, reports appeared signaling the reimposition of restrictions by thirty-six public universities across the country, banning female enrollment in seventy-seven academic fields, including mathematics, engineering, and accounting.43 Kamran Daneshjoo, the Republic’s Minister of Science and Technology since 2009, justifies this drastic policy as a measure for safeguarding adherence to “Islamic values and principles” decreed in 1987 by the SCCR (Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution).44 The Iranian Parliament has accordingly voiced concern over the “destructive consequences of female matriculation on family life—such as employment and delays in marriage and motherhood.”45

  The investigations of Janet Afary and Pardis Mahdavi on gender and sexuality among Iran’s “dissident youth” testify that this reformist younger generation remains resolute in the face of adversity.46 Their documentation of Iran’s sexual revolution as a “source of freedom and an act of rebellion,” indicates a penchant for “living unrestrained sexual lives behind closed doors.”47 Afary notes that, although these women have learned to accept the presence of religion as part of an everyday reality, the introduction to a liberal Islam has significantly contributed to “closing the gaps that separate Iran and western countries.”48

  An eighty-two-page document on sexuality issued by Iran’s parliamentary research department, highlighted in a 2014 article in The Economist entitled “Throwing off the Covers,” confirms the fact that sexuality behind closed doors is clearly at odds with governmental directives. The report found that, “Not only are young adults sexually active, with 80% of unmarried females having boyfriends, but secondary school pupils are, too. Illicit unions are not just between girls and boys; 17% of the 142,000 students who were surveyed said that they were homosexual.”49 Quoted in the article, a thirty-two-year-old woman frankly expresses her opinion that the government has no right to oversee her sexual behavior. She adds, “I have one life and though I love my country, I cannot wait for its leaders to grow up.”

  The atrocious punishments inflicted on the LGBT community were revealed in a recent Guardian article, which detailed the lifestyles of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender population in Iran.50 A study conducted by Small Media, a nonprofit group based in London, provides hundreds of direct testimonials through a clandestine online forum, revealing that

  the bastions of the Islamic Republic of Iran fully recognize an established (albeit secretive) LGBT [lesbian/gay/bisexual/transgender] community exists beneath the folds of fundamentalism in the country.… But figuratively speaking, the Iranian government is doing its utmost to sweep this community under a densely woven Persian rug.51

  Despite the barriers to women’s rights in the realms of sexuality, academia, free speech, family life, and employment, women (and men) continue to defy the powers-that-be in Iran. Although the government in Iran persists in reverting to “the failed policies of the past,” Haleh Esfandia
ri, Director of the Middle East Program at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars, is confident that an outdated ideology will be ineffectual in decelerating the momentum of a feminist generation, as “Iranian women have again and again shown that they can come up with new ways of pursuing their goals.”52

  CAN RELIGION EVOLVE?

  If centuries-old religious tradition is the greatest obstacle to women’s liberation in Iran, then the crucial question is this: can religion evolve? In considering whether reformists in Iran can succeed in modernizing religious ideology, historians have compared that possibility to theological reform in Western nations. Perhaps the individual most responsible for religious reform in the West is the German priest Martin Luther (1483–1546). Luther’s bold criticism of abuses by the Catholic Church in his Ninety-Five Theses is a testament to people’s ongoing quest to decipher the word of God.53 His revolutionary document protesting nepotism, usury, and the sale of indulgences brought about the Protestant Reformation.

  Is there a Martin Luther in Iran, an individual who could modify the teachings of Islam to the extent that women would be freed from repressive ideology? In fact, reformer Abdolkarim Soroush has been referred to as “the Martin Luther of Islam.”54 In a recent writing, Soroush sets forth his “alternate belief” that the Koran was a “prophetic experience,” relegating compilation of the sacred text to a mortal seen as both “the subject and object of revelation”:

  Women in present-day Iran.

  When you read the Koran you feel that a human being is speaking to you—the words, images, rules and regulations and the like are all coming from the human mind.55

  Such a credo frees man from strictly adhering to that which is traditionally considered to be an eternal covenant and the finite word of God. Like many radical theologians, Souoush insightfully challenges the ancient character of traditional dogma, referred to by his fellow activist and cleric, Mohsen Kadivar, as “the reign of political charlatanism in the name of Islam.”56

  While on one level the particular journey toward religious reformation is unique to Iranian society, other historical events in which atrocities committed under the alleged guidance of the Almighty have prompted reformers to alter the established conceptions of deity. One stunning example is that of Friedrich Nietzsche’s (1844–1900) contentious proclamation that “God is dead.”57 His impassioned polemic shook traditional society to the core and left an enduring legacy. Although the death of God was not implied in the literal sense, Nietzsche’s philosophy fundamentally symbolized liberation from whatever fetters the mind and the spirit, much in the same manner that Christian reformists were able to “find new destiny by destroying the old faith.”58 Professor Rex Welshon explains that inherent in Nietzsche’s “God is dead” philosophy is that religious human beings “killed” God through their hypocrisy and lack of morality: “God has lost whatever function he once had because of the actions taken by those who believe in him.”59 In fact, Nietzsche’s proclamation of God’s “death” denotes a renewed sense of purpose:

  God is dead. God remains dead. And we have killed him. Yet his shadow still looms. How shall we comfort ourselves, the murderers of all murderers? What was holiest and mightiest of all that the world has yet owned has bled to death under our knives: Who will wipe this blood off us?60

  Nietzche’s philosophy was resurrected by leading theologians during the 1960s’ Death of God movement. Death of God theologians Paul van Buren and William Hamilton “agreed that the concept of divine transcendence had lost any meaningful place in modern thought.”61 They offered “the option of Jesus as the model human who acted in love. Thus, even though the transcendent God was no longer relevant or ‘alive,’ the immanent God could be experienced through the love of Jesus, as experienced in the Christian church.” 62

  How does the philosophical reassessment of Christianity apply to the potential reform of Islamic ideology? Applying Nietzsche’s seemingly blasphemous proclamation to religious practice in today’s Islamic Republic is not intended to denigrate Islam but rather to honor the benevolent Creator and preserve a path toward spiritual redemption. Rather than exploiting the sanctity of the Creator for the purpose of instilling a draconian ideology, Iran might choose to follow a path set by Iranian reformers toward a “responsible theology” and “a radical questioning of tradition, not [as a form of] negative rebellion, but [as part of that which] contains the seeds of affirmation of the esoteric tradition.”63

  Former president of Iran Mohammad Khatami asserted that Islam suffers from a “vacuum social theory,”64 and while he accepts that “a Godless life is dark and narrow,” he also recognizes that “the limitations and relativity of all perspectives” is an important indication that “old interpretations do not suffice anymore.”65

  Mehrangiz Kar is confident “that the new generation raised by cooperating religious and nonsectarian women will be able to dismiss the superstitions and patriarchal traditions … and not bend to the regime’s restrictions against individual freedom.”66 The emerging belief among Iranian women that they have the right to determine how to live their lives is signaling the need for a new religious philosophy, one that prohibits patriarchy and oppression.

  The following statement by Abdolkarim Soroush testifies to the shift in religious consciousness within Iran:

  The very fact that it is now accepted that a woman’s presence in society doesn’t violate her womanhood and Muslimhood is due to the immense changes that have occurred in the realms of thought and practice; these have also found their way into our religious consciousness and our society. Women’s presence in society is now as natural and logical as their absence once was. This tells us the extent to which, in our understanding and practice of religion, we act unconsciously and involuntarily; this isn’t to be taken negatively but in the sense that we are guided by elements that aren’t in our control. They do work, shape our lives, our mind, our language.67

  As a reformist who believes in pursuing a renewal of Islam, Mohammad Khatami provides us with a succinct yet profound message:

  If religion goes against freedom, it will lose.68

  Through their advocacy, commitment, and sacrifice, countless Iranian women (and men) continue to demonstrate why religion must evolve—and dispense with its absolutist tendencies—if it is to exemplify moral validity.

  CAN WOMEN IN IRAN BE EQUAL?

  Nearly a century ago, an enlightened avant-garde planted the seeds of a feminist agenda by protesting the archaic mores that had resulted in the deplorable status of women. The Pahlavi monarchy instigated progressive policy changes, opening the door to women’s rights and opportunities, but with the dramatic 1979 Islamic Revolution and the theocracy of Ayatollah Khomeini, reinforcement of patriarchal policies took hold. Thus, the abolition of the monarchy precipitated the regression of a nation perched on the threshold of modernization, extinguishing a multitude of initiatives of which a fundamental component entailed the emancipation of the Iranian woman. In Khomeini’s “Islamic Government,” a misogynistic regimen became embedded in a constitution reinforcing the primacy of the Sharia (Islamic law) over civil law and the absolute leadership of a Shiite jurist over popular sovereignty.

  Three-and-a-half decades of the Islamic Republic’s concerted effort to indoctrinate the Iranian population with an antiquated model of the Muslim woman has yielded results antithetical to the regime’s envisioned objective: there has been an unprecedented surge in female literacy, and a burgeoning feminist movement has developed in opposition to the established order. Prominent author Haideh Moghissi believes that while social and cultural obstacles continue to prevail, women have become increasingly skillful in maximizing certain opportunities enhanced by the unexpected interplay of traditional and progressive policies. Moghissi states that a popular theme in the aftermath of the revolution has been the “observation that the Islamic Republic has not opened the gates … but that women are jumping over the fences.”69

  What has become surprisingly
apparent in post-revolutionary Iran is that women have benefited from their education in ways that were not anticipated by the traditional establishment. Despite its best-laid plans, the Republic’s cultivation of an “Islamized” version of the Pahlavi regime’s Western education system has empowered a new generation of women to strategically challenge an inferior status supposedly ordained by Allah. On the one hand, women are indebted to the momentum ushered in by the initial wave of Islamization of Iranian society in the aftermath of the revolution, yet they are simultaneously nourished by the social trends instigated by an abandoned Pahlavi ideology.

  While Khomeini’s coming to power resulted in the overnight transformation of Iranian society—including a profound loss of women’s rights—the consequences of the war with Iraq (which enabled women to perform roles outside the home) and single-sex education (which enabled rural and religious girls to attend school and thrive) produced a shift in gender consciousness. Young women who had previously been confined to their homes experienced a degree of freedom and self-determination that would prove life-changing for many. Stimulated by an elementary education that was based on the remnants of a fundamentally “Western” framework, and exposed to the progressive vision of the reformist women’s magazines and online networks and publications, traditional women drew closer ideologically to their secular counterparts. Although some women may avoid the word “feminist,” a unique ideological model has evolved: indigenous or Islamic feminism.