ANALYSIS: Tradition, Modernity and the Rise of Islamic Feminism in Iran: 1979-2009

{[{Islamic feminism

The battle for women's equal rights existed before the Islamic Revolution. However, thinkers such as Soroush and Kadivar provided authentic Islamic terms and arguments to a branch of feminism within the Islamic establishment in 1990s. Their ideas created an environment in which Muslim women could raise their concerns with regard to women';s rights on the national level.

At the peak of the reformist debates in the 1990s, the number of working women had increased dramatically. Some had taken high-ranking management positions, some worked as lecturers, doctors, nurses, factory worker, engineers, publishers and members of parliament. These women found themselves as capable as men; they performed the same duties as their male counterparts but they were not equally treated by the law and the male-dominated culture. They also were in conflict with the moral police on a daily basis on the issues of Islamic code dress and interaction with men in public spaces (Paidar, cited in Razavi, 2006). In other words, compulsory hijab and sexual segregation policies in the public politicized women and motivated them to seek change the legal system of the state. Islamist feminists emerged as an extension of this process and out of the IRI's establishment. Muslim feminists were mostly connected through kinship and marriage networks to the ruling elite (Razavi, 2006). Because they were not treated fairly in the political landscape, they formed a de facto coalition to push for reform.

The main players of this coalition were Shahla Sherkat, the editor of Zanan (Women) a weekly paper; Zahra Rahnavard, a lecturer and the wife of Mir Hossien Mousavi, the prime minster of Iran in the 1980s; Faezah Hashemi, the daughter of Ayatollah Akbar Rafsanjani a close adviser to Khomeini and president during 1989-1997; and Azam Taleghani, the daughter of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, a leading revolutionary ulama during the revolution (Siavaoshi, 2004). The political environment of the late 1990s allowed these groups of women to adopt different means to voice women's causes. They published weekly magazines such as Zanan, and Zanne Rouze or (Today's Woman), formed parliamentary lobbies and academic circles to pursue their goals. As a result of these efforts, the restrictions on the subjects that women were not allowed to study were removed. Divorce laws, which allowed men to divorce their wives at will, were amended. Women were appointed as --advisory judges. In 2000, three female parliamentarians raised the question of the compulsory dress code (Razavi, 2006).

This group of Islamic feminists still are dynamic and are influenced by Soroush's arguments. For example, in one of her articles, Shahla Sherkat, editor of Zanan, said that religious thinking should be reformed in the interests of a feminist reading of Islam. "Given the problems that women face, a radical change in the law is needed." She adds, "Since several articles of the Civil Code are based on the Shariah, then the Shariah needs to be reinterpreted and women should be involved in the process" (cited in Ahmadi, 2006). More importantly, in their critique of the Quran, some Islamic feminists believe there are verses in the holy book that are inappropriate to employ in the modern era (Ahmadi, 2006).

As a result of this social transformation and political awareness, combined with the modern institutions of the state, women were appointed to high governmental positions in mid 2000s. For example, the need for the vote of women encouraged the reformist President Khatami (1997-2006) to address women's concerns, though to a limited extent. Consequently, he won 80 percent of women's vote (Moghadam, 2002). Khatami then appointed a few women as deputy ministers in his cabinet. The power of the Islamic feminism has also forced Ahamadinejad, the current traditionalist president, to go further than Khatami. He allowed women to attend sports stadiums and has appointed a few women as ministers in his cabinet, for the first time in the history of the IRI.

From when Iranian women were encouraged to stay at home and run the household until the time they were invited to assume high positions in the cabinet took almost three decades. What conclusion do we draw from these three decades of complex setback and advancement?

Conclusion

In the battle between tradition and modernity, the experience of Iranian women illustrates that strict and irrational traditional values might provide some obstacles and cause a temporary slowdown in the progress of modernism. However, the truth is these types of traditional values will be overrun by the force of modernity and rationalism.

The IRI's founders intended to send women back to homes to assume the role of their counterparts in the premodern era. However, the modern structure of the state, the contemporary configuration of society and complex necessities of the population, such as education, health and social services, brought them back to the public sphere with a greater force.

Harvey was quoted in beginning of this article that modernism was about a "creative destruction." The experience of Iranian women indicates that in the modern era, even "negative destructions," such as gender segregation and war, have contributed to modernity in different ways. Islamic traditionalists sought to build a wall of gender apartheid between male and female. In doing so, they introduced a segregation policy, but this procedure was counterproductive; it produced more space for women in the public. The Iranian traditionalists insisted on the continuation of the Iran-Iraq War in hope of exporting their Islamic values. But, ironically, the side effect of the war undermined their traditional ideals at home. The war created more opportunities for women to participate in the workforce. These developments were followed by other inevitable events, such the rise of a reformist movement, which itself was a response to the social changes of the country. The combination of these multifaceted factors has helped women to step back and look at the traditional Islamic laws from a critical point of view. During these three decades, women experienced a truth that what has been going on in real life is in contradiction with the traditional interpretation of Islamic texts. For example, when a woman assumes a management position at a hospital or a school, it becomes difficult for her to accept this traditional interpretation of Islamic texts that men are superior to women. A female surgeon, nurse, or teacher would ask, what might happen for her career and reputation at work if her husband refused to let her work. Such experience has practically driven women and some Islamic scholars to a position to question traditional interpretation of Islamic texts. The controversy between tradition and modernism in Iran demonstrates that the former has no choice but to accommodate the latter.