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This piece was first published in Global Brief on June 14, 2010.
Mehrangiz Kar
… in Iran overcome many of the impediments standing in the way of realizing gender equality. Iran is a diverse society, where women from both religious and secular backgrounds recognize the need for legal reform to promote Iranian women’s rights. Yet, alas, the hurdles are many. To begin with, the Iranian legal system not only fails to protect women’s rights in conformity with international human rights standards, but worse, does not treat women as equals under national law. The system patently promotes patriarchy and a second-class citizenry for women. Since the 1979 Revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic, many discriminatory laws have been forced upon women in the name of Islam. The revolution was meant to be a great march forward toward equality, justice and emancipation. Ironically, women played a most active role in the revolution – a revolution that promised so much, but failed with equal efficacy to deliver. It was an enormous shock when the new authorities ordered the forced veiling of women – a marked departure from the practice of the preceding decades during which women were free to choose whether or not to wear the veil.
iranian-woman-journalist-in-1972
From the annals of history: A young Iranian woman (left) working as a journalist in Tehran, Iran. Photo taken in 1972, seven years prior to the revolution.
Iranian women became increasingly irate as they witnessed their rights withering away. Countless demonstrations and strikes were organized in protest. Women’s grievances and demands, however, fell on deaf ears at a time when the highly conservative patriarchal ideology of the ‘new guard’ was shaping the Iranian Islamic theocratic experiment. Despite the innumerable challenges, the struggle for women’s rights in Iran has persisted – indeed, gaining renewed vigour, as demonstrated during the post-presidential election crisis last summer. Iranian women have re-emerged, evincing their social weight, and garnering international support and admiration. Today, Iranian women feel more empowered than in any other period of their social and political lives in post-revolutionary Iran. Women constitute nearly half of Iran’s 74 million people. This enlightened and socially conscious mass on the march cannot be ignored. In the 21st century, Iranian women will push towards the fulfillment of the following aspirations: ensuring the release of all imprisoned women’s rights activists; reforming laws that ‘legalize’ and promote gender discrimination; ratifying the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women; adopting zero-tolerance policies for violence and/or abuse against women; and eradicating state violence against the people.
This new century will witness Iranian women – with the support of their courageous countrymen – promote an open society where progress and nation-building are made possible through the full and equal participation of men and women alike.”
» Mehrangiz Kar is an Iranian lawyer and activist specializing in women’s rights. She has received numerous awards for her human rights work and efforts in promoting women’s rights, including the Ludovic-Trarieux International Human Rights Prize (2002).
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