Women's rights movement in Iran

The low status of women and the secret operation of many of their organizations and societies, have limited the amount of information on the subject.

Women's writing in that era, mainly appearing in newspapers and periodicals, are one of the most valuable sources of information on the movement.

The argument they put forward was that providing women with education was an overall good for Iran, allowing mothers to raise better children for their country.

At the beginning of the century, foreign missionaries founded the first school for girls, which was attended mostly by religious minorities.

Haji-Mirza Hassan Roshdieh and Bibi Khanoom Astarabadi later also founded schools for girls, but both were quickly closed.

The Jam'iat e nesvan e vatan-khah (Patriotic Women's League) was founded approximately around 1918; it published Nosvan Vatankhah.

The low status of women and the secret operation of many of their organizations and societies have somewhat limited the amount of information on the subject.

In 1936, Reza Shah Pahlavi set the mandatory unveiling of women known as Kashf-e hijab – a highly controversial policy which caused many conservative women to simply stay inside the house rather than go out in a veil and be subjected to harassment from the police, but also caused desegregation in some sectors of society.

Despite much opposition by clerics, the suffrage was gained in 1963 when a national referendum reflected general support for the 6-point reform program known as the White Revolution which included women's right to vote and to stand for public office.

She was the first woman to hold a cabinet position; in 1969 the judiciary was opened to women and five female judges were appointed, including future Nobel prize winner Shirin Ebadi.

[20] Abortion was also made legal without arousing much public attention, by removing the penalty for performing the operation embodied in a law dealing with medical malpractice.

[19] With passage of time, some of the rights that women had gained under Shah, were systematically removed, through legislation, such as the forced wearing of the hijab, particularly the chador.

There were three major collective attempts to voice concerns:[1] These collective attempts, as well as the smaller ones, not only faced opposition from the Islamic conservatives, but were sometimes damaged by the leftist political groups, exemplified by the organization of a demonstration scheduled by the Fedai for the same day as that of the Conference of Unity of Women in December 1979 – despite the pleas mentioned above.

Increasing vocal opposition to policies which sanctioned polygamy, temporary marriage, free divorce for men, and child custody to fathers also took hold.

Judges became more sympathetic to women's issues because of the hardship, and when some reforms did not make it through the legislative process, the government tried to ameliorate some of the injustices and gave instructions to the courts on how to do so.

The Islamic government cannot escape it without risking a brutal separation of the state and religion.”[37] The death of Mahsa Amini took place at the hands of the Iranian Morality Police.

[38] Since 2005, the organization has published Iran's first online magazine on women's rights, Zanestan, with Ardalan as its editor.

In its constant struggle against censorship – the magazine comes back with a new name all the time – the newspaper has dealt with marriage, prostitution, education, AIDS, and violence against women.

[43] Zanan focused on the concerns of Iranian women with an Islamic point of view and had intentions of protecting and promoting their rights.

The campaign seeks to secure equal rights in marriage and inheritance, an end to polygamy, and stricter punishments for honour killings and other forms of violence.

[45] It was founded in late August 2006 on Tehran by Noushin Ahmadi Khorasani and Parvin Ardalan who were imprisoned in sentenced to three years in prison for "threatening the national security".

[46][47] Activists of the movement have been attacked and jailed by the government, and the campaign has had to extend its two-year target to collect the full number of signatures.

Initiative has received wide international and national coverage,[52] Hopes were high that the re-election of Iranian President Hassan Rouhani would see the abolishment of the compulsory hijab law, which has never happened.

[53] Iranian feminists generally fall into two camps when it comes to the women's rights movement in Iran, post 1979.

Others believe that through the dynamic nature of Islamic law, known as Sharia, a unique consciousness of feminism has been formed in Iran.

Despite the disagreements among different factions, when it comes to the improvement of women's conditions, feminist groups have shown that they can cooperate with an emphasis on common ground.