The Iranian Women's Movement; From Static to Dynamic

The Ir􀆗nian women have always been aspiring to their ideal identity in order to change the real one. Yet, due to effects of gender differences, which result in discrimination, such a general aspiration could not be realized to enhance women’s rights dramatically. The lack of self-esteem, on the one hand, and disconformities in beliefs, on the other, made the men shadow ever-present over the women. Considering men as dominant figure-heads of the households; that is husbands, prevented women from having a visible role in economic and industrial activities of the community, which resulted in women’s isolation and their absence in the public sector, restricting their role to that of a mother or a wife. Long after the first protestations in favour of women’s rights in the West, there is no sign of such acts in Ir􀆗n. This might be attributed to the very late signs of initial economic and industrial modernization in Ir􀆗n, the fact that impeded women’s liberation as well. One may notice the embryonic signs of such a thought at the beginning of the Constitution Movement, as a result of the influences coming in the forms of news and information coming from Europe. The Pahlavi regime, gave women partial freedom in exchange of gaining control over them in almost every aspect of the social life. The Islamic Revolution offered an opportunity for educated women to participate in the public sphere without being used in the hands of the politicians. This was the impetus upon which women found, for the first time, their economic value in the history of the nation.