Four Sociological Assessments about the Status of Iranian Women 1997 -2005

In what conceptual framework should the collective starts of Iranian women be categorized? During the years 1995-2005 there was a lively debate in Iran's public sphere on the mentioned question. The methodology chosen in this article is a model based on analytical empirical sociology within the "rational choice" paradigm. In my study, I have benefited from qualitative methods such as direct observation and deep interview methods and library sources. After introducing fourteen positive and negative trends among women and their collective movement (from 1997 until 2004) this article tries to make four sociological assessments of the subject. In the first assessment we endorse women's dynamism as a ‘social problem’ but show that such dynamism cannot be reckoned as a social problem only. In my second and third assessment I have commented on women's dynamism as a social movement and a new social movement which is supported by Iranian feminists. This paper concludes that we should identify the status of women in Iran not as a social movement, but as a ‘social resistance’. The paper ends with offering three possible prospects for the collective status of women in Iran.