Broken Promises
The 1979 anti-monarchy revolution in Iran created a sense of participation among men and women from all classes. In the marches that led to the revolution, there were professional women without hijab or scarves and women from traditional backgrounds wearing the traditional black veil; there were women from lower and middle-class families, accompanied by their spouses and children. All these women walked shoulder to shoulder together, hoping that the revolution would bring them an improvement in their economic and social status and above all an improvement in their legal status.
The 1979 revolution brought out large masses of Iranian women who were demonstrating for the abolition of the monarchy and for an Islamic republic. They believed that an Islamic republic would give them total equality, removing all existing obstacles for the participation of women in the affairs of their country. In the excitement of the revolution and hopes for change, less attention was paid to what Khomeini was saying while staying in Paris. In Khomeini‘s words, women would have a role in society but within an “Islamic” framework. Trusting him as a man of promises and hope, nobody bothered in those days to ask, “What does Islamic framework mean?” and “how is it implemented in the society?”
Iran’s misogynist laws
Over the last four decades, the Iranian government has been forced to rescind every single law it passed regarding women’s rights to tame the quest of Iranian women for equal rights, gender equality, and justice. The Family Protection Law was suspended immediately after the mullahs came to power in 1979. The abolition meant that men once again could divorce their wives and just notify them by mail.
Child custody was taken away from women. Men could marry more than one permanent wife and as many temporary wives as they wanted. Men could stop their wives from going out in the street, from working. Child marriages, exclusion from school, domestic violence, lack of knowledge of their legal and social rights, lack of access to sanitation, hygiene, and water are among dozens of challenges the rural women of Iran face.
These problems prevent the progress of rural women in Iran and subdue their creativity. The culture of male domination promoted by the clerical regime is reinforced in villages by a patriarchal management culture. Both of which forbid women’s social participation.
In mullah’s ideology, a “good” woman must tolerate all the hardships. She must work hard and serve everyone in the family. She must protect the family despite her own physical and psychological problems. This culture, coupled with poverty and hundreds of other problems imposed on the nation by a tyrannical regime, have created an inconceivable situation for the Iranian women, young and old.
Iranian Women, the force of change
Today, while the world is celebrating International Women’s Day, honoring the women who have made the world a better place, it is essential that we remember the innocent women of Iran and what they’ve lost at the hands of a vicious regime, one that has taken its authority to its most heinous extreme.
The story of the women in Iran is the story of heroism, sacrifices, resistance, integrity, hope, and optimism. Today, tens of thousands of courageous female political and human rights activists and brave Iranian girls have joined their fellow men to reject brutality and demand freedom in as many ways and methods may have been possible. Today, the women of Iran are at the forefront of most social demonstrations and uprisings throughout Iran. Today, more than ever, the regime in Tehran is fearful of the hidden potential of the women of Iran who, braver than ever and more determined than ever, have become the most lethal weapon against the tyrannical regime in Tehran. Today, the women of Iran have turned the table around against the misogynist regime of the ayatollahs and have become their nightmares.
In this fight for equality and justice, the women of Iran expect the world to come to their aid. This could be considered one of the most important decisions of our time. Will the west aid the return of democracy and freedom in Iran, or will it succumb to Tehran’s murderous government in the name of hedging our bets? The people of Iran will benefit from a show of support from the West. By standing with them, we can uphold our duty to take a stand for the security of the free world.
The progressive subtraction of democracy and women’s rights in Iran is at a crucial state now. The Iranian women are destined and determined to close the door to injustice and inequality forever. The wind of change has been blowing for a while within the Iranian landscape. As days, weeks, and moth pass by, this wind will be felt more fiercely. Soon this wind will transform itself into a windstorm that will sweep the misogynist regime of the mullahs to the dustbin of history, where it truly belongs.
This poem by a renowned Iranian poet, Simin Behbahani echoes the feelings of every woman in Iran.
You want to erase my being, but in this land, I remain
I will continue to dance as long as I sustain
I speak, as long as I am living: fury, roar, and revolt
Your stones, and rocks, I fear not. I’m a flood, my flow you cannot halt.
Source » irannewswire