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Topic: Women's rights in Iran beginning from the Qajar Dynasty (1890) till the present
day.
Course: History-The Islamic Revolution of Iran

Women have played prominent roles throughout the history of Iran. It is found from

archaeological excavations at Shahr-e Sookhteh that even during the 3 rd and 4th

millenniums BC, women were holding important socio economic status. It is also found

from the Persepolis fortification and treasury accounts that women of the royal family

and nobility in Iran traveled expansively. They were competent to take care of their own

businesses while the queen and her ladies in waiting played polo with the emperor and

his nobles. The ancient Persian army is known to have had women soldiers. Tahereh

Qurrat al-Ain was the first female authority of significance in Iran during the rule of the

Qajar dynasty that ruled from 1794 to 1925. She was born in 1814 and her actual name

was Fatemah. In having converted to Babism, she removed her veil and became a

radical leader in demanding the liberation of women for which she was executed in

1852. Iranian women are known to have become restless during the second half of the

nineteenth century. Taj al-Saltanah, who was the daughter of Naser al-din Shah has

been very critical of the social and political conditions in the country and she expressed

grief about the pitiable condition of women’s rights. It is thus evident that in being a

member of the royal court, Taj al-Saltanah was not happy with the condition of women,

which is clearly indicative of the circumstances in which the population at large went

through during the era (Howard, 2002).

The first insurgence against the Qajar dynasty also began during the second half of

the nineteenth century. The Russian victory over Persian forces in the wars that took

place in 1813 and 1828 had considerably reduced the link between Persia and

Afghanistan and placed the Qajar dynasty in a difficult financial situation. In order to
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finance their luxurious life style and continue ruling without any hindrance, the Qajar

kings began giving facilities to the British in return for money. Such concessions began

with Naser al-din Shah granting the British with rights to control factories, extraction

sources, mills, telegraphs, Persian roads and other public works. However in having

come under strong pressure Naser al-din Shah had to cancel such concessions.

Another concession was made in 1890 in allowing the British to have monopoly in the

production, sales and exports of tobacco products for a period of fifty years for which

Naser al-din Shah was to receive £15,000 every quarter. However this concession

proved to be a big blow to the Persian tobacco industry because it adversely impacted

the livelihood of over 200,000 people including bazaaris and farmers who were entirely

dependent on the tobacco industry (Paidar, 1997).

As a consequence of the tobacco concessions being given to the British, massive

protests were made and a boycott began after a fatwa was issued by Shirazi. Most

markets in centers such as Kermanshah, Yazd, Qazvin, Kernan, Mashhad and Tabriz

remained closed and Naser al-din Shah had to reluctantly cancel the concessions in

1892. Women played a crucial role in getting such concessions cancelled. Some women

were killed during the protests and boycott, while it is on record that even women in the

royalty had refused to serve their men folk with tobacco pipes during this time. Women’s

perseverance during this time had reached such a stage that they were the ones who

were in the forefront of protest processions that marched towards the palace of Naser

al-din Shah. Women played the dominating role during these protests as they made

their way through the bazaars in closing down shops.

Zainab Pasha was in the forefront amongst women that took part in the boycott. She

encouraged men to join the fight and taunted those that did not by telling them to wear
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veils and go back home. She had the courage to throw her veil and organized and

encouraged women to take a firm stand on the issue. During this time, she even led a

group of armed women who ensured the closing down of shops that opened under

government influence. Iranian women got the opportunity to take part in political actions

with the Constitutional revolution that occurred between 1905 and 1911. The most

effective way for women to protest was to stage sit-ins inside mosques. Women also

played crucial roles in safeguarding clerics in mosques. The distinct advantages with

women pertained to the fact that the ruling regime could not fire at crowds that had

women. In support of the Constitutional movements, women had formed several secret

organizations and organized activities such as demonstrations and protests.

Bibi Khanoum Vaziri, the wife of Musa Khan Vaziri, a well known official in the

Persian army, was a powerful intellectual during the early 20 th century. She was

instrumental in encouraging the education of young girls as also in highlighting the

sufferings of women emanating from lack of education. At a huge gathering in Tehran in

1906, women’s organizations issued a resolution that called for the elimination of large

dowries for newly wedded girls and the resulting savings were required to be used in the

education and uplifting of women. Schools were founded for Muslim girls in the country

and subsequently American Presbyterian missionaries started opening their schools.

Mahrokh Gowharshenas founded the Madreseh Taraghi in 1911 and in 1927,

Dowlatabadi was the first Iranian woman that appeared in public without a veil (Ranjbar,

2010).

Bibi Khanoum played a very important role in defending women’s rights for education

and it is widely considered that her book Ma'ayeb al-Rejal was the foremost

pronouncement of women’s rights in the history of modern Iran. Women had by now
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begun to take part in all demonstrations and meetings related to the formation of a

constitutional government. Setareh, the daughter of the Armenian radical leader Yeprem

Khan (1868 to 1912) was amongst the women protestors that took refuge in the British

Embassy in 1906. Eventually the order to frame the Constitution was signed by Mozaffar

al-din Shah on 5th August 1906 and elections were held for the Majles and the first

Majles meeting was held on 7th October the same year with 156 attendees. Mozaffar al-

din Shah signed the new Constitution on 30 th December 1906 but the Constitution did

not give voting and several other rights to women and when they protested, were told

that the role of women should be limited to managing the house, raising children and

maintaining the family’s honor. In fact this was the viewpoint of the hard liners and

ayatollahs that continue to dominate the current Islamic Republic of Iran.

Women contributed their might when the first national bank was established in Iran

and they raised a lot of money including the donation of their jewelry for the cause of

constitutionalism. However in 1907 there were attempts to crush the constitutional

revolution by the ruler Mohammad Ali Shah and he put an end to the constitution in

declaring it to be against the tenets of Islam. The Majlis was attacked and several

Constitutionalist leaders were executed on 24 th June 1908. Revolutionaries including

women under Zainab Pasha fought along side men against the government and Tehran

was eventually freed by the Constitutionalists in July 1909. Bibi Maryam Bakhtiari played

an important role in this achievement and in having fought bravely was awarded with the

honorary rank of Sardar. The second Majles began functioning and the number of

women’s organizations began to grow and amongst them, Anjoman Mokhaddaraat-e

Vatan was most active. The first celebrations for International Women’s Day were held

in the city of Rasht in 1915 after which women’s society meetings began to be held in
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secret. In the struggle against gender discrimination women opposed the interference

from Britain and Russia.

The then premier Reza Khan eliminated the Qajar dynasty in 1925 and established

the Pahlavi dynasty. He declared himself as Reza Shah and introduced an era of

economic reforms and modernization but his reign was characterized with lot of

repression. During this time, the Majles established a civil code that allowed women the

right to divorce and raised the marriageable age for girls to fifteen. The women’s center

known as the Kanoun-e Banovan was established and in 1935, it was made cumpolsory

for women to remain without veils. In the same year, the University of Tehran began

accepting female students. The forceful unveiling of women is considered by many as a

significant step towards the modernization of Iran but the defeat of Reza Pehlavi by

Allied forces in 1941 led to the fading away of the practice of compulsory unveiling.

Professor Ervand Abrahamian characterized Reza Shah’s rule as being oppressive and

without any authenticity. From 1941 to 1953 women were active participants in the

country’s political deliberations and in 1943, the Women’s League was formed by the

Tudeh Party. It was later named as Organization of Democratic Women.

In 1952, the government of Prime Minister Mosaddegh approved for women the right

to vote in the municipal councils. Women were additionally given equal rights as

compared with men with the introduction of the new social insurance scheme that was

approved by the Majles in 1953, which also allowed women to get maternity leave and

other concessions including disability allowance. Women thus strongly supported Prime

Minister Mosaddegh. However the CIA administered coup of 1953 over threw Prime

Minister Mosaddegh’s government and the benefits that women had been able to gain

were stopped again (Osanloo, 2009).

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Women were granted voting rights in 1963 by Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi. In

1967 the Shah also established the nation’s first family protection law that prevented

men from having absolute authority to divorce their wives. Another family protection law

was established in 1975 that allowed women the equal right to divorce and to have

marriage settlement, restricted rights of guardianship and custody of children.

Marriageable age for girls was increased to eighteen and a number of restrictions were

entailed on polygamy. Women were permitted to contest for positions of judges,

deputies in the Majles and also as members of the Cabinet. However the the results

were not as good as the Shah wanted the people to accept. Even in 1976, there were

only 25 percent women that lived in urban areas and only three percent were literate in

rural areas, while over 85 percent were unemployed.

Women did not get all their rights under the Shah’s rule. Prior to 1979 Sharia law

prevailed in Iran and Islamic Sharia formed the foundation for marriage, family and

women’s rights in the country. For instance, the law allowed men to have four wives on

a permanent basis and as many temporary wives that they wished to keep. Children’s

custody was under the father’s control and after his demise; the custody would rest

under the control of his male relatives, which implied that if the couple were divorced the

mother could not have custody of her children after the father’s death. To travel, women

were required to get permission in writing from their husbands. Citizenship in Iran came

only through the father and a child borne by an Iranian father from any woman would

become a citizen of the country while an Iranian woman’s child borne from a foreigner

male would not be treated as an Iranian citizen. However there was a law, family

protection law, which was introduced in 1970 that required married males to seek
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permission from their permanent wives to have another permanent wife, although the

rule was not applicable for acquiring temporary wives (Esfandiari, 1997).

After the Islamic government was established in Iran there were moves to further

expand the Sharia law in the context of women. Although the fundamentalist

interpretations were not as strong as in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan, they did lay down

that women will be excluded from becoming judges and were required to abide by the

Islamic code of dress. Such interpretations also included stern Sharia rules in the judicial

systems. The new regime however focused upon the initial Islamic traditions of including

women in political and civil spheres. Women were allowed to retain their voting rights

and were given liberty to take part in all forms of public life. As a result, a sophisticated

process of exclusion and inclusion was devised. Women movements assumed two

diverse forms; one that supported the Islamic form of governance but interpreted most

issues differently as compared to the hardliners and the other section comprised of

secularist women groups. Secular women groups struggled in two different

perspectives; one that worked towards and advocated the legal interpretations of the

Sharia in promoting liberalist views, while the other groups focused on consistently

avoiding to cooperate in complying with the behavior and dress codes in social spheres

(Kousha, 2002).

Resulting from a combination of all such efforts, women in Iran have been able to

make considerable progress in several areas. Currently, almost half the enrolling

students in the nation’s universities are females. There are more women in Iran’s

parliament than any previous period and there is also a well devised birth control system

that was recently awarded by the United Nations for its success and effectiveness.
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According to the United Nations, teenage pregnancy rates and child mortality in Iran are

much lower than most third world nations. For the last few years, a number of women’s

organizations in the country have been celebrating International Women’s Day across

many cities. There are now several women publishers that print pamphlets and books

concerning women’s issues and other points of view.

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Works Cited

Esfandiari Haleh, Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution, The

Johns Hopkins University Press, 1997.

Howard Jane Mary, Inside Iran: Women’s Lives, Mage Publishers, 2002.

Kousha Mahnaz, Voices from Iran: The Changing Lives of Iranian Women, Syracuse

University Press, 2002.

Osanloo Arzoo, The Politics of Women's Rights in Iran, Princeton University Press,

2009.

Paidar Parvin, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran, Cambridge

University Press, 1997.

Ranjbar Zeinab, Human Rights of Women in Iran,

http://www.essex.ac.uk/catalyst/zeynab.Ranjbar.htm, Accessed on 04 May, 2010.