UNDERSTANDING NATION-BUILDING AND ITS USE OF Savitha Ganesh

WOMEN THROUGH THE EXAMPLES OF IRAN’S UG-2

CONTRADICTORY AUTHORITARIAN REGIMES
 HISTORICAL BACKGROUND

The Phalavi Dynasty: The Shahs

The Iranian Revolution
The Islamic Regime
ENVISIONING A NATION

Women as the central tool to imagine the national future.

Women in public vs them to the private; both were obsessively legislated by the
respective ruler.
Maintenance of the family unit at all points
Proving a point and to who; hijab example
CONTRADICTORY REGIMES
The Phalavi Project of Westernization and Modernization
- Banning of Hijab
- More women allowed into the public sphere
- Moving away from the Ulama ideals

Ayatollah Khamenei’s Pure Islamic State:

-Women and family life
- Mandatory chador
- Undoing Westernization
WOMEN UNDER THE PERSIAN DYNASTY (THE
SHAHS)
Attempt to secularise the country
Imitation of western culture
Unveiling
Legislation in isolation
Western women vs the Ulama women
Public attempts to constantly define the politics of the women’s movement
Women as gateways to the purity of this new image of Iran
WOMEN UNDER THE ISLAMIC REVOLUTION &
UNDOING WESTERN INFLUENCE
Poisoning of Iran through past modernization projects; there was an attempt to
completely undo this.
Strict dress codes
Moving back into domestic life.
Chaste, dutiful, Visually Islamic Woman
Strict segregation of men and women; constant reinforcing of heteronormative ideal
and natural order
Access to public sector
Upper class women were given more of a margin to express
THE CHADOR
The image of Iranian women has been politicized through the conventions of unveiling and re-
veiling.
Under Persian Monarchy: “The signs of modernization were written on the civic body”
(Moallem, 2005)
During the Iranian revolution in 1978-79, publicly wearing a hijab actually became a symbol
of protest against the monarchy.
On March 7, 1979,Khomeini made the garment mandatory.
Khomeini's original hijab mandate was officially put into law in 1983. Article 102 of the Penal
Code stated, "Women who appear in public without religious hijab will be sentenced to
whipping up to 74 lashes." The law was later revamped and added a penalty of
imprisonment — anywhere from 10 days to two months — along with a stiff fine.
Making Iran public space, a space of promised violence. It will be violent unless you avoid it
by accessing it through the chador.
Placing the responsibility entirely on women.
CONSTANT SHIFTING OF FREEDOMS
REFERENCES:
Koolaee, E. (2009). Iranian Women from Private Sphere to Public Sphere, With Focus on Parliament. Iran
& the Caucasus, 13(2), 401-414. Retrieved from http://www.jstor.org/stable/25703817
De la Camara, Andrea, "Women's Rights in Iran During the Years of the Shah, Ayatollah Khomeini, and
Khamenei" (2012). HIM 1990-2015. 1350. http://stars.library.ucf.edu/honorstheses1990-2015/1350
Brooks, Caroline M., "Moments of Strength: Iranian Women's Rights and the 1979 Revolution" (2008).
Honors Theses. Paper 292. http://digitalcommons.colby.edu/honorstheses/292
Girgis, M. (1996). Iran Chamber Society: Iranian Society: Women in pre-revolutionary, revolutionary and
post-revolutionary Iran [Chapter One]. Retrieved from
http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/women_prepost_revolutionary_iran1.php
Graves, A. Retrieved from
http://digitalcommons.wcl.american.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1234&context=jgspl
Zahedi, A. (2007). Contested Meaning of the Veil and Political Ideologies of Iranian Regimes. Journal of
Middle East Women’s Studies, 3(3), 75–98. doi:10.2979/mew.2007.3.3.75