What was life like for women in Iran before the Islamic Revolution

“I saw many pictures of my grandmother wearing a veil next to my mother in a miniskirt, the two of them living in harmony, before the revolution.”

The one who remembers is Rana Rahimpour, an Iranian-British presenter on the BBC’s Persian Service. And that kind of memory isn’t restricted to her family.

In Iran, before the 1979 Islamic Revolution, there was no strict dress code that currently requires women, by law, to wear a veil and modest “Islamic” clothing.

“Iran was a liberal country. Women could wear whatever they wanted,” says Rahimpour.

Her testimony is important, especially after the protests that have been taking place in dozens of Iranian cities, following the recent death of a 22-year-old girl who had been detained by the “morality police”, charged with enforcing the Islamic dress code.

Rahimpour was born after the revolution, but the experience of her parents and family, combined with her journalistic work, allowed her to delve into the transformation experienced by her country after the fall of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi in ​​1979.

This transformation, in its early years, went beyond clothes, says Iranian journalist Feranak Amidi, a reporter on women’s affairs in the Near East region for the BBC World Service.

“We didn’t have gender segregation before the revolution,” according to Amidi. “But after 1979, schools were segregated and unrelated men and women were arrested if caught socializing.”

“When I was a teenager in Iran, the morality police arrested me because I was in a pizzeria with a group of friends,” she says. “Before 1979, there were clubs and entertainment venues. We were free to socialize as we pleased.”

Films from before the revolution are also testament to a time when women could choose to wear western or more conservative clothing. “You saw variety in the way they dressed. Some women wore the black or chador veil, but not in the way required by the current government,” says Amidi.

Dynasty

Before the 1979 revolution, Iran was ruled by the Pahlavi dynasty, which came to power after a coup d’état.

In 1926, the leader of the coup, Reza Khan, was crowned Reza Shah Pahlavi. His son, Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, was proclaimed Crown Prince and would become the last Shah in 1941.

In a 1997 article, the American think tank Wilson Center reproduced an interview with Haleh Esfandiari, author of the book “Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran’s Islamic Revolution”. Islam of Iran, in free translation).

Esfandiari left Iran in 1978 and returned 14 years later to research the impact of the revolution on women. In this interview, the journalist said that “the women’s movement in Iran began in the late 19th century, when they took to the streets during the constitutional revolution.”

After that, many of them started social projects, such as opening schools for girls and publishing magazines for women. This network started in the capital, Tehran, began to spread to other provinces and led to the “development of the women’s movement”.

the veil

Women’s clothing was included in the country’s leadership agenda in the early 20th century. “The veil was only officially abolished in Iran in 1936, in the era of Reza Shah Pahlavi, the father of modern Iran,” says Esfandiari.

Years earlier, the leader had encouraged women not to wear the veil in public or “wear a scarf in place of the traditional long veil”.

“When the veil was finally officially abolished, it was undoubtedly a victory for women — but also a tragedy, as their right to choose was extinguished, as it was when the veil was officially reintroduced in 1979, during the Islamic Republic,” she explains. Is it over there.

As a result, “many women were forced to abandon the veil and go out into the street feeling humiliated and exposed,” according to Esfandiari. But even so, she acknowledges that the last shah’s father made changes that had a positive impact on women.

The White Revolution

In 1941, the Reza Shah’s son, Mohamed Reza, assumed power. And during his reign, he “began the modernization of the country”, according to Amidi.

This process became known as the White Revolution, which granted women the right to vote in 1963 and the same political rights as men.

The new shah also tried to expand access to education in the peripheral provinces. And during his reign, the family protection law was passed in different areas, including marriage and divorce.

Amidi explains that the legislation expanded women’s rights: “The Family Protection Act raised the minimum age of marriage for girls from 13 to 18, and also gave women more leverage to file for divorce.” The law further established that men could only have one wife.

“All this was very progressive compared to other countries in the region,” says Amidi.

It so happens that the shah was an autocrat, but he was a progressive leader and he liked Western culture. Therefore, he formed a program of secularization.

The day by day

During the rule of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlavi, women came to occupy positions of power. “We had women ministers and judges,” recalls Rahimpour.

But even with the promises of the White Revolution, “women were still confined to traditional roles,” according to Amidi.

Although “there were women in Parliament”, she considers that “women did not have much participation in the political sphere. But we have to take into account that this was almost half a century ago and women all over the world, in that period, did not have much political power. .”

But Amidi acknowledges that her compatriots were beginning to play an increasingly social role: “They had a vibrant presence in society.”

women’s concerns

Amidi highlights the “great impact” that Empress Farah Pahlevi, wife of Shah Mohamed Reza Pahlevi, had on the arts and culture.

In fact, there is a study by Maryam Ekhtiar and Julia Rooney, from the Department of Islamic Art at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in the United States, which addresses “the artistic flowering of Iran”, which began in the 1950s and lasted until the 1950s. 1970s. According to the study, “these decades saw the opening of Iran to the international art scene”.

Much of this growth in artistic activity was due to the economic prosperity that the country was experiencing. Iran had a lot of oil, but the vast majority of Iranians did not benefit from that wealth.

Despite the support of the shah and his wife in the field of the arts, the artists did not ignore this reality, nor the repression of the regime against its opponents.

The authors of the study indicate that illustrator Nahid Hagigat “was one of the few artists to express women’s concerns during the years leading up to the revolution. In her prints, she captured the feeling of tension and fear in a male-dominated society under government scrutiny.”

Little by little

In 1971, Mohamed Reza Pahlevi — who had declared himself shahanshah, the “King of Kings” — was not only one of the richest men in the world, but also the absolute leader of Iran. His regime was increasingly repressive against political dissidents.

“In the previous regime [à revolução]people had social freedoms, but no political freedoms,” recalls Rahimpour.

“It was a big problem. All parties were controlled by the king, it was a watched society, there was no freedom of the press and any kind of political activism could end in a chain”, she said.

Social discontent took to the streets, and in 1978 there were massive protests against the Shah’s regime. Esfandiari explains that the progress made by women during his reign destabilized towards the end of the regime.

“In reaction to the traditionalist elements increasingly expressed in society, the shah has drastically withdrawn his support for the greater participation of women in decision-making positions,” she said.

The Islamic Revolution was supported by many Iranians who “were not necessarily religious”, says Rahimpour. Many only called for a “true democracy”: “it had the support of all groups, liberal, communist and religious”.

Women, regardless of what they wanted to wear or their degree of religiosity, were part of that force that eventually brought about the Shah’s downfall in 1979.

“In the marches that led to the revolution, there were professional women without scarves and women from conservative backgrounds with the traditional black veil; there were women from lower and middle class families with their children,” according to Esfandiari.

“All these women walked shoulder to shoulder, hoping that the revolution would bring improvements to their economic and social position. And, above all, improvements to their legal status,” she says.

different views

Amidi does not believe that women “necessarily felt more independent” before the Islamic Revolution.

“Iran was still a very conservative religious society,” she said. “But at that time, there was political will to break these traditional and conservative molds, allowing women to flourish and occupy more spaces in society.”

Amidi clarifies that this flowering never fully occurred.

As for Rahimpour, there are opposing ideas about the sense of independence and empowerment of Iranian women before the Islamic Revolution. “Religious women would say they felt more comfortable leaving after the revolution, but liberal women wouldn’t agree,” she said.

“It must not be forgotten that a part of Iranian society is very religious,” adds Rahimpour. And that’s why there are women who agree with some aspects of the system.

Looking at archival photos of women in Iran in Western clothing and without a veil, an Iranian lady commented that these images are not representative of women’s lives in general before the revolution.

Many women of different ages preferred to wear the hijab or veil and more conservative clothing because “society was possibly a lot more conservative and religious compared to today,” she said.

protests

Many Iranians participated in the revolution with the idea of ​​freedom, but Rahimpour says their illusions were quickly dashed.

“After the revolution, we realized that many religious people were uncomfortable with the miniskirts and the freedoms that men and women had,” she says. “That’s why they also agreed with the revolution.”

But she says many “deeply religious” people in Iran believe that wearing a veil “has to be a choice. It ceases to be a religion when it is mandatory.”

Iran is experiencing a wave of protests across the country following the death, in police custody, of a 22-year-old woman, allegedly for failing to comply with hijab rules. Authorities say Mahsa Amini died of pre-existing health problems, but her family and many Iranians believe she died after being assaulted.

The protests appear to be the most serious challenge facing Iranian leaders in recent years — and a new chapter in the history of popular mobilization in Iran.

– This text was published in https://www.bbc.com/portuguese/internacional-63038853