Iran of Pre- and Post-Revolution (1979). A Comparative Perspective

Akademische Arbeit , 2021 , 18 Seiten , Note: 28/30

Politik - Region: Naher Osten, Vorderer Orient

The purpose of this paper is to approach political parties and political ideologies of Post-Islamic revolution and the changes in the governmental structures, and to what extent the Islamic revolution affects the social capital and women’s right in Iran.

Iran has faced two significant revolutionary changes during the 20th century. The first, which was the constitutional revolution of 1905-09, was originated from Iranian nationalism, socialism and liberalism; finally led by the modern intelligentsia, which succeeded in framing a predominantly secular constitution. The second and the most controversial one, was the Islamic revolution of 1977-79, rooted and inspired by Iranian nationalism and Islam. It has established the traditional ‘Ulama (Islamic scholars) as the main political rulers under a clerical constitution of 1979.

Comparative Perspective: Iran of Pre- and Post-Revolution (1979)

Abstract

Iran has faced two significant revolutionary changes during the twenties century. The first, which was the constitutional revolution of 1905-09, was originated from Iranian nationalism, socialism and liberalism; finally led by the modern intelligentsia, which succeeded in framing a predominantly secular constitution. The second and the most controversial one, was the Islamic revolution of 1977-79, rooted and inspired by Iranian nationalism and Islam. It has established the traditional ‘Ulama (Islamic scholars) as the main political rulers under a clerical constitution of 1979. The purpose of this paper is to approach political parties and political ideologies of Post-Islamic revolution and the changes in the governmental structures, and to what extent the Islamic revolution affects the social capital and women's right in Iran.

Keywords: Constitutional revolution, Islamic revolution, Islamic republic of Iran, political parties, social capital, Women's right

Introduction

In the course of her history, Iran has undergone through many eventful epochs. The twentieth century for Iran was the most notable century for the social and political turmoil, and has experienced many adventurous events: three major wars (1914-18, 1941-45 and 1980-88) causing the death of hundreds of thousands of people; three coups in 1908, 1921 and 1953 which transformed the power, and two disputable revolutions of 1905 and 1979 that resulted in the drastically socio-political changes. At the beginning of the 20th century, especially during the post-constitutional revolution of 1905, Iran witnessed a new political culture with the purpose of forming a modern state. The next political and social transformation was in the 1920s when Reza Shah centralized power through the military coup d'etat. Reza Shah success to attain the power was fostered primarily by Iranian nationalism, therefore both liberal and conservative Iranian nationalists were the most outspoken early admirers of Reza Shah. Another challengeable issue was promoting secularism in Iran by him that caused several opposition movements from the Iranian clergy community. During twentieth century, all of these upheavals triggered many radical changes in the Iranian political and social system. One of the latest of these changes happened in 1979 as an Islamic revolution; it had several impacts on the culture, society and politics that affected each of them in a different way. The 1979 revolution was the real turning point, it set up Islamism as an ideology to be reckoned with, followed by repressing westernization and democracy. This short paper aimed to analyze how Islamic revolution of 1979 changed the political and social arrangements in Iran. Ultimately, it will also clarify the women's rights and their role in the society before and after Islamic revolution.

1- Historical overview: From the constitutional revolution to the Islamic revolution

Monarchy in Iran had a centuries-long history until its crash in 1979, from the ancient rulers Cyrus to the Sasanian empire, then Islamic Caliphates and Dynasties. One of the last dynasty which had reign from 1749 to 1925 was Qajar dynasty, by the end of their kingship, Qajar dynasty struggled economically, due to the large concessions given to British and Russian companies, which caused the large part of the country's economy under the direct foreign control, this way of securing economic interests, gave Russian and British the vital control of finances and territory of the country rather than the traditional sense of colonization. When Naser Al-Din Shah (king of Qajar dynasty from Sep 1848 to May 1896) gave all tobacco rights to British (Major G.F. Talbot) in 1890, the Russians feared from the formation of tobacco monopoly of British, therefor they began to encourage citizens to protest by arguing the full concession, and this was the first step towards the tobacco Revolts of 1891, which basically involved Bazaaris (the powerful merchant class). As a result of this protest, the king annulled the concession with the intention of breaking down the civil conflict, but controversially this act of the king also showed to the people that they can affect governmental policies through public protest (Keddie, 1966).

In 1905 a new widespread protest began again with Bazaaris against the mismanagement of country by the new king, Mozaffar Al-Din Shah (Naser Al-Din Shah's successor), and as well as against the new tariffs to repay Russian loans. Protester's demand was the creation of an elected parliament (Majles), as a legislative arm of constitutional monarchy; like the Tobacco Revolt of 1891, the leaders of protest they were from the clerical community. Finally, in October of 1905, elections were held hurriedly after the king surrender. One of the first acts carried out by the Majles was to approve the new written constitution so the capitulated king could approve it. After the death of Mozaffar Al-Din Shah in 1907, his successor Muhammad Ali Shah quickly turned on the Majles, the Russians and British quickly sided with the new king and they became the supporters of the crown; consequently, they started to terrorize legislators and officials, which caused widespread public unrest. In 1908, king ordered to bomb the Majles building, this act of the king set off a civil war. One year after the bombing of Majles, king was forced into exile by pro-constitution forces. Shortly after, Majles voted Ahmad, 11 years old son of the king into power; due to age and numerous pressures, Ahmad Shah was totally ineffective and this situation allowed Majles, Russians and British to continue their interferences (Kinzer, 2003).

The end of the Qajar Dynasty came in 1921 as Reza Khan, a military leader in the north, led the Persian Cossack Brigade into Tehran. After a successful coup d'etat, he named himself chief of the army and minister of wars while his ally, Seyyed Ziaddin Tabatabae, got the position of prime minister. In 1925 Qajar dynasty officially ended as Reza Khan took the Throne and created the Pahlavi dynasty. Among Reza Shah greatest achievements were: establishing the first university in country (university of Tehran), building a Trans-Iranian railway, reforming education and adjusting the legal codes and regulations. He was the first ruler of Iran to bring westernism and modernity in the public policy, as well as the education system was based on the western model. He challenged the religious traditions, which pushed him in the opposition side of the conservative population and religious leaders. The next act which increased his oppositions was renegotiating the oil agreement between British and Persia. According to the previous agreement, Persian government was receiving only 16 percent of the profits, so Reza Shah unilaterally canceled the agreement in 1932 (Ghods, 1991). After months of dispute, the threat of military intervention by British and referral of this issue to the newfound League of Nations, an agreement was reached. In 1935 Reza Shah requested that Persia be called as Iran in all diplomatic correspondence, in hopes of building his nation's image in a more nationalist light. By 1939, Germany was the largest trade partner of Iran, almost over 50 percent of all trade, although Reza Shah never formally aligned with Nazism. At first German-Iranian relationship was not consider a great danger for British and soviets, but this lasted until 1941 as Germans invaded the Soviet Union, when British saw a danger as large number of Germans presented in Iran territory, clearly this was against the British oil interest. British came to an agreement with the Soviet Union to work on military action in Iran and finally this agreement resulted in the invasion of Iran from north by the Soviet Union and south by the British in 25 August of 1941. After 48 hours of invasion a ceasefire was called by Reza Shah. One month after the invasion, British and Soviet governments forced Reza Shah to abdicate and allow his 21 years old son Muhammad Reza to be his successor (Eshraghi, 1984).

In 1943, during Tehran Conference, the allied powers vowed to leave Iran within six months after the end of WWII and to respect Iran sovereignty. Of course this was not the first times such a promise was made and also broken. In 1951, Iranian people elected National Front (leaded by Muhammad Mossadegh) to a Majority of seat in Majles. When Muhammad Mossadegh was in office as a prime minister, Majles saw a resurgence in the strength and for the first time Iranians could have a functional representative government. One of the Mossadegh goal was nationalization of oil: undoubtedly this was the obvious threat to the Anglo-Iranian oil company, thereby it was a priority of British government to topple Mossadegh with the help of United States and to get US along with them, British exaggerated Mossadegh politics which he may ally Iran with Kremlin. In 1953, Eisenhower gave green light on operation Ajax. Thus CIA officers recruited mob to start protestation against Mossadegh policies by creating delusion of polarization and political instability which leaded to the civil conflicts. Finally, Mossadegh turned himself into the army rather than protesters. After overthrow of Muhammad Mossadegh in 1953, Muhammad Reza Shah got the power and quickly he consolidated his power and stripped the Majles of any remnant power. Muhammad Reza Shah like his father followed westernization and modernization in his policies and this created the opposition movement from clerical community, in which the most influential leader was Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini. In 1964, he was exiled first to Turkey, then to Iraq and later to Paris, though he continued to led the movement from Paris and eventually resulted in the toppling of the Pahlavi dynasty in 1979, it was also the end of the monarchy in Iran and the start of a new era under the name of Islamic republic (Heing, 2013).

2- The Governmental Structures of the Islamic Republic of Iran

Soon after the revolution of 1979, a state constitution was written and adopted by the referendum on 2-3 Dec 1979 which consequently went into the force by replacing the constitution of 1906. Confusion over some issues in the constitution, made the first amendment on 28 July 1989 (Davari, 2005). Iran's currently governmental structure and political system is based and relied on the constitution of 1979. The constitution has been known by the scholars as ‘Hybrid' of Theocratic and Democratic elements, we can see this form of hybrid as we look into the articles 1,2 and 6: articles 1 and 2 vest sovereignty in God, while article six emphasizes on the popular elections for the parliament and presidency (Fukuyama, 2009). The following sections outline the nature of the Legislative, Executive, Judicial branches of the government, as well as the roles of Iran's leadership.

2.1- Supreme Leader

The supreme Leader is the highest official rank in the Islamic Republic of Iran, the final determiner of issues in the country and he holds the post for life time. According to the Khomeini's writings, the Supreme Leader is a singular executive: his sovereignty is divine and is relied on his mastery of religious law and practice. No governmental institutions can interfere his ruling or religious opinion. To obtain the position, a candidate must be accepted by the Assembly of Experts (see 2.2 paragraph), known as a descendant of the Prophet Mohammad and he must be a grand Ayatollah. This post has been hold twice since 1979: Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. The current holder of the post is Ali Khamenei, he achieved the role after the death of Khomeini in 1989. Based on the constitution he is responsible of all the aspects of domestic and foreign policy. Another important role of Supreme Leader is commander in Chief of the Iranian armed forces; he also appoints head of the Judiciary and has absolute control over the national media (Hashemi, 2017).

2.2- The Assembly of Experts

It is the second most momentous office in the government due to the fact that can appoint and impeach the Supreme Leader. The Assembly is a clerical council which is responsible to elect or remove Supreme Leader. It consists of 80 to 90 members, all elected by popular vote every eight years. Candidates may be disqualified by the Council of Guardians (see 2.3 paragraph). The Assembly convene twice in a year to review the Supreme Leader's activities and decide whether to extent or cancel his term (Hashemi, 2017).

2.3- The Council of Guardians

The Council of Guardians is composed of 12 members: six experts on Islamist Theology chosen by the Supreme Leader and six experts on Constitutional law proposed by the head of Judiciary and approved by the Parliament (Majles). The main duties of the Council are reviewing candidates for elected offices, monitoring elections and interpreting constitution. Every law consented by the parliament must be approved by the Guardian Council; in the case it does not approve, the bill returns to the Parliament for revision. In the event of dispute between Parliament and the Council, it would be resolved by the Expediency Discernment Council which is responsible for resolving disputes among branches of the government. All the members of the Expediency Discernment Council are appointed directly by the Supreme Leader (Beeman, 2004).

2.4- The President

Despite the widespread definition of President's title, the Iranian President does not obtain the same authority as the United States equivalent. Nevertheless, it is the second highest authority in the country, he holds significant power and has a title of the Chief Executive of government; he also proposes the candidates for the cabinet or Council of Ministers to the Parliament for the final approval. The Nominees for the Presidency are elected through universal suffrage for a period of four years and may remain in power for a maximum of two terms. The Candidates need approval of the Guardians Council for Presidential elections. In the 2005 election, only eight nominees were approved by the Council to proceed the election while more than 2000 individuals disqualified. The President is known as an international figure of his country but his authority is reviewed by the Supreme Leader on foreign issues. Among his main responsibilities are:

- Setting the country's economic policies
- Signs and supervises the implementation of laws passed by the Parliament (Majles)
- Signs international agreements or treaties which ratified by the Parliament

Generally, a cabinet of twenty-two ministers and eight vice presidents serve under the President (Randjbar-Daemi, 2018).

2.5- The Parliament (Majles)

The Majles or Islamic Consultative Assembly (The Iranian Parliament) is the legislative branch of the Iranian government, currently with 290 seats (Hashemi, 2017). The minority communities of Jews, Christians and Zoroastrians are facing some stipulations for their representation in the Parliament. Candidates are approved by the Council of Guardians and members are monitored by it. Members serve for a period of four years; they are representatives of the different Iranian Provinces which all are elected by a popular majority. It is led by a speaker and two deputy speakers that are in charge of running the meetings of the Parliament. The main responsibilities of Majles are:

- Approving international agreements
- Direct checks on the power of the presidency
- Budget approval
- Questioning the administration
- Approving the cabinet and ministers proposed by the President

2.6- The Judiciary

According to the Article 156 of the constitution of Islamic Republic, the Judiciary is an independent body that upholds individual social rights and is responsible for achieving justice. It is also responsible for maintaining the rule of law and enforcing order within the country. Through the ministry of Justice, the Executive branch is responsible for all judicial appointments. Women are not permitted to obtain the position of judge in Iran. The court sustains jurisdiction over criminal and civil issues, while the legal issues related to the constitutional affairs are referred to the Council of Guardians. The Supreme Leader selects the head of judiciary, who elects the head of supreme court and chief public prosecutor. The head of judiciary is the highest judicial rank and is appointed for a five-years term (Abrahamian, 2008). The judiciary compromises three different courts

1. The Public courts: monitor criminal and civil cases
2. The Revolutionary courts: oversees cases involving crimes against national security or any acts against Islamic Republic
3. Special Clerical courts: it monitors the crimes that committed by the clerics and it operates separately from the other courts

3- Main Political Parties After Islamic Revolution

Political history of Iran splitted into three distinct-periods: the first one is considered as the “First Republic” or the period of Revolutionary Islam, occurred from 1979 to 1988; the “Second Republic” or the Reconstruction Period took place from 1988 to 1997; the third one began with the election of Mohammad Khatami as a president in 1997. He was searching for a more open society in the country: this election showed a profound turning point and caused the creation of a system with two main and powerful political blocs (Aras, 2001). After the 1979 Revolution, the Islamic Republican party prevailed the polity and later splitted into two parties: The Conservative right and Radical left (Moslem, 2002). After the death of Khomeini in 1989, these two parties struggled into a conflict over Khomeini's legacy. The Conservative right pursued more pragmatic policies in economy and foreign affairs and followed Islamist path in the domestic area, while in 1990s the Radical left reintroduced itself as a ‘Reformist party' (Brumberg, 2001). Notwithstanding of the state pressure, the Radical left (Reformist) adopted a democratic agenda to challenge the Conservatives in the electoral processes, and this form of moderation triggered the 1997 reform and the Green Movement of 2009. The left needed an ideological agenda which could have massive popular support and also to protect itself from the suppression of the State. On one hand their platform needed to be Islamic enough to survive in the Islamist regime, but on the other hand had to be secular and democratic enough to ensure favorable prospects in elections. This paradox in their ideological platform created an uneven path in their political processes (Ayatollahi Tabaar and Kadir Yildirim, 2020).

According to the Article 26 of 1979 constitution, formation of parties, political associations and religious societies is permitted unless they do not violate the criteria of Islam or the principles of the Islamic Republic. In the first two years after the Islamic Revolution, many political organizations have been created but soon most of them have been suppressed by the authorization of Ruhollah Khomeini, due to the fact that they were opposed clerical domination of the government. Therefore, in September 1981 a new law was passed, that stipulated how to create a political party and how it could function. This new law was giving authority to the ministry of Interior to issues a permit to the new party; the aim of this law was to ensure that party's activities are in sync with the new Islamic regime. After 1981 Iran became a one-party state: Islamic Republic party (IRP), a party which had been founded from 1979 Revolution and disbanded itself in 1986. One of the reason caused delay on the formation of political parties was Iran-Iraq war (22 Sep 1980- 20 Aug 1988). After the termination of war, the ministry of interior under pressure from Parliament, hastily declared that new parties could apply for permits. Each of them were obliged to present their Agenda and constitutions. The main requirements were: no foreign ties and fidelity to the new constitution. In two weeks more than 28 groups submitted their application including Freedom movement of Iran (FMI) and the Women's society of the Islamic Republic headed by the Khomeini's daughter (Zahra Mostafavi Khomeini). Despite the numerous granted permits still there was no presence of a real party until the 1997 presidential election. Two main political parties before the election of 1997 were The Militant clerics society (MRM, Majma-e Ruhaniyoon-e Mobarez) from the Radical left and The Tehran's Militant Clergy Association (JRM, Jame'eh-ye Ruhaniyate-e Mobarez) from the Conservative right: they were known as the most powerful political organization of clerics. Mohammad Khatami, who was the winner of the 1997 election, announced his candidacy as an independent but later he got a significant attention from the MRM political party. His opponent was Nateq-Noori, who he had been formally selected by the JRM to run for the election. Once Khatami officially declared as a president, the clerical community tried to show this victory as a great victory for the clergy. We could see this also in the Khamenei's inauguration message for Khatami, “Iranian nation had once again displayed its political growth without having had to follow political parties and their materialistic leaders”.

3.1-The Conservative Right

The Conservative Right, equivalently known as “The Principalist”, is one of two main current political blocs in Iran after the Islamic Revolution. Western sources use the term “Hardliners” to mention them among the political issues related to Iran (Kazemzadeh, 2008). They are conservative supporters of the Supreme Leader and more religiously oriented, that support the principle ideologies of the Islamic Revolution. Their main devotion is to the principle of Vilayat-Faqih (Post-Occultation theory in Shia Islam) (Bakhash, 2011). The Principalist party born from the Right after the 1997 presidential election.

Their ideology is to maintain the status quo and oppose any changes in traditional structures and beliefs. The majority of religious and clergy organizations are mainly recognized as Principalist (Axworthy, 2016). The crucial parties from the Right side are

- Islamic Republic Party (Hizb-e Jumhuri-ye Islami): as we mentioned previously, its existence goes back to the Islamic Revolution of 1979 until 1987 when Khomeini ordered the dissolution of the party.
- Tehran's Militant Clergy Association (JRM): it formed during following the Islamic Republic victory and they were tied closely to the Islamic Republic Party(IRP)
- Islamic Coalition Party (Hizb-e Mutalifih-e Islami): it is one of the oldest party in Iran, it formed by the Merchants of Tehran in 1963 to oppose the King. After the revolution they remained united and continued to expand their influence and power
- Islamic Society of Engineers (Jame-e Islami-ye Mohandesin): they are known as the second Islamic coalition party while mainly they follow the decisions of the Islamic Coalition Party. In fact, many times it was criticized whether it is an independent party or not.
- The Population of Defense of the Islamic Values (Jamiat-e Defa Az Arzeshhay-e Islami): they started their political activities in 1995. Their platform is based on the Islamic values as well as to defend them. In late 1998 all the activities of party were halted and the reasons were:

- No harmony among the members of the central council
- No successful political activities
- Public rarely gave them any attention
- Confusion to present serious general programs

3.2-The Radical Left

They are one the two political movements in Iran after 1979 revolution. This faction called itself “Reformist” after their victory in the 7th presidential election (May 23,1997). There are two intellectual circles in the reform process in Iran: one called the ‘Kian' circle and the other is ‘Niavaran' circle. Kian circle had an Islamic leftist view and Niavaran had a technocratic view. The rise of the Reformist was after 1997 election and achieving the majority seats of the 6th parliament, but their power decline started as soon as they lost the majority in the 7th parliament. The victory of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who was from the conservative right, in the 9th presidential election confirmed the significant decline of the Reformist's power (Mashregh News Journal, 2017).

One of their main ideology which distinguishes them from the rights is stressing on executing the constitution in order to have more political freedom and respecting people's right. They believe the legal and political freedoms is the key to the political and social growth. The main parties from the left side are

- The Association of Combatant Clerics (Majma-e Ruhaniyoon-e Mobarez-MRM): it founded in early 1987 by the consent of Khomeini. In the third parliamentary election they were positioned to gain majority of the seats but after the death of Khomeini they lost their power. Later in the fourth parliamentary election, eighty percent of their candidates disqualified undemocratically by the Guardians Council. After the seventh presidential election, the party regained political power and two years later they achieved most of the seats in the sixth parliament; however, many reform legislations were rejected by the Guardian Council. During the sixth parliament, party witnessed internal disputes between some of its member like Mehdi Karroubi. This conflict resulted a new party called “National Trust Party”; another disadvantages of this dispute was losing the ninth presidential election to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from the right wing (Nozari, 2001).

- Islamic Revolution Mujahidin Organization (Sazman-e mujahidin-e inqilab-e Islami): it formed by the unification of seven political groups whom believed in the leadership of Khomeini and were influenced by him. Inevitably challenges between its member caused the party to split into three different groups:

1. A group who were not obeying the personal ideas of the Ayatollah Khomeini's representative and they had conservative tendencies towards socio-economic
2. A group who did not accept Khomeini's view and pursued the radical economic approach
3. A group who believed the behavior of the other two groups was so antagonistic that there was no way to continue their activities with them.
In 1982 the party dissolved by Khomeini's order. Later in 1991 they started their activity and they supported Khatami in the seventh presidential election.

- The Executives of Construction Party (Hizb-e Karegaran-e Sazandegi): its existence goes back to 1989; after the Iran-Iraq war in 1989 they introduced new policies saying that the old policies are not any more successful as Iran entered into a new phase. Their strategies were economic reconstruction and rationalism in foreign policy.

- Islamic Iran Participation Front (Jebheye Mosharekate Iran-e Islami): it was the strongest political party which has been founded after the Islamic Revolution and established a year after the presidency of Khatami by a group of student who were followers of Khomeini. They believe all religious and traditional countries can be recognized as a modern country, by leaning on the cultural form and structure of their own country and adopt some reforms to their culture based on the modern one. According to some, it is recognized as a most democratic party which exists in Iran after Islamic Revolution.

- National Trust Party (Hizb-e Etemad-e Melli): as we mentioned before, this party was the result of the internal conflict in the MRM party from the lefts.

4- Effects of Islamic revolution on the social capital: women's right

Social capital or in another word, the inter-group and inter-personal relationships, has been changed starkly after the 1979 Islamic revolution. Iranian society still is in transition, a form of society which have had the decline of social capital. After passing more than forty years since the Islamic revolution in Iran, yet there remain many ambiguities and questions about how the Islamic Republic and its Islamic laws affected the Iranian society and its social capital, particularly women's right and role in Iran. The revolution of 1979 had a profound transforming impact on all the aspects of Iranian life, but for women the impacts were more notable, leaded to the substantial changes in their relationships with their families and their friends within the society. In Iran, women's first political activism occurred during the constitutional revolution of 1906 and it continued after the first world war which eventually it diminished when Reza Shah got the power in Iran (1921-41). In the 1941-53 and Mosaddeq era, there was a return to more constitutional rule and the rise of the first mass nationalist movements; the women had a great share of participation as a member of the nationalist movement or leftist parties. Soon after the decline of Mosaddeq in 1953, with the complicity of United States and British, country saw a return to the monarchy era under the rule of Mohammad Reza Shah, who ratified many important measures in 1962 for the women's right, such as Family Protection Law and the right to vote for women. Family Protection Law had a good impact on the women's social life, due to the fact that they were more protected by the law; consequently, Iran society saw an increase in the number of educated women, that give them opportunity to attain many different jobs. The Family Protection Law and women's right to vote never was accepted by the clerical community in Iran (Keddie, 2000).

At the beginning of twentieth century, Iranian women demanded for the equal gender rights and a political participation as well (Milani, 2011). Therefore, the first Iranian women's movement started to be formed as early as the post-constitutional revolution period. Despite the intensity of their participation in the constitutional revolution, their demands for egalitarian rights was not a concern for the political reformists, so the women's movement began to form by creating the women's councils and organizations (Afary,1996). Initially they focused on health and education but in 1942 they shifted their focus more towards politics and they grew into a political party, the Iranian Women's Party. After two years they developed a platform to demand the women's enfranchisement. Many conservatives and religious groups suppressed this act of women's party by noting that the women should just concentrate on their primary duties in family (Paidar, 1995). Unlike religious groups or nationalists, Mohammad Reza Shah was more in favor of women's suffrage, so during his White Revolution in 1963, he ratified the right to vote for women.

On January 9, 1963, Mohammad Reza Shah introduced a reform program; it was primarily introduced as a land reform program but it included also a provision for extending suffrage to the Iranian women. He called a referendum on the reform program instead of sending it to the parliament for debate and allowed women to vote on it. The referendum passed by a large majority despite many oppositions, especially from the clerical groups and landowners. Eventually on March 3, 1963, women suffrage adopted officially by the government decree and for the first time on September 17, 1963, Iranian women voted in parliamentary elections (Najmabadi, 1991).

Iranian women continued their participations in most of the political social movements also later than 1963 referendum, like their huge participation in the revolutionary movement of 1978 which was leaded by Ruhollah Khomeini and ended in 1979, by overthrowing Mohammad Reza Shah. Many observers from the west find it difficult to understand: why Iranian women would overthrow Mohammad Reza Shah, whom brought them many political social rights not yet seen in Iran? As a matter of fact, no one was certain that Iran would substitute with the Islamic Republic and the clergy would lead the country. Many revolutionary leaders such as Khomeini simply encouraged women to participate in protests, demand for more rights or freedom and make themselves free from the corruptions. Khomeini was one of the supporters of the men and women equality during the revolution, so there was this imaginary assumption by many women that their successful participation in the revolution would bring them more rights and equality. Once Khomeini solidified his power, the first group to be targeted by the Khomeini's fundamentalist and Islamism approach were women, and there was no evidence of the equality which he spoke in 1978. On 31 March 1979 was held a popular referendum in order to establish an Islamic republic and again Khomeini, by the manipulation, asked women to participate and vote in the referendum, while he strongly suppressed the women's suffrage during the white revolution in 1963 (Brooks, 2008).

After the revolution country faced a social and cultural dualism and society division that was bold in every parts of Iran. Country was splitted between two groups: on one hand there was highly westernized elite or new middle class with western education, highly secular in ideology and western in the way they were dressing and also their culture; while on the other hand there was the traditional middle class or urban popular class which mostly known as “Bazaaris”, with an ideology based on the Islamic norms by clerical community, including full cover dress for women and traditional way of marriage and divorce. Most of the liberals and secular leftist, who had significant role in overthrowing Mohammad Reza Shah in 1979, were expecting more post-revolutionary role in the country and governmental organizations, but surprisingly after the revolution they were suppressed by clerical forces from 1980 to 1983 and eliminated from the government: it paved the way for Khomeini to monopolize the country. This act of monopolization of power for many seculars and liberal women it seemed to be an unfavorable thing and putting their rights into the risk, and this risk was confirmed when clerical power annulled the Family Protection Law and substituted it with polygamy, child custody to the fathers and his family, right of divorce only for men, and many women dismission from the governmental positions. The next pressure on the women was the Khomeini's order for mandatory hijab and veil for all the women in public places (Najmabadi, 1991).

During Iran-Iraq war (1980-1988), Iranian government was in need of women help and called on them to be more effective on the home front. Women saw many contradictions in the government's behavior when numerous war widows were forced by Islamic law to give up their children custody to the families of husbands. A series of women protests started for such injustices and finally over time they got back their right for child custody; although this was still so far from egalitarian but it was an important start for many new changes. In the post-war period, the Iranian regime tried to encourage women just to work in some limited and certain spheres, however most of the women ignore these limitations by entering private employment and other small businesses that were still open to them, such as arts, teaching and medicine (Esfandiari, 1997).

After the revolution, the women's press played an important role in women's resistance to the newest restrictions which was imposed on women by the new Islamic regime, such as the conservative women's press “Neda” and “Payam-e Hajar” (Najmabadi, 1991). Many women's magazines started to featured how women are suffering because of the annulment of Family Protection Law, by illustrating stories of women's suicides, wife beatings and child custody loss. Later in 1980 these number activism and publicity were successful and could help to bring back some of the women's rights. Another successful outcome of a women campaign that was leaded by “Zan-e Ruz” in 1984-85, was the twelve conditions that were added to all marriage contracts in favor of women's protection from divorce (Paidar,1995). Another challengeable issue after revolution was Khomeini's decree to remove women from legal practice and annul all their judicial ranks, but many women lawyers refused to accept this so they continued to practice in the name of a male from family members, or in many cases they continued to work as legal advisers. Soon this act of Khomeini was suppressed by the women Majles deputies; on the other side the shortage of lawyers in Islamic law forced the regime to ignore the new Khomeini's decree: a revised bill was adopted to allow women again for practicing their judicial jobs. By 1996-97 four centers of women's legal advisory were established with the purpose of helping women to prepare cases and how to deal with the human rights lobby. Additionally, the women deputies in Majles pushed further on reform, that by the end of 1997 the most posts in the judiciary were occupied by women (Afshar, 1998).

The latest reform period for the Iranian women took place in the era of the presidency of Mohammad Khatami (August 1997-August 2005). Khatami was from “Reformist” faction and at the beginning of his presidency, he promoted a reformist agenda. Despite his reformist actions, he faced many oppositions, mainly from the “Principalist” or “Fundamentalist” who had the majority seats in the parliament. During both of his terms Khatami promoted freedom of expression, civil society, equal rights and opportunities for both gender, rule of law and women's rights, many constructive international or diplomatic relations with other states. During Khatami's era, civil society was prospered and there was better and closer coordination between women activists. Many centers have been established to empower women to run non­governmental organizations for fortifying their participation in the economic, culture and sociopolitical process of civil society, and to give them also more freedom in the public sphere (Sadeghi, 2010). The Khatami's ‘Dialogue of Civilization' resulted in the participation of Iranian women in various international conferences and movements, and gave them the opportunities to share their experiences and knowledge with other women in the world. Khatami appointed women to the significant political positions, such as vice president and minister. These revolutionary appointments changed the public attitudes and thinking towards the women: they were considered more seriously in the society (Koolaee, 2012). However, many reform bills also rejected by the Council of Guardians, which the most notable unsuccessful effort was the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Firstly, it was ratified by Khatami's government and also was approved by parliament, but unfortunately it was rejected by the Council of Guardians, the reason for their rejection was the incompatibility with Islam. In the end, all of these limitations were blocking Khatami's administration and failing them to promote any reform program successfully, so it ended with the public frustration and people apathy towards the Reformists party: it paved the way for the Conservatives or Principalist to win the presidential election of 2005. Consequently, many new restriction laws for women were introduced by the new president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad which constricted women's rights in public and society (Bakhshizadeh, 2018).

Women & Education

The policies towards education of women in Iran have experienced many changes and transformations, that basically occurred in three distinct periods since the Islamic revolution.

- First Period (1980s): Cultural Revolution, Islamisation and Gender Segregation

At the beginning of revolution, the main policies towards women were dismantling institutions, symbols or any other things that were sourced from Pahlavi regime. One of these policies of Islamic regime was nullifying the Family Protection Law and replacing it by Islamic ‘Sharia' law, and a compulsory veiling for women that leaded also to gender segregation in the public schools, while in the universities both gender still could attend classes together but in separated rows (Paidar, 1995). Soon after the Islamic revolution, the new regime launched the “Islamic Cultural Revolution” in 1980, followed by shutting down the universities and some high schools for three years. After re-opening the universities in 1984, women were only allowed to study in 91 majors out of 169 and they were barred from the rest of the studying fields (Rezai- Rashti & James, 2009). During this period there were both qualitative and quantitative improvements in the women's education, however, the first goal of Islamic regime was religious and spiritual, followed by scientific goals (Mehran, 2003). In this period, the literacy rate of women significantly increased from 35.5% in 1976 to 52.1% in 1986 (Shaditalab, 2005). Women attendance in the elementary and secondary was also had a notable growth while for the higher education levels, the percentage of female attendance was decreased and the reason for this decline was correlated to the new restrictions for women and the closure of universities for three years.

- Second Period (1990-2005): Reform and Liberalisation

After the end of Iran-Iraq war in 1988, country needed the help of educated women for reconstructing country after eight years of devastating war. In 1993, the High Council of Cultural Revolution lifted all the restriction on women's education and allowed them once again to enter any fields of study. Undoubtedly it increased female participation in higher education and a raise in women's academic publications as well (Boozari, 2001). In the Khatami era, the transformation of women's education was more gradualist approach rather than a radical shake-up of the system, however because of his reform programs the expectations were raised and country witnessed more women's participation in higher education (Tazmin, 2009).

- Third Period (2005-present): Return of Conservatives

The third period mainly characterised by the revitalization of conservatives and traditional fundamentalist ideologies towards women. It all started by the victory of Ahmadinejad in the presidential election of 2005. From the beginning of his presidency, he attempted several times to put an end to the reform movement which was launched by Khatami. In 2008, he also shut down a reformist women's magazine and many professors were forced by his government to retire (Erdbrink, 2011). Ahmadinejad also limited women access to many academic majors and let every individual university impose its own restrictions based on gender (Vakili, 2012).

Conclusion

From political and social point of view, Iran can be considered as one of the most bizarre countries in the world; Iran political system is so vague to the political scientist: it can be considered as religious tyranny, Islamic republic, democratic theocracy, theocratic oligarchy or “Mullocracy” (the government of the Mullas). On one hand it has parliament, modern political institutions like presidency and a constitution which illustrate democracy, but on the other hand there is also Supreme Leader as an omnipotent figure, thereby it shows also totalitarianism and authoritarianism. It becomes more bizarre as we look through the political history of Iran during the 20th century. In that period, several times power has been exchanged between monarchy and representative government, and eventually it ended by the 1979 Islamic revolution. It was the public protest for a constitution in 1905 that started transitions and transforms over the past 115 and brought Iran to the current system. The last window for democratization process in Iran was closed by overthrowing prime minister Mossadegh in 1953. Iran has never touched full democracy in her history, so the building of democracy in the country still is a constant effort. Iranian regime has constantly repressed all the democratization efforts thanks to its governmental structures and the way government monopolize political parties, by suppressing parties or movements with any westernization or liberalization ideology. Also the role of women in the Iranian society remains a significant issue: their participation and presence was always vital to the success of many protests and uprisings, such as constitutional and Islamic revolutions. Overall, religiosity appears to be the principal cleavage in Iranian politics, so the continued popular protests in Iran for more equal rights and freedom can be the most practical and effective solution for going towards the democracy once again in Iran; however, further research can investigate better the relationship between democracy and religiosity and how these two are affecting each other.

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• Hochschule: Università di Siena
• Note: 28/30
• Erscheinungsjahr: 2021
• Seiten: 18
• Katalognummer: V1154592
• ISBN (eBook): 9783346550521
• ISBN (Buch): 9783346550538
• Sprache: Englisch
• Schlagworte: iran, pre-, post-revolution, comparative, perspective