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WEEKLY NEWSLETTER
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Iran
Index
Prior to the Revolution, three patterns of work existed among
women. Among the upper classes, women either worked as
professionals or undertook voluntary projects of various kinds.
Whereas secular middle- class women aspired to emulate such women,
traditional middle-class women worked outside the home only from
dire necessity. Lower class women frequently worked outside the
home, especially in major cities, because their incomes were needed
to support their households.
Women were active participants in the Revolution that toppled
the shah. Most activists were professional women of the secular
middle classes, from among whom political antagonists to the regime
had long been recruited. Like their male counterparts, such women
had nationalist aspirations and felt that the shah's regime was a
puppet of the United States. Some women also participated in the
guerrilla groups, especially the Mojahedin and the Fadayan
(see Antiregime Opposition Groups
, ch. 5). More significant, however,
were the large numbers of lower class women in the cities who
participated in street demonstrations during the latter half of
1978 and early 1979. They responded to the call of Khomeini that it
was necessary for all Muslims to demonstrate their opposition to
tyranny.
Following the Revolution, the status of women changed. The main
social group to inherit political power--the traditional middle
class--valued most highly the traditional role of women in a
segregated society. Accordingly, laws were enacted to restrict the
role of women in public life; these laws affected primarily women
of the secularized middle and upper classes. Hejab, or
properly modest attire for women, became a major issue. Although it
was not mandated that women who had never worn a chador
would have to wear this garment, it was required that whenever
women appeared in public they had to have their hair and skin
covered, except for the face and hands. The law has been
controversial among secularized women, although for the majority of
women, who had worn the chador even before the Revolution,
the law probably has had only negligible impact.
Esfahan women attend a literacy class concerned with home economics
Courtesy United Nations
Data as of December 1987
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