This document analyzes how two contradictory authoritarian regimes in Iran - the Phalavi dynasty and the current Islamic regime - have used women and policies around them to shape national identity and enforce their differing political ideologies. Under the Western-aligned Shahs, women were pushed into the public sphere through banning of the hijab and legislation promoting secularism. However, the 1979 Islamic revolution reversed this, imposing strict gender segregation, mandatory veiling, and moving women back into the domestic sphere. Both regimes strategically deployed women's public roles and dress codes to prove their divergent visions of an "Iranian nation" and assert political authority.
This document analyzes how two contradictory authoritarian regimes in Iran - the Phalavi dynasty and the current Islamic regime - have used women and policies around them to shape national identity and enforce their differing political ideologies. Under the Western-aligned Shahs, women were pushed into the public sphere through banning of the hijab and legislation promoting secularism. However, the 1979 Islamic revolution reversed this, imposing strict gender segregation, mandatory veiling, and moving women back into the domestic sphere. Both regimes strategically deployed women's public roles and dress codes to prove their divergent visions of an "Iranian nation" and assert political authority.
This document analyzes how two contradictory authoritarian regimes in Iran - the Phalavi dynasty and the current Islamic regime - have used women and policies around them to shape national identity and enforce their differing political ideologies. Under the Western-aligned Shahs, women were pushed into the public sphere through banning of the hijab and legislation promoting secularism. However, the 1979 Islamic revolution reversed this, imposing strict gender segregation, mandatory veiling, and moving women back into the domestic sphere. Both regimes strategically deployed women's public roles and dress codes to prove their divergent visions of an "Iranian nation" and assert political authority.
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