| Women’s Rights in Iran: A Hybrid of Tradition and Progress By: Eunice Kim The Stoning of Soraya M, a novel-based film released just two months ago in the U.S., is perhaps one of the most scathing exposés of women’s rights violations in post-revolutionary Iran. The film points the finger at an apparently modernized Iran for sanctioning the inhuman practice of stoning a woman accused of adultery, a ritual that Muslims, Jews and Christian traditions are guilty of consenting to for the past thousands of years. Not only in Iran, but in every other country where women’s rights are jeopardized, the pre- vention of violence against women hinges on one very essential civil right – a wife’s right to divorce. AMG interviewed Monica Ringer, author of Education, Religion, and the Discourse of Cultural Reform in Qajar Iran, who explained that Iran’s improvements when it comes to women’s civil rights are very mixed. “Women have less legal rights than they did prior to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, although more women have more access to health care, running water, electricity, and education,” Ringer said. “This complicates what we mean by rights and forces us to think of women’s lives as they are impacted by policies, rather than simply theoretical rights on paper.” The reason why so many women are victimized in their marriages is that so many of the laws protecting them are in such small print. It would not be long shot to say that in Iran, a woman’s only hope in preserving her rights lies in the Iranian civil courts. Familiarity with the nuances of the Iranian legal system is almost necessary for a woman’s survival, especially in post-Khomeini Iran where the husband still has the unquestionable right to divorce his wife without justification. For many Iranian women, the family courts are a blessing in disguise because the judicial system in Iran is a hybrid of the rules laid down by the Qur’an and Western republicanism. If a woman is not receiving any monetary support from her husband (which is a far more severe case in Iran than in America where marriage is not as necessary for economic survival), she has the option of petitioning for a divorce. Knowledge of the workings of the judicial system is necessary for a woman to obtain a divorce even if the husband is against it. Especially for women who are too poor to afford lawyers, a certain degree of savvy is required – a woman can use the civil codes and the Islamic emphasis on family values in order to obtain her goals. It may seem unfair that women in Iran have to study so much so as not to be cheated by the law and by their husbands, but it is a vast improvement from the beginning of the Revolution, when politicians such as Ayatollah Khomeini and Ayatollah Motahhari dissolved many family protection laws and decreed that if a woman divorces and remarries, she is henceforth an adulteress. In this sense, women’s rights in Iran have both progressed and regressed. Unfortunately, the post-revolutionary attempt to return to “tradition” has meant stricter laws on dress and behavior in public. It is not uncommon for a woman to be arrested for wearing a prohibited amount of makeup. But on the bright side, women who are passionate about preserving their civil liberties are on the rise, many of whom also happen to be devout Muslims. Many women, both single and married, hold meetings in their houses to study the Qur’an so that if they are ever arrested on unreasonable grounds, they can point to the Qur’an and thus preserve their rights as women or, more specifically, as Muslim women. Though it may be based on necessity, the increasing number of female intellectuals is a good sign. “There are many active women’s groups in Iran, as well as prominent intellectuals, lawyers, filmmakers,” said Ringer. Many feminist groups in Iran are often stereotyped as brainwashed, or “Europhile.” “The danger in seeking to extend aid to groups working in Iran is that they will then be accused of treason and weakened politically through association with the U.S.,” says Ringer. So although we are constantly encouraged as Americans to intervene in the civil rights affairs of other countries, in the case of Iran, change will come from within. |
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