The political landscape and fight for equal rights of women in Iran is one that demands patience, perseverance, and strength. Indeed, this is the country that issued a fatwah against Salman Rushdie on a fateful Valentine’s Day in 1989. Shortly afterward the Japanese translator of The Satanic Verses was stabbed to death. The Italian translator was knifed and the novel’s Norwegian publisher was left outside his Oslo home with three bullets in his back. In those conditions and paranoid restraints, it’s a wonder that activists and grassroots movements can exist. But they do.
Since 2006, a group of Iranian women have set out on a quest to gather one million signatures to denounce and hopefully change state sanctioned discrimination. Earlier last month, Sussan Tahmasebi, one of the leaders of the campaign was detained with two others in the mountains north of Tehran. Dozens have been arrested but the signatures continue. Their grassroots action is indicative of a larger movement throughout the Persian state. And today, Iranian youth have gone so far as to launch a sexual revolution. It is a courageous act of rebellion against a bellicose Islamic Republic which has publicly executed homosexuals.
While women suffer under discriminatory laws in matters of divorce and child custody, in Iran they are far from being marginalized. Some would argue that gender rights and issues in Iran shapes its political debate. In 2003, the Nobel Peace Prize winner and human rights activist Shirin Ebadi arrived at Tehran airport. She was greeted by 10,000 cheering people. Ebadi’s demands for human rights and democracy have become an inspiration for young Iranian women like 30 year old Shadi Sadr who is a lawyer and advocate for women’s rights.
Iran’s struggle for gender equality and issues was already in full swing in the early to late 20th century. Under the Pahlavi shahs women were given full access to education. Reza Shah Pahlavi introduced numerous progressive reforms when he came to power in 1925. He was still a dictator though and was finally overthrown. However, the debate around gender issues continued and while progress was being made, the United States orchestrated a coup to overthrow a socially progressive and elected official Mohammed Mossaedgh in 1953. Mossaedgh made the mistake of thinking that Iran’s oil should belong to Iran, not the United States and the UK. He was quickly replaced with a pro-US dictator.
And Marjane Satrapi’s Persepolis is a striking account of her own experience of growing up during the Islamic Revolution. The graphic novel, later turned into a movie, describes what it’s like for a little girl to witness the overthrow of the Shah and the arrival of a new repressive regime.
Today, Iran’s youth and women are confronting the republic’s conservative and theocratic laws. They are speaking for human rights and free speech – issues that Iran’s President Ahmadinejad is unable to silence and Mossaedgh was unable to voice. Tahmasebi’s 1 million signatures for gender equality will continue. Victory will be theirs.
