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International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society [ijps] ph192-ijps-464088 March 21, 2002 18:47 Style file version Nov. 19th, 1999
International Journal of Politics, Culture and Society, Vol. 16, No. 4, Summer 2003 (°
C 2003)
551
0891-4486/03/0600-0551/0 °
C 2003 Human Sciences Press, Inc.
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552 Bahramitash
This second part of the paper focuses on Iran, a country that overthrew a
Western-style modernizer dictator and replaced him with an Islamist regime.
What makes Iran an important case is that it is located in the Middle East, at
the core of the Muslim world. This region has different political, economic,
and social dynamics from Southeast Asia.
The Middle East and North Africa have exceptionally low female em-
ployment, which lends support to the stereotypical views. In this region, the
official rate varies from 13 percent in the United Arab Emirates and Oman
to 35 percent in Morocco. To provide the reader with a general picture at
the world level, in industrialized countries the employment rate for women
is around 40 to 46 percent; among the less-industrialized countries, the rates
in Southeast Asia are around 30 percent, in Sub-Saharan Africa between 40
and 50 percent, and in Latin America (with some exceptions, such as Peru)
above 30 percent (World Development Indicator 2001).
Muslim traditions can and, in many cases, do have a negative impact
if they are translated into law and social practice in a conservative way.
But that is true of virtually all religions. The difficulty is that such explana-
tions can be simplistic, shifting the main focus of analysis from the material
to the ideological plane while reinforcing popular (usually very negative)
stereotypes.
Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 553
554 Bahramitash
in Iran. Afghanistan is different from the other two because of its prohibition
of all public engagement by females. The case of Afghanistan remains very
enigmatic even to the religious leaders in that bastion of Islamisation, Iran.
While westerners denounce this latest manifestation of retrograde Islamic
fundamentalism, Iranian Ulamas, along with Ulamas from other parts of
the Muslim world, are constantly urging the Taliban regime to comply with
“Islam.” Many Ulamas point to the fact that the right to education, for ex-
ample, is a religious duty spelled out in the Qur’an for men and women alike
(Wadud 1999). Therefore it must not be denied to women in Afghanistan.
It is difficult to resist the conclusion that Afghanistan is an aberra-
tion, precisely because its history and society are in many ways unique:
Afghanistan is a tightly knit, highly conservative, and, in many areas, tribal
society, in which massive poverty and poor communications with the outside
world have been the historical norm. Furthermore, the country is undergo-
ing a violent backlash against the former Communist regime’s attempt to
enforce land redistribution and female emancipation. It currently faces not
simply the aftermath of two decades of war, still ongoing, but also a massive
drought. It is therefore highly questionable to isolate “Islam” alone as a
factor determining the position of women in law and practice.
In short, the position of women in the Muslim world must be looked
at as a continuum. On one end there are extremely conservative countries
that embrace Shari’a law in its most reactionary forms regarding the role of
women. At the other, there are those countries where either Shari’a laws
are greatly modified or are marginal to the legal system. Afghanistan is at
the former end, Tunisia, Morocco, and Turkey are at the other. In between
are places like Egypt , where the legal system has become the battleground
between traditional Islamists and progressive secularists (Badran 1995).
Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 555
The first, to create a comparative basis, is the situation that prevailed during
the systematic modernization program introduced by the Shah in the early
1960s. The second (1979–1989) covers the period when the revolutionary
regime consolidated itself while at the same time engaging in a massive pro-
gram to mobilize national resources for war. The third period (1990 to the
present) saw a partial retreat of the state from the economy and a limited
opening to the principles of economic liberalization.
As indicated in Figure One, from 1960 until the revolution, there was
a general increase in female employment. This period is marked by the
Shah’s modernization, one of the best-known facets of which was the White
Revolution in 1962.3 One important outcome of the Shah’s modernization
was an increase in female employment, particularly in the urban areas.
Interpreting data on employment of women in the rural economy dur-
ing this period is a major problem. Many women worked as unpaid family
556 Bahramitash
workers and men were regarded as the head of the household. Therefore,
what women produced became part of male output, and thus outside of enu-
meration. Furthermore, the rural sector includes not just women engaged in
planting, weeding, picking, and harvesting of products such as tea and cotton,
but also in endeavors such as carpet weaving. In fact, it is still a woman’s job to
spin and dye, then weave the yarn. Cloth or carpets were and still are mainly
handed over to male members of the family for trade (Beck 1978:358–60).
Some 70 percent of all cloth weaving was done by women and 72 percent of
carpet weaving was done in the rural sector, 90 percent of that by women
(Halliday 1979:191–93). Furthermore, although it was the Shah’s policy to
settle nomads, among those who remained nomadic and pastoralist, things
such as milk processing, preparation of animal
derivatives, caring for animals, fuel gathering, baking bread, and weaving,
spinning, and dyeing yarn remained women’s jobs without being counted in
the data (Poya 1999:45–47).
These trends were reinforced by developments in the petroleum sector.
At the start of the White Revolution, Iran was a fairly small producer of
oil. But by 1970, it was the second largest producer in the OPEC group,
its finances critically dependent on oil revenues. The rapidly rising rev-
enues from oil were ploughed into capital-intensive industries (Moghadam
1995:176). As in other places in the world, in Iran capital-intensive industries
draw largely on male labour. Therefore, to the extent industrialization did
occur, it tended to exacerbate the gender gap.
In the service sector, however, female employment grew quickly, much
faster than in any other sector of the economy. With the expansion of edu-
cation, many women entered fields like teaching, nursing, and clerical work.
In fact, 43 percent of teachers during this period were women, along with
44 percent of clerical workers and 11 percent of medical and paramedical
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Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 557
personnel (Halliday 1979:191–93). The fact that such jobs were paid (unlike
much rural labour) explains, in part, the steady increase in female labour
indicated in during this period.
Nevertheless, women constituted a huge part of those who joined the
Islamicists in rallying against the Shah. The reasons for this apparent paradox
go straight to the heart of the problem of the Shah’s modernization, which
ultimately provided a fertile ground for the rise of political Islam (Bayat
2000).
There were many reasons for the rising support for the Ayatolla
Khomeini. Rural poverty sent peasants to urban areas. Industrialization was
not growing fast enough to provide employment or prosperity for the urban
poor (Momeni 1977). The new urban poor were both disappointed in their
hopes for affluence and culturally alienated by the growing consumer econ-
omy in which they could not share.4 Shantytowns grew on the margins of
cities such as Tehran and the state was unable to provide basic services such as
clean water and electricity. While education and health care had improved in
Iran, much as they had in Indonesia under Suharto and the Philippines under
Marcos, increasing income disparity and a rising population of urban poor
alongside the growing ability of the upper class to mimic Western lifestyles
brought major discontent among the masses. Furthermore, the much-touted
land reform of the White Revolution had left many farmers impoverished
and driven up Iran’s dependence on foreign imports of food.
At the same time, the Shah had become politically much more ruthless.
All political activities, from forming a political party to publishing news-
paper articles and books were subject to heavy suppression. Torture and
imprisonment of dissidents became commonplace. The Iranian secret police
(SAVAK, trained by the Israeli Mossad) along with an army trained by
Americans were the backbone of his power (Ebtekar 2000). In addition,
the Shah created his own guard javid (“eternal army”) to safeguard his
position.
In view of the evident failure of a Westernization-modernization built
around land reform and industrialization, neither of which achieved any-
thing close to their declared objectives, there was a quest for an alternative.
At the same time among many leftist activists, the prospect of a Commu-
nist insurrection seemed increasingly remote and, of course, the Soviet in-
vasion of Afghanistan did little to increase its attractiveness. At the same
time, the Americans began a concerted if covert effort to combat the spread
of communism through the creation of a Green Belt, namely an Islami-
cist movement on the frontiers of the Soviet Union. Concurrently, inspired
by the Algerian anticolonial struggle, thinkers like Ali Shariati preached a
revolutionary interpretation of Islam in Iran. Shariati stressed the role of
Islam as a religion of social justice (Sullivan 2000: 239). This new
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558 Bahramitash
With increased political tension, Khomeini finally was able to unify the
opposition against the Shah and finally force him to leave the country. With
the Shah’s departure, his provisional government soon collapsed, paving the
way for the 1979 Islamic Republic to come into power with overwhelm-
ing support shown through popular vote. However, after the new Islamicist
regime consolidated its power, it moved away from its original position of
attempting to unite all opposition forces and became the exclusive preserve
of those who followed the Ayatollah’s line. This shift had serious implica-
tions for the position of women. The new Islamic state gradually adopted an
increasingly conservative religious interpretation of the role of women, and
excluded them from the social and political mainstream, even though the
regime had been brought into power with women’s massive support. There-
fore the new regime soon marginalized all women’s groups except those
that adhered strictly to religious codes spelled out by Ayatollah Khomeini
(Paidar 1995).
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Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 559
560 Bahramitash
The question is, then, why, in spite of state policies that defined women’s
major role as mothers and homemakers and targeted upper- and middle-
income women for discriminatory treatment, was there a steady increase in
the percentage of formal employment among women? The answer lies in an
increase of employment for women from lower-income groups. This is not
to suggest that the state was committed to expanding opportunities for low-
income women. In the period after the revolution, state policy discouraged
women from employment outside the home, regardless of their social class.
However, with the invasion by Iraq in 1981 and the simultaneous imposition
of economic sanctions against Iran, two important processes occurred. As
the economy went into recession and rising inflation eroded people’s real
income, those at the bottom of the social ladder suffered the most (Behdad
1995, Moghadam 1995). The drop in disposable income made it progressively
more difficult for many families to remain reliant on a single income-earner.
Increasingly, many women had to seek employment for their families’ sur-
vival. In effect, poverty, war, and economic sanctions led to increased female
labour-force participation, in spite of the efforts and ideology of the regime.
War and the reduction of state revenue due to falling oil prices also
forced the Islamicist regime to relay on women’s volunteer work. Khomeini
himself called for religious women to become involved in supporting the
revolution’s goal and to extend their support in order to subsidize two major
state concerns, the military and the welfare state. Indeed, the latter was the
very reason for which revolution had come about—the Islamicists appealed
to the Iranian masses because of the increasing income disparity and growing
numbers of absolute poor during the Shah’s regime. Hence, once again,
the Ayatollah appealed to women, this time to make the dreams of the
revolution come true and deal with the impact of an imposed war (Poya
1995:233). Over and over, Khomeini called for millions of Iranians, including
women, to join the Islamic Jihad (Holy Struggle) against poverty and social
deprivation: he named their collective effort “the army of 20 million” (artesh
bist milliony). In response, many women, a great number from low-income
and traditional families, engaged in various activities in order to help the
state. They participated en masse in social welfare programs, particularly for
the families of those who died during the revolution and the war.
Jihad helped inspire other organizations. For instance, jihad sazand-
egy (Reconstruction Struggle) and Bassije (mass mobilization effort) were
designed to address a host of issues other than poverty and welfare. Jihad
sazandegy mobilized many devoted Muslim women to help rebuild the rural
economy as part of their religious duty to build an Islamic nation. Also in the
context of the rural economy, many women got involved in activities such
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Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 561
as setting up local cooperatives to alleviate the impact of both war and eco-
nomic sanctions. Similarly Bassije Khaharan (Sister’s Moblization Effort)
brought many women together in an effort to make food and clothing for
soldiers. Many of these women were trained in basic first aid and were sent
to hospitals to deal with staff shortages.
Khomeini had also made a nationwide commitment to eradicate illit-
eracy. This brought masses of women into local mosques as volunteers to
educate illiterate women. The literacy campaign became far more successful
than that of the Shah with far fewer funds, because female teachers were
volunteers and many traditional families welcomed the campaign (Mehran
1999). Since Khomeini made literacy a religious duty for men and women
equally, few husbands could prevent their wives from going to the local
mosques for education even if they had so wished. The benefits of the suc-
cessful literacy campaign were twofold. On the one hand, the literacy rate
among women increased; on the other, many religious women working as
volunteers took an increasingly public role, particularly as the literacy cam-
paign branched into others such as military training for women. The literacy
campaign in itself provided increased skills for many women, preparing them
for different types of employment.
As important and as varied as women’s volunteer work was during this
period, it was never taken into account in official labour-force data. Such a
massive omission of the volunteer aspect of women’s work obviously helps
explain why, in the official numbers on female employment grow so slowly,
despite the massive involvement of women in the economy.
This slow growth of employment opportunities applied not just to
women. Rather, it was a more general result of state policy. During the
1980s, the new regime was heavily interventionist. Nationalization of many
private companies, especially those owned by the Shah and his support-
ers, led to serious problems with lack of proper management and trained
staff who had been forced out of their jobs by the Islamicists. In addi-
tion to the lack of competence of state officials, the same type of cor-
ruption that existed during the Shah’s rule started to reappear among
functionaries of the new regime and among cadres of the Islamicist organiza-
tions in charge of running nationalized enterprises. Furthermore, economic
sanctions against Iran disrupted imports of raw materials and caused a fall
in general productivity. For all of these reasons the economy went into a
nosedive during the 1980s and both male and female employment suffered.
The war with Iraq ended in 1988 and one year later Ayatollah Khomeini
died. These two events marked the beginning of a new era. In the early 1990s,
the old strategy of economic nationalism, import substitution, and inward-
looking economic planning gave way to a more outward-looking, open-
market economy (Salehi-Isfahani 1999). Furthermore, as the war ended,
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Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 563
564 Bahramitash
Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 565
Any growing power of political Islam is more a result that a cause of this
phenomenon; even where it assumes power, the experience of women is
neither immutable within any country nor consistent across countries.
CONCLUSION
566 Bahramitash
ENDNOTES
1. Similarly, in Occupied Palestine, Israel initially encouraged the growth of Hamas to un-
dermine the support previously given overwhelmingly to the PLO—a fact which makes
the current situation, in which Hamas has been taking the lead in the intifada, particularly
ironic.
2. This is certainly the opinion of various scholars, including Andrea Becker and Homa
Hoodfar who worked in the Shia’ slum areas around Beirut (Interviews, Montreal, 1999–
2000).
3. The White Revolution was a package of policy guidelines designed to facilitate the tran-
sition from an agrarian to an industrial/modern economy. The fundamental basis of the
package was an attempt at land reform imposed by the central government in order to head
off a possible peasant uprising. The White Revolution (also called the Shah and People’s
Revolution) was meant to give the impression of revolutionary change, while ensuring that
the government remained fully in control of the course of events.
4. As I remember vividly, during this period the slogan was, “each Iranian must have a car.”
5. For many of us—middle-class, educated, young women—Shariati and his lectures in the
Hoseynieh Ershad Mosque held a special appeal. We admired his courage as well as his
message and his knowledge. He managed to combine both the traditionalist and the mod-
ernist trends.
6. The Shah himself did not have a very high opinion of women: in an interview with Italian
journalist Oriana Fallaci, he had criticised the notion of female equality (1976). His reforms,
therefore, were not a genuine attempt to bring equality for women, but rather an effort to
westernize Iranian women.
7. In fact, for my own wedding, which was held in the Tehran Army club, it was written on the
invitation card that veiled women were not allowed to attend. As the result, some members
of my family were sent back home.
8. Interview with previous head of ILO statistical bureau, Dr. Mehran.
9. According to this law, a man who intends to divorce his wife without proving fault on her
part must first pay housework wages for the duration of marriage.
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Islamic Fundamentalism and Women’s Economic Role: The Case of Iran 567
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