Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-jbqgn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-15T11:47:02.105Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

A Feminist Generation in Iran?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 January 2022

Charles Kurzman
Charles Kurzman*
Affiliation:
Department of Sociology, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Numerous observers have noted that a feminist generation of educated young women appears to be emerging in Iran, despite the anti-feminist discourse of the Iranian government. Evidence from three surveys conducted in 2000–2003 confirms and complicates these observations. Educated young women are significantly more likely to espouse feminist attitudes of various sorts than other Iranians, including educated young men. In addition, educated young women are significantly more likely to work outside the home, marry later, give birth later, have fewer children, and have more egalitarian marriages than other Iranian women. However, surprising proportions of older Iranians also espouse feminist attitudes, and a majority of respondents in one nationally representative sample of urban Iranians identify themselves as proponents of women's rights.

Type
Articles
Information
Iranian Studies , Volume 41 , Issue 3 , June 2008 , pp. 297 - 321
Copyright
Copyright © The International Society for Iranian Studies 2008

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

I am very grateful to the Carolina Population Center and the Mellon Foundation for funding this research; to Mohammad Hassan Khoshnevis and other officials at the Cultural Research Bureau for conducting the Iranian Family Attitudes Survey; to Farahnaz Amirkhani and Amanda Elam for research assistance; to Arang Keshavarzian, Marie Ladier-Foulani, Mansour Moaddel, and Farzaneh Roudi-Fahimi for sharing their expertise and data with me; to Kraig Beyerlein, Ted Mouw, and Cathy Zimmer for much-needed statistical assistance; and to Kian Tajbakhsh for seeing the whole project through.

References

1 Blossfeld, Hans-Peter, ed., The New Role of Women (Boulder, 1995)Google Scholar; Saardchom, Narumon and Lemaire, Jean, “Causes of Increasing Ages at Marriage: An International Regression Study,” Marriage and Family Review 37 (2005): 73–97CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

2 Fussell, Elizabeth and Palloni, Alberto, “Persistent Marriage Regimes in Changing Times,” Journal of Marriage and Family 66 (2004): 1201–1213CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

3 On education policy, for example, see Mehran, Golnar, “The Paradox of Tradition and Modernity in Female Education in the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Comparative Education Review 47 (2003): 269–286CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

4 World Bank, World Development Indicators (Washington DC, 2007)Google Scholar.

5 Statistical Center of Iran, Iran Statistical Yearbook 1382 (2003–2004) (Tehran, 2004)Google Scholar; Golnar Mehran, “Gender and Education in Iran: A Case Study Prepared for UNESCO,” unpublished paper, 2005.

6 Tohidi, Nayereh, “The Global-Local Intersection of Feminism in Muslim Societies: The Cases of Iran and Azerbaijan,” Social Research 69 (2002): 851–887Google Scholar.

7 Tahir, Muhammad, Illegal Dating: A Journey into the Private Life of Iran (Np, 2005), 36Google Scholar; Abdo, Geneive and Lyons, Jonathan, Answering Only to God: Faith and Freedom in Twenty-First-Century Iran (New York, 2003), 268Google Scholar; Paksima Mojavezi, “Dokhtaran-e kar dar sarab-e zendegi: Cherayi-ye bala-raftan-e senn-e ezdevaj-e dokhtaran-e tahsil-kardeh va shaghel,” Entekhab, 18 October 2000.

8 Kian-Thiébault, Azadeh, Les femmes iraniennes entre islam, état et famille (Paris, 2002), 176Google Scholar; Poya, Maryam, Women, Work, and Islamism: Ideology and Resistance in Iran (London, 1999), 149–150Google Scholar; Homa Hoodfar, “Volunteer Health Workers in Iran as Social Activists,” Women Living Under Muslim Laws, Occasional Paper No. 10, 1998, 18; Shahidian, Hammed, Women in Iran: Gender Politics in the Islamic Republic (Westport, 2002), 1Google Scholar; Shavarini, Mitra K., “Wearing the Veil to College: The Paradox of Higher Education in the Lives of Iranian Women,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 28 (2006): 202Google Scholar.

9 Brooks, Geraldine, Nine Parts of Desire: The Hidden World of Islamic Women (New York, 1996), 59–61Google Scholar.

10 Moghadam, Valentine M., “Revolution, Religion, and Gender Politics: Iran and Afghanistan Compared,” Journal of Women's History 10 (1999): 172–195CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

11 Sciolino, Elaine, Persian Mirrors: The Elusive Face of Iran (New York, 2000), 120Google Scholar.

12 Fadavi, Parvin, “The Bitter Life of Shirin,” in A Feast in the Mirror: Stories by Contemporary Iranian Women, eds. Mehdi Khorrami, Mohammad and Vatanabadi, Shouleh (Boulder, 2000), 225–226Google Scholar.

13 Karimi-Hakkak, Ahmad, “Negahi bar movafaqtarin roman-e irani dar daheh-ye gozashteh,” Iran-nameh 15 (1997): 447–470Google Scholar; Shahidian, Hammed, Women in Iran: Emerging Voices in the Women's Movement (Westport, 2002), 118Google Scholar.

14 Mir-Abedini, Hasan, “Dastan-nevisi-ye zanan: Rah'ha-ye rafteh va dast-avard'ha,” Zanan 115 (2004): 60–66Google Scholar; Talattof, Kamran, “Iranian Women's Literature,” International Journal of Middle East Studies 29 (1997): 543–552CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 Dabashi, Hamid, Close Up: Iranian Cinema, Past, Present and Future (London, 2001), 223–243, 262–276Google Scholar; Fischer, Michael M. J., Mute Dreams, Blind Owls, and Dispersed Knowledges: Persian Poesis in the Transnational Circuitry (Durham, 2004), 307–314Google Scholar; Habibian, Maryam, “Under Wrap or the Stage: Women in the Performing Arts in the Post-Revolutionary Iran,” Cahiers d’études sur la méditerranée orientale et le monde turco-iranien 28 (1999): 295–311Google Scholar; Lahiji, Shahla, “Chaste Dolls and Unchaste Dolls: Women in Iranian Cinema since 1979,” in The New Iranian Cinema, ed.Tapper, Richard (London, 2002), 224–225Google Scholar; Naghibi, Nima, Rethinking Global Sisterhood: Western Feminism and Iran (Minneapolis, 2007), 108–139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

16 Alavi, Nasrin, We Are Iran (Brooklyn, 2005), 186–188Google ScholarPubMed.

17 Milani, Farzaneh, Veils and Words: The Emerging Voices of Iranian Women Writers (Syracuse, 1992), 165Google Scholar.

18 Afary, Janet, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–1911 (New York, 1996), 177– 208Google Scholar; Michael Amin, Camron, The Making of the Modern Iranian Woman (Gainesville, 2002)Google Scholar; Hoodfar, Homa, The Women's Movement in Iran (Grabels, 1999)Google Scholar; Paidar, Parvin, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran (Cambridge, 1995)Google Scholar; Sanasarian, Eliz, The Women's Rights Movement in Iran (New York, 1982)Google Scholar; Sedghi, Hamideh, Women and Politics in Iran (Cambridge, 2007)CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

19 Hillmann, Michael C., A Lonely Woman: Forugh Farrokhzad and Her Poetry (Washington DC, 1987), 14Google Scholar; Milani, Veils and Words, 134; Farrokhzad, Forugh, “The Ring,” trans. Kessler, Jascha with Banani, Amin, in Bride of Acacias (Delmar, 1982), 126Google Scholar.

20 Shahidian, Women in Iran: Emerging Voices, 126.

21 Esfandiari, Haleh, Reconstructed Lives: Women and Iran's Islamic Revolution (Baltimore, 1997), 175Google Scholar; see also Bird, Christiane, Neither East Nor West: One Woman's Journey Through the Islamic Republic of Iran (New York, 2001), 173Google Scholar.

22 Sciolino, Persian Mirrors, 95.

23 Keddie, Nikki R., Modern Iran: Roots and Results of Revolution (New Haven, 2003), 297Google Scholar; Kian-Thiébault, Azadeh, “From Motherhood to Equal Rights Advocates: The Weakening of the Patriarchal Order,” Iranian Studies 38 (2005): 45–66CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Akbar Mahdi, Ali, “Iranian Women: Between Islamicization and Globalization,” in Iran Encountering Globalization, ed. Mohammadi, Ali (London, 2003), 59–69Google Scholar; Torab, Azam, “The Politicization of Women's Religious Circles in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” in Women, Religion, and Culture in Iran, eds. Ansari, Sarah and Martin, Vanessa (London, 2002), 143–168Google Scholar.

24 Sciolino, Persian Mirrors, 116.

25 Ahmadi-Khorassani, Nouchine, “Les chemins du féminisme,” in Jeunesse d'Iran, ed. Minoui, Delphine (Paris, 2001), 76Google Scholar.

26 Shaditalab, Jaleh, “Zanan-e irani: Entezarat-e erteqa'-yafteh,” Pezhuhesh dar javame'-e farsi-zaban/Studies on Persianate Societies 1 (2003): 86–128Google Scholar; Shaditalab, Jaleh, “Iranian Women: Rising Expectations,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14 (2005): 35–55Google Scholar.

27 Khosrokhavar, Farhad, “Le mouvement des femmes en Iran,” Cahiers du genre 33 (2002): 139CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

28 ‘Abdi, ‘Abbas and Gudarzi, Mohsen, Tahavolat-e farhangi dar iran (Tehran, 1999), 197Google Scholar; Jensiyyat va negaresh-e ejtema'i (Tehran, c. 2004), 15; Mohseni, Manuchehr, Barresi-ye negaresh'ha va raftar'ha-ye ejtema'i-farhangi dar iran (Tehran, 1997), 257Google Scholar.

29 ‘Abdi and Gudarzi, Tahavolat-e farhangi, 204.

30 Modiriyat, Sazman-e va Barnameh-Rizi, , Sath-e refah va mahrumiyat-e nesbi-ye ostan'ha (Tehran, 1997)Google Scholar. The selected provinces were (1) Tehran, (2) Isfahan, and (3) Sistan/Baluchistan, representing clusters of a single province each; (4) Hormozgan, representing a cluster of Ardabil, Bushehr, Hormozgan, Ilam, Kermanshah, Kohgeluyeh, Kordestan, Lorestan, West Azarbaijan, and Zanjan; and (5) East Azarbaijan, representing a cluster of Chaharmahalan, Fars, Gilan, Golestan, Hamedan, Kerman, Khorasan, Khuzestan, Markazi, Mazandarn, Qom, Qazvin, Semnan, West Azarbaijan, and Yazd. I thank Kian Tajbakhsh for performing this analysis.

31 Moaddel, Mansoor and Azadarmaki, Taqhi, “The Worldviews of Islamic Publics: The Cases of Egypt, Iran, and Jordan,” Comparative Sociology 1 (2002): 299–319Google Scholar.

32 See Ladier-Fouladi, Marie, “Nouvelle identité des femmes iraniennes,” Espace, populations, sociétés, 2004 (2004): 45–58CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Markaz-e Amar-e Iran, Amargiri az vizhegi'ha-ye ejtema'i-eqtesadi-ye khanevar (Tehran, 2003)Google Scholar.

33 Iglitzin, Lynne B., “The Patriarchal Heritage,” in Women in the World, eds. Iglitzin, Lynne B. and Ross, Ruth (Santa Barbara, 1976), 15Google Scholar; Inglehart, Ronald and Norris, Pippa, Rising Tide: Gender Equality and Cultural Change Around the World (Cambridge, 2003), 32CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Henley, Nancy M., Meng, Karen, O'Brien, Delores, McCarthy, William J., and Sockloskie, Robert J., “Developing a Scale to Measure the Diversity of Feminist Attitudes,” Psychology of Women Quarterly 22 (1998): 317–348CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

34 On the use of the term “feminist” in Iran, see Fazaeli, Roja, “Contemporary Iranian Feminism: Identity, Rights and Interpretations,” Muslim World Journal of Human Rights 4 (2007): issue 1, article 8CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Rostami Povey, Elaheh, “Feminist Contestations of Institutional Domains in Iran,” Feminist Review 69 (2001): 62–65Google Scholar.

35 Young educated women are relatively rare in the SECSIH rural clusters: only 32 in total, or 1 percent of the valid responses in the sample, compared with 164 (4 percent) in the SECSIH urban clusters, 246 (9 percent) in the IFAS urban sample, and 213 (9 percent) in the WVS sample.

36 Another survey in Iran conducted in mid-2006 confirms this finding: 61 percent of 340 female respondents said they considered it important to increase rights for women, as did 53 percent of 470 male respondents. Zogby International, “Poll of Iran, May–June 2006,” Reader's Digest [website], 2006, 17.

37 For example, United Nations, The World's Women, 2000 (New York, 2000)Google Scholar.

38 World Bank, World Development Indicators; Statistical Center of Iran, Iran Statistical Yearbook 1382; Alaedini, Pooya and Reza Razavi, Mohamad, “Women's Participation and Employment in Iran,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14 (2005): 57–73Google Scholar; Bahramitash, Roksana, “Market Fundamentalism Versus Religious Fundamentalism: Women's Employment in Iran,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 13 (2004): 33–46Google Scholar.

39 Ladier-Fouladi, Marie, Population et politique en Iran (Paris, 2003)Google Scholar.

40 Jalal Abbasi, Mohammad, Mehryar, Amir, Jones, Gavin, and McDonald, Peter, “Revolution, War and Modernization: Population Policy and Fertility Change in Iran,” Journal of Population Research 19 (2002): 33Google Scholar; see also Afshar, Haleh, Islam and Feminisms: An Iranian Case-Study (Houndsmills, 1998), 148CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Ladier-Fouladi, Population et politique, 47.

41 Ladier-Fouladi, Population et politique en Iran, 46; United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), Women in the Islamic Republic of Iran (New York, 1998), 14Google Scholar.

42 Mojavezi, , “Dokhtaran-e kar”; Moaveni, Azadeh, Lipstick Jihad: A Memoir of Growing up Iranian in America and American in Iran (New York, 2005), 187Google Scholar.

43 Claire Moruzzi, Norma and Sadeghi, Fatemeh, “Out of the Frying Pan, into the Fire: Young Iranian Women Today,” Middle East Report 241 (2006): 26–27Google Scholar. For a contrasting view of young women's increasingly sexualized appearance and behavior, see Mahdavi, Pardis, “Passionate Uprisings: Young People, Sexuality and Politics in Post-Revolutionary Iran,” Culture, Health & Sexuality 9 (2007): 445–457CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

44 These findings are confirmed by hazard models in which the cross-sectional data from IFAS was rearranged as a pseudo-longitudinal dataset, with each record representing one respondent during one year—see the similar method used by Raymo, James M., “Educational Attainment and the Transition to First Marriage among Japanese Women,” Demography 40 (2003): 83–103CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed. Each respondent entered the dataset at age nine (the legal minimum age of marriage for much of the post-revolutionary period in Iran) and left the dataset the year after marrying. New variables were constructed for time-varying characteristics such as age, years of education (beginning with one year of education at age six), and the dependent variable: marital status (0 = not married in a given year, 1 = got married in a given year).

45 World Bank, World Development Indicators.

46 Mirzaie, Mohammad, “Swings in Fertility Limitation in Iran,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14 (2005): 25–33Google Scholar; Paydarfar, Ali A., “Effects of Multi-Family Housing on Marital Fertility in Iran,” Social Biology 42(3–4) (1995): 214–225CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed.

47 Robert Fisk, “UN Population Conference: Iran Surprises the West with Liberal Line on Birth Control,” The Independent, 14 September 1994.

48 Adelkhah, Fariba, Being Modern in Iran (New York, 2000), 171Google Scholar; Kian-Thiébault, Les femmes iraniennes, 189–217; Kian-Thiébault, “From Motherhood to Equal Rights Advocates,” 61–64.

49 Abbasi-Shavazi, Mohammad Jalal, “Effects of Marital Fertility and Nuptiality on Fertility Transition in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 1976–1996,” Working Papers in Demography No. 84, Australian National University, 2000, 29Google Scholar; Hakimian, Hassan, “From Demographic Transition to Fertility Boom and Bust: Iran in the 1980s and 1990s,” Development and Change 37 (2006): 589–590CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

50 Keddie, Nikki R., “Iranian Women's Status and Struggles Since 1979,” Journal of International Affairs 60 (2007): 17–33Google Scholar; Mosaffa, Nasrin, Mosharakat-e siyasi-ye zanan dar iran (Tehran, 1996)Google Scholar; Paidar, Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran; Shahidian, Women in Iran: Gender Politics; Shahidian, Women in Iran: Emerging Voices.

51 Mohseni-Tabrizi, Alireza, “Patterns of Student Adjustment to the Contemporary Political and Social Scene in Iran,” Critique: Critical Middle Eastern Studies 14 (2005): 83Google Scholar.

52 Gheytanchi, Elham, “Civil Society in Iran: Politics of Motherhood and the Public Sphere,” International Sociology 16 (2001): 557–576CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Khosrokhavar, , “Le mouvement des femmes”; Mir-Hosseini, Ziba, Islam and Gender: The Religious Debate in Contemporary Iran (Princeton, 1999)Google Scholar; Shahidian, Women in Iran: Emerging Voices.

53 Torab, “The Politicization of Women's Religious Circles”; Hoodfar, “Volunteer Health Workers.”

54 The Economist, 16 October 2003.

55 Tohidi, Nayereh, “International Connections of the Iranian Women's Movement,” in Iran and the Surrounding World, eds. Keddie, Nikki R. and Matthee, Rudi (Seattle, 2002), 225–226Google Scholar; Mahsa Shekarloo, “Iranian Women Take on the Constitution,” Middle East Report Online, 21 July 2005.

56 See the movement's website, “Taqyir bara-ye barabari,” http://www.we-change.org.