by Mahin Hassibi
The repression of women is the only visible “accomplishment” of the fundamentalist regime.
Sixteen years ago, the Iranian revolution unleashed a puritanical impulse in Iran—fueled by popular indignation in the face of official corruption, excessive consumerism, and the imported ideas and values of other cultures. Ayatollah Khomeini offered an idealized blueprint of a more familiar Islamic community as a replacement for the long-despised system of the Shah and as the remedy for all the socio-political ills of the nation. This vision had an overwhelming appeal for the majority of uneducated Iranians, and was also embraced by a significant portion of Iranian intellectuals.
From the start, however, efforts to bring about a Utopian society were sabotaged by the pragmatic men who began to occupy governmental positions and by the political opposition that hoped to inherit the regime. The politicians began to modify, ignore, and change the decrees issued by Khomeini, with a single exception: Khomeini s pronouncements restricting women’s activities and appearance were zealously and systematically carried out. Professional and executive women were forced to retire. Women judges and lawyers lost their jobs. Teachers, health care workers, and secretaries were forced to adopt the Islamic uniform, which allowed only their faces and hands to be uncovered. The legal age for female consent to marriage was reduced from 13 to nine years old.
The system of sexual apartheid, which characterizes today’s Iran, was established with unusual speed and unaccustomed efficiency. Enforcement was first carried out by random assault and harassment by men on the street, and then by the terrorizing tactics of the Morality Squad, bands of armed young men and women with the power to check marriage licenses of mixed gender couples on the street, and detain or arrest women not in complete Islamic garb.
As the male-centered ideology of the Khomeini regime emerged, the majority of Iranian men—ifnot openly applauding—did not raise any objections or experience any conceptual dissonance. The ease with which the systematic suppression was carried out was in part due to the pressure exerted on Iranian women by male members of their families. Women were told to comply with the new directives in order to spare their husbands, brothers, and fathers the humiliation and anxiety of having a female relative in the custody of the young men from the Morality Squad. Iranian men can not conceive of defiance by women relatives, knowing that tradition allows them to extract obedience regardless of the cost. Conversely, women’s experiences had shown that most men will not hesitate to use coercive violence against them.
Male power—and the primacy of the satisfaction of male sexuality as the organizing principle of society—has long historical roots in Iran. By all accounts the practice of isolating and segregating women through veiling predates Islamic conquest of Iran. In fact, the ban on female infanticide imposed by Islam on the Arabic peninsula is often cited by those who view the religion as the protector of women.
While the Shah’s regime (1941 to 1979) allowed women more freedom to dress, play a role in the economy, and obtain higher education and positions, patriarchal views remained intact. “What do these feminists want?” the Shah asked Oriana Fallaci in a 1976 interview. “You say equality. Oh! I don’t want to seem rude, but you are equal in the eyes of the law but not, excuse my saying so, in ability.”
Khomeini derisively pointed out that, in the Fallaci interview, the Shah had talked about women playing a “decorative” role in society. For less privileged males whose female relatives had to, by necessity, fulfill many more economically urgent roles, the Shah’s view of women’s role was elitist and insulting.
Male Sexual Needs: The Cornerstone Khomeini believed women were equal to men in the eyes of God, but this belief had no bearing on the relationship between men and women. Differences in “natural propensities” (the assumed stronger sexual desires and needs of men) point to God’s informed consent to the subjugation of women in exchange for men’s protection of them and their brood.
The current Supreme Leader of Iran, Ayatollah Seyed Mohammad Khamenei, explains in a book called Women’s Rights: Comparing the Human and Civil Rights of Women in Islam and the Declaration of Human Rights that “a man is captive to his sexual desire,” while a woman is “interested in affection” and that “a man wants to own a woman,” while a woman “longs to be owned.” These alleged differences have been used frequently and authoritatively by men in many Islamic cultures to explain the apparent contradiction of their government’s willingness to sign international human rights declarations without feeling any obligation to extend these rights to women in their country.
Other articles of popular faith given the cloak of profound wisdom by the clerics declare that “women are interested in adjustment and compromise, flee from war and danger, love keeping their house for their husband and adore their children,” as opposed to men who “by nature are more aggressive, adventurous, power hungry and inclined to rule.”
The glorification of motherhood is added to assure the reader that the role of women is fully appreciated. These dogmatic generalizations are never examined or debated, their experiential source never clarified, and their meanings remain intentionally elusive.
For the theoreticians of the gender ideology, the reminder that hundreds of young Iranian women fought to the death in the guerrilla struggle which toppled the Shah and the many examples of the intellectual and professional achievements of educated Iranian women do not change the picture. A multiplicity of exceptions does not disprove the rule that women enjoy or must learn to enjoy their position as caretakers and homemakers for men and feel fulfilled when their social roles correspond to what nature intended.
The fundamentalist’s ability to write the social rules according to the convenience of men have resulted in some startling inconsistencies. For example: nine-year-old girls are said to be legally competent to enter into a marriage contract, while ‘women of any age are viewed as “too impulsive” or “too emotional” to be given the right to initiate a divorce proceeding. Any objection to this arrangement is brushed aside by the oft-repeated argument that a woman who is not wanted by her husband would not or should not desire to continue with the marriage, but a man’s sexual needs are met even when the woman is an unwilling partner.
The majority of men in urban communities of Iran lack the luxury of having a functioning establishment to which to bring a child bride. But the law’s practical effect is to define the woman’s contribution to the marriage as her female body; the loss of interest by the man in the female body is adequate cause for divorce at a man’s total discretion. It also justifies the notion that provisional marriages (time limited sexual contracts) between a single woman and any man, single or married, without any subsequent male responsibility toward the woman, are acceptable because they provide a religiously sanctioned outlet for male sexual appetite.
Today, women in Iran are denied the right and ability to describe their own realities, and there is an absence of women’s voices from social discourse of all kinds. All issues regarding interactions between men and women—including sexuality—are referred to male clerics. These men, in turn, consult the judgments and opinions given by long-gone clerics about similar subjects. Consequently, one encounters dogmas and pronouncements about the age of women’s menstruation and the intensity of female sexual desire made with great authority by the grand clerics and without any pretense that even one woman has ever been consulted. For example, the earlier appearance of puberty in female children is used as justification tor treating nine-year-old girls as legally responsible adults, despite the fact that the overwhelming majority of nine-yearold girls are physiologically pre-pubertal. The single characteristic of all this dogma appears to be to guarantee full expression and satisfaction of men’s sexual desires, without any need to ask how the situation affects women.
Calculating “Women’s Worth” Ayatollah Khamenei describes women as “impressionable, emotional, and easily swayed by factors other than strict rules of logic.” It thus follows that women’s observations and perceptions about all aspects of the world are devalued.
Women do not become judges or serve on a jury regardless of their training. Women’s testimonies in court are accepted only as corroboration of a male witness’ account. When the required number of men have not witnessed a crime, testimony of two women is counted as equivalent of one male witness.
Boys are treated as juveniles until 15 years of age. But a female child of nine is tried and punished as an adult, an outgrowth of the adult status necessary to make a nine-year-old girl’s agreement in marriage legally binding.
Crimes against men are twice as costly as those against women, in every case of injury to a fetus, child, or adult resulting in punitive damages.
Motherhood, the much glorified and universally acknowledged contribution of women to society, does not protect them against misogyny. In cases of divorce, which is mostly male initiated, the law gives the man custody of every boy above two and every girl above seven years of age. Even visitation rights can be denied a woman at the discretion of the man.
Economically, women retain sole ownership of their property even after the marriage. However, husbands can deny their wives permission to work and can demand that, in return for a divorce, their wives forego any claim to alimony. The underdeveloped economic system and lack of publicvehicles for investment in Iran have made it impossible for women to have any independent way of investing their money and creating wealth on their own. Furthermore, the laws on inheritance are strongly biased against women, since they receive only half of what their brothers inherit from their parents. Women are thus deprived of the political influence associated with economic power. The high cost of living and the necessity for two wage earners in the family have required women’s continued participation in the labor market; the loss of personal freedom has not lightened their social or familial burdens.
Emotional Pressures Build While an elaborate plan for the obliteration of women from public life has not been articulated by the government, many actions and maneuvering among contending factions have resulted in increased oppression of women. In the atmosphere of intense political rivalries among various political groups, women present the least dangerous and the most convenient target. Every threat to the ruling party and every criticism of its social or political agenda is countered by yet another show of revolutionary fervor and puritanical attacks against women. With no credible threat left from communism, and other enemies far away, control of women has become the only observable accomplishment of the Islamic Republic.
Segregation of women into separate schools, separate entrances in public institutions, separate sections of public transportation—even a “womenonly” bank—is promoted by the regime as protective custody for women. Women, afraid of sexual harassment, have welcomed the opportunity to be separated from men, even though this is acquiescing in the government’s policy of barely tolerating the presence of women in the public space.
Lack of power to actualize one’s abilities and to express one’s humanity have always caused women extreme depression and chronic anxiety. The added fear of public humiliation in the hands of the Morality Squad and the ever present insecurity regardingjobs, earnings, and interpersonal relations have plunged many Iranian women into despair. Suicide is no longer an unusual occurrence and public suicide by women has become all too frequent.
Urbanization, a chaotic economy, and the toll of the long war with Iraq has contributed to a remarkable erosion of family ties and the disappearance of the certainty that friends, neighbors, and the community will come to the rescue at moments of real need. Women today live constricted and constrained lives without the certainty that home, children, social standing, and family approval are thereby secured. This gives rise to a mixture of restless apprehension and uneasy resignation that underlies the permanent emotional states of women. In “The Drum of Midnight,” by Fereshteh Moulavi (-Pari-e-Aftabi, Nashr-eGhatreh, Tehran, 1991) the woman protagonist savors the night when her husband is not home. She calls this “the night free of submission.”
Despite tremendous obstacles, women activists have not disappeared from the Iranian scene. Historically, women in Iran have engaged in all the socio-political struggles of this century with remarkable determination. Regardless of the cause, they have never assumed or solicited support from the clerics or presumed that changes can be introduced to the male-centered orientation of the religion. Currently, except for women in the socialist-Islamic group of Mujahideen Khalq now in armed struggle against the regime, other women activists try to pursue their goals of securing their rights as secular citizens. Women legal scholars attempt to identify and advocate changes in those areas where new laws can be introduced or disclose examples of inequalities in the eyes of the law as a consciousness-raising measure. Women writers have begun to describe and define the realities of women’s lives in fiction, screenplays, and poetry. However, the high rate of illiteracy among Iranian women and the government monopoly on radio and television limits the impact of these activities. Foreign radio stations broadcasting to Iran pursue their own agenda and the voices of women must wait for the day that a Women’s International Broadcasting Company fills the void.
Mahin Hassibi, MD, is a psychiatrist, and native of Iran. She has lived and worked in the U. S.for 25 years.
A woman who has contracted a petmanent muttimje iloes not have the tight to yo out of the house without her husband’s permission: she must remain tit his disposul for the fulfillment of IIIIIJ one of his desires, an? may mil refuse herself to him except for u religiously vulii) reason. if she is totally submissive to him, the husband must provide her with fool, clothing am) lodging, whether or not he has the means to do so. a woman who refuses herself to her husband is guilty, and may not ttcmuiu) from him foot), clothing, lodging, or any Inter sexuat relations.” —Ayatollah Khomeini
The specific task o{ women in this society is to marry and beat children. They will be discouraged from entering legislative, judicial, or other cuteets which may require decision making, us women lack the intellectual ability and discerning judgment required for these careers.” —Ayatollah Muldhari
The most suitable time for a girl to get married is when she can huve her first menstrual period m het husband’s house rather than her father’s: —Ayatollah Khomeini
“Whoever marries a girt younger tliuit nine years of age must not hum’ intercourse with that girt, whether the marriage is iierniuncitt or temporary. On the other dam), the husband tan stilt eHJoy himself with foreplay even if the bribe is u baby being breustfei). forepluy means loving, caressing, rubbing, kissing and soloing. *4ny man who has intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has committed an infraction even if the girts vagina uni) rectum are not ripped. Gut if a man has intercourse with a girt nine years or older ani) he tears the tissues, combining the vagina with the rectum, he has not committed a crime ami does not have to be responsible (or the girt. &towever it is better if he takes care of the gut as long as she is dive.” —Ayatolhli Khomeini
A woman should endure any violence or torture imposed on her by her husband for she is fully at his disposal. Without his permission she may not leave her house even for a good action (such us charitable work). Otherwise her prayers and devotions will not be accepted by C/od and curses of heaven and earth will fall upon her.” —Hojalolcslam Ittuini, religious leader in Poldokhtar
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A woman who has contracted a petmanent muttimje iloes not have the tight to yo out of the house without her husband’s permission: she must remain tit his disposul for the fulfillment of any one of his desires, an? may mil refuse herself to him except for u religiously vulii) reason. if she is totally submissive to him, the husband must provide her with fool, clothing am) lodging, whether or not he has the means to do so. a woman who refuses herself to her husband is guilty, and may not demand from him food), clothing, lodging, or any Inter sexuat relations.” —Ayatollah Khomeini
The specific task o{ women in this society is to marry and beat children. They will be discouraged from entering legislative, judicial, or other cuteets which may require decision making, us women lack the intellectual ability and discerning judgment required for these careers.” —Ayatollah Muldhari
The most suitable time for a girl to get married is when she can have her first menstrual period at her husband’s house rather than her father’s: —Ayatollah Khomeini
“Whoever marries a girl younger tliuit nine years of age must not hum’ intercourse with that girl, whether the marriage is iierniuncitt or temporary. On the other hand, the husband tan still eHJoy himself with foreplay even if the bribe is u baby being breastfed). foreplay means loving, caressing, rubbing, kissing and soloing. *4ny man who has intercourse with a girl younger than nine years of age has committed an infraction even if the girts vagina and) rectum are not ripped. Gut if a man has intercourse with a girl nine years or older and) he tears the tissues, combining the vagina with the rectum, he has not committed a crime and does not have to be responsible (or the girl. however it is better if he takes care of the gut as long as she is aive.” —Ayatolhli Khomeini
“A woman should endure any violence or torture imposed on her by her husband for she is fully at his disposal. Without his permission she may not leave her house even for a good action (such us charitable work). Otherwise her prayers and devotions will not be accepted by C/od and curses of heaven and earth will fall upon her.” —Hojalolcslam Ittuini, religious leader in Poldokhtar