Women in Iran have played diverse roles and contributed to various aspects of society, economy, and culture. For centuries, traditional gender norms in Iran confined women primarily to the domestic sphere, with expectations to manage the household and raise children.
During the Pahlavi era (1925–1979), social reforms introduced women's rights and advanced gender equality. Notable changes included the abolition of mandatory wearing of the hijab, granting of women's suffrage, opening universities to women, enforcement of equal pay for men and women, and the right for women to hold public office and serve in parliament. These reforms marked a gradual change and transition towards a more modern and egalitarian society.
Following the Iranian Revolution of 1979, although Articles 20 and 21 of the new Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran proclaim equal rights for men and women, many laws enacted after the revolution resulted in substantial restrictions on the rights of Iran's women. Women are required by law to wear the hijab in public and must cover their hair and bodies, except for the face and hands. Non-compliance with the fundamentalist Islamic dress code can lead to legal penalties and, in some cases, violence, including death by government authorities.
In the 21st century, international criticism of Iran's treatment of women has intensified, in light of the suppression of women's protests, arbitrary arrests, and police violence against women accused of violating dress codes. Cases of femicide, are perpetrated by family members in the name of "family honor" although illegal. The arrest, physical abuse and even murder of protestors by the state forces, has become an increasingly concerning issue for the women of Iran. Human rights activists point to systemic failures that prevent women in Iran from receiving effective legal representation.
History
Ancient Iran
Archaeological excavations at Shahr-e Sukhteh ("Burnt City"), a prehistoric settlement in the Sistan-Baluchistan province of southeastern Iran, revealed that women in the region during the 4th to 3rd millennium BC possessed high status. Of seals used for monetary purchases discovered in graves there, 90% were in possession of women,who made up over 60% of the population. The distribution of these seals – instruments of trade and government which represented economic and administrative control – revealed these women to have been a powerful group in their prehistoric society.
The early Achaemenid-era Persepolis fortification and treasury tablets refers to women in three different terms: mutu, irti and duksis. The first refers to ordinary (non-royal) women; the second to unmarried members of the royal family; and the last duksis to married women of royalty. Such differentiated terminology shows the significance of marital status and of a woman's relationship to the king. The tablets also reveal that women of the royal household traveled extensively and often personally administered their own estates. The queen consort and her ladies-in-waiting are known to have played polo against the emperor and his courtiers. The only limits on the extent of the authority exercised by the king's mother were set by the monarch himself.
In the tablets, "non-royals and the ordinary workers are mentioned by their rank in the specific workgroup or workshops they were employed. The rations they received are based on skill and the level of responsibility they assumed in the workplace. The professions are divided by gender and listed according to the amount of ration. Records indicate that some professions were undertaken by both sexes while others were restricted to either male or female workers. There are male and female supervisors at the mixed workshops as evident by the higher rations they have received with little difference in the number of rations between the two sexes. There are also occasions where women listed in the same category as men received fewer rations and vice versa. Female managers have different titles presumably reflecting their level of skill and rank. The highest-ranking female workers in the texts are called arashshara (great chief). They appear repeatedly in the texts, were employed at different locations, and managed large groups of women, children, and sometimes men working in their units. They usually receive high rations of wine and grains exceeding all the other workers in the unit including the males." Pregnant women also received higher rations than others. Women with newborn children also received extra rations for one month.
A few experts say that it was Cyrus the Great who, 12 centuries before Islam, established the custom of covering women to protect their chastity. According to their theory, the veil passed from the Achaemenids to the Hellenistic Seleucids. They, in turn, handed it to the Byzantines, from whom the Arab conquerors turned it into the hijab, transmitting it over the vast reaches of the Muslim world.
Queen Boran, daughter of Khosrow II, ruled the Sasanian Empire for almost two years before abdicating. During the Sasanian era, many of the Iranian soldiers who were captured by Romans were women who were fighting along with the men. pp. 24, 67, 184, 197, 307.
Persian women are depicted in many masterpieces of Persian miniatures.Toward an aesthetic of Persian painting. Early Islamic Art, 650–1100. Oleg Grabar. pp. 213–214 These are often used as sources to "trace through the sequence of women's fashion from earlier periods".Women's Costume of the Near and the Middle East. Jennifer M. Scarce. 2003, p. 134
At the Battle of Ctesiphon (363) the victorious Roman soldiers prized young Persian women, seizing them as war booty.
Islamic periods
Qajar era During the Qajar era, women played the role of reserve labor, which was important in the economy. Their work always benefited the family, businesses owner, and the state. Rural and lower-class women were mostly involved in carpet weaving, embroidery, and the production of clothing, textile, butter, fruits, and tea. They also worked in silk and cotton manufacturing as well as other handicrafts. Women were also employed at mortuaries, public bathhouses, and in more affluent houses as maids, wet nurses, and nannies.Paidar, Women and the Political Process, 41; Bamdad, From Darkness into Light, 14. In more populous cities women worked as entertainers, dancers, or prostitutes. Although many work opportunities were open for women their wages were lower. Women that worked in textiles during this time period earned an average of one-third of what men did.Foran, John. Fragile Resistance: Social Transformation in Iran from 1500 to the Revolution. Westview Press, 1993., pp. 382 Even though women were given the ability to earn a wage, they still did not have many rights, it was still possible for rural girls to be sold by the head of their families.
This time period, especially between 1905 and 1911, was the start of women's 'awakening' in Iran. It can be suggested that this awakening can be defined as a women's movement and feminism. Women began to become more involved with the public sphere and, during the reign of Naser al-Din Shah, the Qajar harem participated in the 1891 Tobacco Protest. However, it was not just wealthy women who were involved but also the common women. Washerwomen donated savings, along with wealthy women's jewelry contributions, to help sponsor a national bank. The storming of Majilis (parliament) in 1911 by women showed an unprecedented political awareness of women as well as a public action. Generally, there were precedents that restricted women's actions, where they were often portrayed as prisoners because of their gender inferiority.
Often there is an orientalist view of Qajar women before the revolution. Badr ol-Moluk Bamdad's classic work, From Darkness to Light, published two years before the Islamic Revolution (1977) refers to Iranian history before the tobacco revolt as "a century of darkness",Bāmdād Badr-al-Mulūk and Frank Ronald Charles Bagley. From Darkness into Light Women's Emancipation in Iran. Mazda Publ., 2013. in which women are "poor creatures" and "powerless dolls" who are secluded from society while being concealed "under thick coverings and dependent like parasites". Bamdad also claimed that women were "prisoners, confined in the home or under the veil and the cloak""
Sima Bahar in an article titled, A Historical Background to the Women's Movement in Iran identified that the constitutional revolution period was the first occasion women participated with men in public action. She considers that during the Qajar period "women's activities were solely limited to the household; if they were active in production at all such as in villages, the production was for the household. Women of the upper class lead an even more secluded life... they were only allowed to go out accompanied by men."Sima Bahar, "A Historical Background to the Women's Movement in Iran," in Women of Iran, The Conflict with Fundamentalist Islam, ed. Farah Azari (London: Ithaca, 1983), 170–89; quotations from 172–75
Malek Jahan Khanom as queen mother exerted serious political influence during the reign of her son, from 1848 until her death in 1873.
The gender roles during the Qajar era were legally and socially reinforced through a deeply entrenched patriarchal structure. Iran did not have a codified civil or penal code during this period. Instead, legal matters were governed by Islamic legal theory (fiqh), particularly the Jaʿfari school of thought (which is named after Imam Jaʿfar al-Ṣādiq (702–765 CE), the sixth Imam in the Twelver Shiʿa tradition). This school of thought gave men significant authority over women in matters of marriage, divorce, and guardianship. Women's mobility and public presence were highly restricted, and unaccompanied appearances in public spaces were socially discouraged. Violations of gender norms could lead to social sanctions or community-based forms of moral enforcement.
Pahlavi era
The Pahlavi Shahs were the rulers of Iran between 1925 and 1979 and they introduced many reforms concerning women's rights. An example of an early reform introduced by Reza Shah was the Kashf-e hijab, the "forced unveiling of women by a special decree on January 8, 1936, which, as the name suggests, involved the police force pulling the hijab away even from religious women, by force." Women's involvement in society in general increased. Iranian women increasingly participated in the economy, the education sector, and in the workforce. Levels of literacy were also improved. Examples of women's involvement: women acquired high official positions, such as ministers, artists, judges, scientists, athletes, etc.
Under Reza Shah's successor, Mohammad Reza Shah, many more significant reforms were introduced. For example, in 1963, the Shah granted female suffrage, and soon after women were elected to the Majlis (the parliament), the upper house and appointed as judges and ministers in the cabinet. In 1967, Iranian family law was also reformed which improved the position of women in Iranian society. It was included in the civil code and was designed to protect wives, children and female divorcees. The general thrust of the reforms was to promote equality between men and women in society.
The Family Protection Laws of 1967 and 1973 required a husband to go to court to divorce rather than the proclamation of the triple talaq, "I divorce thee" three times, as stipulated by traditional sharia law. It allowed a wife to initiate divorce and required the first wife's permission for a husband to take a second wife. Child custody was left to new family protection courts rather than automatically granted to the father. The minimum age at which a female could marry was raised from 13 to 15 in 1967 and to 18 in 1975.