Chapter Nine

Women in the Parliament

Elaheh Koolaee

Introduction

Since the establishment of the Islamic Republic in 1979

there have been eight parliaments (Majlis) in Iran. Based on

my experience as a Member of Parliament (MP) in the 6th

parliament, which was dominated by reformists MPs, this

chapter will provide an analysis of the role of women in

this parliament in comparison with the 7th (2004-2008) and

the 8th (2008-2012) parliaments, which were dominated by

conservatives. To contextualize the role of women in Iranian

politics, this chapter will first briefly discuss the role

of women in the modern political history of Iran. It will be

argued that the 1979 revolution provided opportunities for

women to participate in the public sphere of politics.

However, patriarchal gender relations and conservative

traditions continued to persist. Secondly, I will discuss

the role of women in the parliament since 2000. I will

1

demonstrate how in the 6th parliament, female MPs although

few in number, succeeded in promoting the idea of gender

equality.

The role of women in the modern political history of Iran

Throughout the modern history of Iran, women have played

important political roles. This can be seen in women’s

participation in the Tobacco protest (1890-1892) against the

monopoly of production and sale of Tobacco by Britain; in

the Constitutional Revolution of 1905-1911; the oil

nationalization movement of 1951; the secular and

nationalist movements of the 1950s and 1960s and the 1979

Islamic revolution (Koolaee, 2001; Rostami-Povey 2010a: 38-

43). During the Constitutional Revolution women played an

important role in the struggles against despotism and

foreign domination and a number of women’s organizations

were formed. However, despite urbanisation and developments

in society and economics during this period, male domination

within the family and society and the authoritarian rule of

the state continued. Thus, women’s oppression was based on

2

the authoritarianism of the state and patriarchal gender

relations (Hafezian, 2002).

Women played an important role in the 1979 revolution.

During the revolution Ayatollah Khomeini created a new

vision of women by highlighting the role of Zaynab, the

sister of the third Imam of the Shi’a, Imam Hussein, who

participated in wars and gave priority to her religio-

political duties. The focus on Zaynab as a role model

changed perceptions of women and had a positive impact on

patriarchal gender relations. Women participated in the

revolution and during the post revolutionary period on a

mass scale in the public sphere of politics and society.

Their participation was vital in particular during the Iran-

Iraq war (1980-1988), when they worked to feed their

families and played a crucial role by encouraging and

supporting their husbands, sons and brothers in the war

effort. They courageously faced the loss of their loved

ones, and their bravery as well as the sacrifice of those

3

who died became an important symbol which influenced the

whole nation.

After the establishment of the Islamic state the

application of Sharia to marriage and divorce laws had a

negative impact on women’s rights across different classes

and cultures. The Council of Guardians (Shoraye Negahban) a

male conservative institution banned the family law of the

previous regime which had promulgated a number of limited

reforms in the area of women’s rights. The post-

revolutionary state interpreted the family law of the pre-

1979 period as being in contradiction with Islamic laws.

Nevertheless, the constitution of the Islamic Republic in

some ways protected women and mothers and opened the way for

women’s demands to reform civil law in their favour (Harper

2005).

According to the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU)1

(2000: 10) the percentage of women in the Parliament in Iran

and in the Middle East region, in the last three decades has

1 . The Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) is the international organisation of parliaments: http://www.ipu.org/english/whatipu.htm

4

not exceeded 3-4%. The table below demonstrates the

percentage of female MPs in the Iranian parliaments in

comparison with men. In the fifth parliament 351 women ran

as candidates in elections and in the 6th parliament their

numbers increased to 504. In this election 65% of the female

population participated as voters (Shojaee 2005).

Table 1: Percentage of female candidates and MPs in the

Iranian parliaments in comparison with male candidates and

MPs

Parliaments Date % of Female

Candidates % of Female MPS

1st Parliament 1980-1984 3.2%

1. 7%

2nd Parliament 1984-1988 1.9%

1.7%

3rd Parliament 1988-1992 1.6%

1.6%

4th Parliament 1992-1996 3%

3.6%

5

5th Parliament 1996-2000 6.4%

5.6%

6th Parliament 2000-2004 7.3%

4.4%

7th Parliament 2004-2008 9.8%

4.4%

8th Parliament 2008-2012 8%

2.76%

Source: Centre for Women’s Participation, 2005: 77 and IPU:

9 August 20102

Female MPs have in different periods relied on the 1979

constitution in their fight for women’s rights. In the late

1980s, a period which coincided with the end of the Iran-

Iraq war (1980-1988) under the premiership of Hashemi

Rafsanjani, female MPs fought for women’s rights in socio-

economic and political fields. In 1989 they were successful

2

? . http://www.IPU, http://www.ipu.org/parline/reports/2149_E.htm 9 August 2010

6

in amending the family law with regard to marriage and

divorce laws. In the 5th Parliament these laws were further

amended to create a new family code to protect women’s

rights to divorce and custody of children. The modification

of the institution of mahr (bride price) was particularly

beneficial for poorer women. According to the new regulation

if a man wishes to divorce his wife, he has to pay her mahr

indexed linked according to the rate of inflation together

with ojratolmesl – the equivalent of her contribution to the

family throughout the years that they lived together. This

in effect entitles women to a wage for the housework that

they performed during the life of a marriage. The aim is to

limit men’s easy access to divorce, and within this new

context if a man wishes to divorce his wife unjustly, he has

to pay a significant sum as compensation (Rostami-Povey

2001: 54).

In the 1990s women’s mass participation in different

fields of politics; their participations in electoral

campaigns and international conferences were encouraged by

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the government. This laid the grounds for the growth of the

reformist movement. The election victory of President

Khatami in 1997 was impressive and women participated on a

mass scale. Later, women’s participation in civil society

organizations was encouraged by the government and increased

women’s socio-political roles. These activities challenged

stereotypical views of Iranian woman as subservient, passive

creatures controlled by men. The election of Khatami and the

following presidential and parliamentary elections

demonstrated the power of women’s vote, half of the

electoral population, which determined the fate of male

candidates. The victory of Khatami in that presidential

election and the victory of the reformists in the 6th

parliamentary election owed much to the vote of women

(Koolaee 2008: 22).

During the reformist government of Khatami, many women

found an opportunity to enter positions at different levels

of decision making in political parties. The Women’s Bureau

of the Presidential Office was re-named the Centre for

8

Women’s Participation and the number of women in different

levels of decision making positions increased throughout the

country. This institution paved the way for the further

participation of women in socio-political arenas; it was

involved in numerous women’s empowerment programmes and held

workshops for women throughout the country. As is argued by

Zahra Nejadbahram in her chapter ‘Women’s Employment’ in

this book, despite pressures from the conservatives who

strongly opposed women’s participation in socio-economic and

political spheres, during this period, the percentage of

women in managerial posts increased. In 2003 the budget

allocated to projects for women increased by 700% in

comparison with previous years.3

This government and the parliament facilitated the work

of Non Governmental Organisations (NGOs) (Baba Moradi and

Taghi Khani 2005: 159- 176). In 1997, there were only 67

women’s NGOs, in 2005, this figure increased to 337. In

2000, the Third Plan for Economic Development4 allocated

3 . Also see Centre For Women’s Participation 2005: 85

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considerable budgets for the empowerment of NGOs, as civil

society organisations, increasing the number of NGOs from 55

in 1997 to 480 in 20045. The Office for Women’s Affairs in

the Ministry of Agriculture also implemented many projects

for rural women. In this period the number of women who took

an active role in municipal elections, as candidates and as

voters also increased considerably (Reyhaneh 2005: 159-176).

Thousands of women were trained in special courses. Table

two below demonstrates the increase in the participation of

women in these institutions:

Table 2: Women’s involvement in the NGOs and Municipal and

Village Councils

Year Women’s NGOs Percentage of women members

Of municipal and village councils

Pre 1995 0 0

1995 57 04 . These economic plans determined economic activities within the formal sectors of the economy and the general goals for economic growth and development.

5 . See Centre for Women’s Participation 2005: 90

10

1999 137 0.8

2000 248 0.8

2004 480 1.5

Source: Khaz Ali 2010: 16

The reformists had a positive view regarding the role

and influence of civil society institutions and their role

in the process of democratization of society. Despite these

positive changes, women’s participation in electoral

politics was limited mainly because of women’s lack of

access to financial resources. This meant that many women

were unable to campaign and stand as candidates for

parliamentary seats. This was due to the persistence of

patriarchal gender relations as well as a male dominated

culture. Attitudes to the role of women within the family

and society, and in particular the belief that women’s place

is mainly within the home formed and still continue to

constitute obstacles to women’s participation in the sphere

of politics. Women were excluded through laws and

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regulations which were based on these paradigms.

Furthermore the conservative traditionalists used

patriarchal social relations to exclude women from the

public sphere of life.

Women in the 6th Parliament 2000 – 2004

In this parliament, reformists were in the majority and had

65% of the seats. As an MP, in the 6th parliament, my

intension was to concentrate on political issues which are

my areas of expertise. However, I soon realised that there

were very few women MPs and I had to concentrate on women’s

issues. We set up the Women’s Faction of the Parliament. We

faced many challenges and it was clear that we could not

change women’s issues overnight especially women’s socio-

economic and political issues. We also realised that we had

to have the support of male MPs and we could only rely on

their votes if they did not feel that their interests were

under threat. We tried to convince them that women’s votes

are important yet at the same time we did not want to

retreat because of their objections to our demands. At the

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time our approach was criticised by a number of women’s

rights activists from within the Iranian women’s movement

for being slow. We were also criticised and called anti men

and were labelled ‘feminists’ in a derogatory way by our

conservative colleagues in the parliament. It was difficult

for us to achieve a balance and to avoid alienating people

who held these extreme positions. On the one hand we had to

convince those women’s rights activists who were critical of

us that we could not win if we were too radical. On the

other hand we tried to explain to conservative MPs that

there are many different forms of feminisms and not all of

them are anti men.

In Iran and throughout Muslim majority societies, the

struggle for women’s rights has to be carried out from

within an Islamic context (Anvar, 2009). We can only resolve

gender issues on our own terms and according to our own

culture and the complexities of society. It is not just the

laws and regulations which are obstacles to women in our

society and have to be changed; people’s perceptions will

13

also have to be changed, in particular we need to challenge

the idea that a woman’s place is in the home and argue that

she is a human being but with different capabilities and

needs to men.

During the 6th parliament, women’s rights issues and

the democratization of Iranian society were on the agenda.

Reformist parliamentarians were articulate and were

committed to advocating reforms and trying to make their

voices heard loud and clear from the parliamentary

tribunals. Women MPs, as parliamentarians, were also well

equipped to discuss women’s needs and rights and tried hard

to find solutions to improve women’s status at all social

levels. In the Women’s Faction we tried to remove many

obstacles to our progress (Koolaee, 2002: 3).

Despite many problems, women managed to occupy a number

of high positions in different boards, commissions and

committees of the parliament and tried to defend women’s

positions as equal beings within the family and society. In

doing so, women demonstrated their capacity and ability as

14

equal partners to their male colleagues in opposition to the

male dominated view that argued that women were weak and

unable to perform their professional duties. We managed to

convince many reformist male MPs to agree with us and

together we amended a number of articles of the civil law

that were against the rights of women.

Towards the end of the 6th parliament the Women’s

Faction presented a package of reform consisting of a plan

to reform some parts of the civil code. We argued that

Iran’s civil law is 70 years old however our situation today

is very different from 70 years ago. This package combined

many amendments to protect women’s rights and at the same

time to maintain strong family relationships which is an

important cultural issue in Iranian society. We focused on

laws such as the inheritance law, divorce law, custody of

children, and insurance for women which entitles women to

family property at the time of divorce.

The reformed law in terms of custody of children

entitled women to have the custody of boys and girls up to

15

seven years of age (previously the law entitled mothers to

have the custody of boys up to two years and girls up to

seven years). After children reached the age of seven, the

court would decide whether custody should be given to the

children’s mothers or to their fathers. This parliament also

amended the laws on women’s education by removing obstacles

to women studying abroad with a government scholarship.

Although we managed to reform some laws, other articles of

our package of reforms were rejected by the Council of

Guardians (Geramizadegan 2004: 219-255) and as will be

discussed below some of them were followed up by the 7th and

8th parliaments. The reformist government also ratified the

Convention of Elimination of all kinds of Discrimination

Against Women (CEDAW) and the parliament passed this law

(Kar 2005: 225). However, the Council of Guardians rejected

it as they interpreted it as being in contradiction with

Islamic values.

There were few female MPs in the 6th Parliament, but

they were influential. These women MPs tried to promote

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gender equality in the executive branch. In order to amend

laws and regulations on women’s rights, their approach had

to be calculated and moderate, otherwise they would have

been rejected. As is argued by Jamileh Kadivar in her

chapter on ‘Women and the Executive Power’, in this book, we

sought the appointment of female ministers in the cabinet

during President Khatami’s second government (2001-2005).

However there were enormous pressures and negative

propaganda directed against the president by conservatives

and traditionalists (Mir-Hosseini 2005: 11-28) who

threatened to ask their followers in the Bazaar (The

Traditional Market Place) which is an influential economic

institution not to pay taxes to his government.

After long discussions about the advantages of a

ministry for women’s affairs, we in the parliament proposed

the establishment of such a ministry, but we were not

successful. Nevertheless, during Khatami’s administration,

there were two women as vice president, Zahra Shoajee as the

director of the Centre for Women’s Participation and

17

Massoumeh Ebtekar as the head of the Department of

Environment. These appointments had a great impact on women

within society. Many women in different parts of the country

explained to me, as their MP, how it changed the attitudes

and behaviour of men and women in work places. In both state

and private enterprises, men began to take women’s work

seriously. The role and influence of the state in developing

countries such as Iran is enormous and it has direct

negative and positive impacts on society as a whole. In this

case the role of state was positive as it created awareness

on gender issues and increased women’s demands for change.

At the time, I was a member of the central committee of

the Mosharekat Party (Participation Party, the largest

reformist pro-Khatami party). We decided that in the

parliamentary elections we should have a quota system and

allocate 30% of the candidates to women and this was agreed.

But when we went into coalition with other reformists’

parties the percentage of women candidates became less than

30%. This was because, within this coalition, different

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parties had different approaches and some had a more

progressive position on women’s issues than others.

The reformists tried hard to expand social and cultural

institutions in order to meet women’s demands, but

conservative MPs strove to stop these reforms in favour of

women. They believed and still believe that women’s place

is in the home and that women should concentrate on their

reproductive roles, the home and the family and viewed men

as the sole bread winners and heads of households. In the

6th parliament, we managed to change some of these erroneous

perceptions of women and we were successful in getting the

vote of many male MPs for the reform of some of the laws and

regulations in favour of women. This was because we argued

that the conservative mindset was against the views of

Ayatollah Khomeini who stressed the importance of women’s

participation in all aspects of social activities, and

encouraged women to take part in socio-political

developments. We, therefore, kept reminding our male

colleagues in the parliament that Ayatollah Khomeini

19

emphasised the importance of the role of women in the

family, but did not ignore women’s participation in the

public sphere of life and argued for women’s rights

including their participation in politics.

In many instances I used the argument that we have

found ways of using modern economics in our banking system

which is not against the Sharia. Therefore, we can find ways

to reform laws and regulations in other areas in order

ensure women’s rights. Nevertheless, we faced many

obstacles. As a result I came to the conclusion that our

problem is not just changing the laws and regulations but

changing patriarchal attitudes and conservative readings of

Islamic laws. If we manage to change conservative male-

centred readings of Islamic laws we can move towards not

just changing laws and regulations but to consolidating and

building on these changes. Otherwise it is pointless to

change a number of laws and regulations in favour of women

when neither men nor women implement the reformed laws and

regulations.

20

Many women’s rights activists do not consider the

realities of our society and consequently their activities

do not reach the grassroots. Grassroots support is important

for changing perceptions as well as changing laws and

regulations. We have to start from the basis of family

relations and treat our boys and girls on equal terms. We

also need to take poverty and women’s economic situation

into account. When we changed the law about custody of

children, that is the right of women to have both girls and

boys up to seven years old, we realised that many fathers

were willing to accept the new law but many mothers did not

want to use this right because of poverty. Therefore, we

need to empower women economically as well as culturally.

Another reformed law gave the custody of children to their

mothers in cases where the father is addicted to drugs.

Despite this reformed law many men refuse to give the

children to their mothers. Recently a woman killed her

husband over this issue. So it is not just a case of

changing the law. We need to undertake consciousness raising

21

activities as well as empower men and women and

institutionalize gender equality in order to implement the

reformed laws (Koolaee, 2005: 203-215; Povey forthcoming).

Women in the 7th Parliament 2004 – 2008

In this parliament, the conservatives were the majority with

54% of the seats and the reformers were in a minority with

13% of the seats. The defeat of the conservatives was mainly

due to the fact that Council of Guardians disqualified many

reformist candidates. Also many pro-reformists boycotted the

election (Rostami-Povey 2010b: 51-57). As a result, since

then, all female MPs have been conservative with the

exception of one reformist MP, Mehrangiz Morovati. In

isolation she has found it difficult to push for further

reform of the laws and regulations in favour of women and so

the reform movement was weakened when we lost the parliament

to the conservatives.

Since 2005 and the victory of the conservative

government there has been attempts by the conservatives to

stop the process of reform of laws and regulations regarding

22

women. In this parliament the women’s faction which was

formed in the 6th parliament was dissolved (Zanan, 2005).

The majority of women MPs in the Women’s Faction of the 6th

parliament had university degrees and were committed to

women’s rights issues. In contrast, the majority of the

women MPs in the 7th parliament belong to the Basij

(mobilisation) a social group originating in post-

revolutionary vigilante forces who campaigned and voted for

Ahmadinejad in 2005 (Gheissari and Nasr 2006: 155).6 They

have a very different mentality and approach to women’s

roles and duties in the public sphere of society and

politics. During the 6th parliament in the process of

amending the Fourth Development Plan we changed the term

‘gender equality’ to ‘gender justice’ so that the term would

sound compatible with the religious and traditional

perceptions of our society. This enabled us to put women’s

rights issues on the agenda of the parliament. However, the6 . The Basij (Mobilisation) is a paramilitary volunteer militia foundedafter the 1979 revolution and were originally called ‘The Mobilisationof the Oppressed’ or ‘The Mobilisation Resistance Force’. In more recentyears, the Basij serves as an auxiliary force in internal security andlaw enforcement.

23

7th parliament ignored this concept all together and the new

female MPs did not challenge conservative male MPs for

ignoring women’s issues (Reyhaneh, 2005: 177-188).

In The Fourth Development Plan we tried to highlight

the importance of stability and sustainability of family

life but not at the expense of women’s participation in the

public sphere. Our aim was to create equal opportunities for

women and men to reach their goals. The conservatives on the

other hand changed the term ‘equal opportunity’ to ‘public

education for all people’, tried to limit opportunities for

women and created more restrictions on women’s social

activities.

Some conservative women MPs are more conservative than

their male counterparts. They argue that the priority of

women should be their reproductive duties within the home

and that their participation in the public sphere of life is

not a priority. Thus, they have proposed to reduce women’s

working hours so that they can spend more time at home.

Fatemeh Alia, a conservative MP put forward a proposition

24

accepting the right of men to marry a second wife and as a

result was heavily criticized by many women from different

backgrounds.

During Ahmadinejad’s first cabinet (2005-2009)

conservative female MPs did not put forward any women to

occupy ministerial positions. Although there were capable

women in that administration, no real effort was made to

include them in the ministerial boards. In the second

cabinet (since 2009) Ahmadinejad included one female

minister, (Dr. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi) as the health

minister. Most women MPs have been focussing on enforcing

women’s dress codes which has entailed constantly

confronting women for not wearing the Islamic hijab according

to their conservative definition and using the police force

to punish women. Others have chosen less confrontational

methods to deal with women who resist the compulsory forms

of hijab. The Parliamentary Commission for Cultural Issues

has therefore concentrated on women’s hijab and has argued

that the present Islamic dress code, which is diverse and

25

acceptable to many young women, is not acceptable to Islamic

society. They are trying hard to convince women to wear the

full chador despite resistance by the younger generation of

women. In reality they are trying to impose their

conservative tastes and demands on the whole of society.

They have accused this parliamentary commission and the

ministry of culture under Khatami’s government of corruption

for allowing a more relaxed Islamic dress code for women

which included long trousers, a long dress and a scarf.

Iran has a young and educated population and women

constitute 63% of university students so many young women

have resisted these conservative measures. Under pressure of

women, a number of conservative women MPs have objected to

the policies of increasing segregation. Eshrat Shayegh from

Tabriz, the home of the Azeri ethnic group in Iran, has

harshly criticized her counterparts for promoting gender

segregation policies in public places like cinemas, parks,

trains and universities (Zanan February 2006). Many argue

that Ayatollah Khomeini rejected these policies in the early

26

days of the revolution. There are other members of the

clergy who oppose these policies, but the conservatives

continue to pursue their agenda. In the 6th parliament there

were discussions about a quota system where they could

allocate more places to male students and less to women, so

as to create a balance. The Women’s Faction, with the

support of president Khatami rejected such a quota system.

Under the conservative government and parliament this law

was ratified. As discussed above, the reformist government

and parliament approved joining CEDAW but were overruled by

the conservatives. In this parliament we proposed two

conditions which would make joining CEDAW more culturally

acceptable to Iranian society. These were that international

institutions should not have the right to violate Islamic

laws and that international courts should not intervene in

the internal affairs of Iran. But the parliament rejected

our proposal and conservative female MPs similar to their

male counterparts in the parliament and in the cabinet

rejected any form of support for joining CEDAW (Zanan

27

February 2006). Instead they substituted this Convention and

other international agreements, with a statement about

respecting women's rights. Similar to a number of other

Islamic countries the intention of such a statement was to

ensure that women’s rights are not imposed by the West.

Accordingly, this parliament has identified 70 cases in

CEDAW which, in their view, are against Islamic laws,

despite the fact that there are different views about CEDAW

among Muslim leaders and scholars. A number of members of

the clergy have argued for adoption of the convention based

on the concept of reservation under Islamic obligations

which means Muslims have the duty to accept international

laws and regulations while adhering to Islamic laws and

regulations. Others argue that Islam does not advocate any

kind of discrimination against women; the two genders must

perform different tasks according to their differences, but

they are not different from each other as human beings and

in the eyes of God.

28

There has been very little room in this parliament for

women in various boards of the parliament and in

parliamentary commissions and committees (Zanan 2005). The

decreasing role of female MPs on women’s rights issues has

been so alarming that even some female conservative MPs have

protested against the male dominated parliament and their

approach and behaviour and male conservative MPs have

protested about the lack of will to improve women’s

conditions in this parliament. These MPs have objected to

the fact that the majority of the MPs in this parliament are

ignoring women’s rights issues and closing the doors to

women in the parliamentary boards, commissions and

committees. In fact female MPs have had many discussions

about the necessity of the Women’s Faction but under the

pressure of more conservative elements they have decided not

to set up this institution. Instead they decided that the

Committee for Women and Family in the Parliamentary

Commission for Cultural Issues should deal with women’s

rights questions. The change of the name of this commission

29

implies that for them women’s rights issues are cultural

issues and not social issues. In effect therefore, they are

removing the responsibility of women’s rights issues from

society and limiting it to a cultural question.

Despite pressure from conservatives, reforms of the

laws and regulations and the strengthening of civil society

organisations during the 6th parliament have not been

forgotten and have had a great impact on our society.

Women’s participation in the public sphere of life raised

their expectations. People want change no matter how hard it

is to achieve. People in Iran have high expectations and

demand more change than people in other countries in this

region. I have moved next sentence to p 22 and substituted

this. However, we must resolve our issues in a way that does

not alienate ordinary people. As the spokesperson for the

reformist’s presidential candidate in 2005, in my activities

I realised the importance of this.

The conservative MPs cannot ignore women’s demands. For

example, as is argued by Jamileh Kadivar in her chapter on

30

‘Women working as judges and making judgements’ in this

book, after the 1979 revolution and the establishment of the

Islamic state the law was changed and did not allow women to

work as judges. But the conservatives were not able to

ignore women judges. As a consequence of women pressuring

the state and women’s MPs commitment to women’s rights

issues, the law was changed again and under the new law

women judges work in supervisory capacities in family

courts, and women judges are present in these courts (Zanan

2006).

Of course there is a long way to go, but these reforms

were and are positive as they pave the way to struggle for

further gains in women’s rights issues. Even the 7th and 8th

parliaments followed and are following some of the reforms

that we began in the 6th parliament but were not ratified in

the life of that parliament. As discussed above, the law on

insurance for women - to entitle women to family property at

the time of divorce - was in the process of going through in

the 6th parliament and was ratified in the 7th parliament.

31

This law is particularly important for many women who do not

work in the formal sector of the economy and was initiated

by the Centre for Women’s Participation.

The 7th parliament also ratified the abortion law in

specific circumstances where the life of the mother would be

in danger and could be saved by abortion. In such cases

official health check ups and examinations will determine

whether the woman is entitled to an abortion according to

the law or not. This law was also planned to be ratified in

the 6th parliament but it was completed under the 7th

parliament. According to articles 976 and 964 of the civil

law, Iranian women who are married with non-Iranians, cannot

pass on their nationality and citizenship to their husbands

and children. On the other hand, non-Iranians who are

married with Iranian men automatically become Iranian

nationals and citizens and can apply for an Iranian identity

card and passport. In the 6th parliament a number of

reformist MPs tried to reform the law so that Iranian women

who marry non-Iranians can pass on their nationality and

32

citizenship to their husbands and children. But under the

pressure of the conservatives this law was not ratified.

This was also rejected in the conservative dominated

parliament. But with the efforts of the women’s rights

activists, the law was amended in the 7th and 8th parliaments

and these women can pass on their nationality and

citizenship to their children if the children were born in

Iran or lived in Iran for 18 years.

Today women have to pay a heavy price for political

reform. They could be more active if they did not have to

pay a heavy social, economic and political price for their

activities. One example is women’s participation at the

level of local municipalities. To participate in national

electoral campaigns women need large sums of money which is

an obstacle, but in the cases of rural and city council

elections, large numbers of women are involved and the

society has accepted their participation.

Under the reformist governments and parliaments women

were active in NGOs but the conservative government closed

33

down many NGOs when Western countries, particularly the US

announced a policy of funding NGOs in Iran for ‘regime

change’. Foreign interventions and their policy of funding

NGOs in Iran to bring about democracy and women’s rights

have greatly damaged women’s participation in the public

sphere. During Khatami’s period, the government encouraged

civil society organisations. But under the conservative

regime, most NGOs are state sponsored organisations. All

these have made women’s work very difficult, as many

independent NGOs have been closed down.

Despite many obstacles women in Iran are present in

many socio-economic and political areas. The situation of

women in Iran is better than that of women in other

countries in the region. Women are fighting for their rights

and have achieved a great deal. Reformists are working with

conservative women on women’s issues as on most gender

issues we agree whereas on political issues we disagree.

Therefore there is a coalition of Reformist and Conservative

women, as both sides believe in the necessity of cooperation

34

to defend women’s rights. We have regular meetings and

together we have approached a number of members of the

clergy on women’s issues in order to get their agreement on

reforming laws and regulations. We have also managed to

convince the conservative women to agree with a quota of 30%

for women candidates.

Women in the 8th Parliament

The decline in the number of female MPs in the 8th

parliament, in comparison with the 6th and 7th parliaments is

demonstrated in table one above. The lack of commitment to

women’s rights issues in the 7th parliament had a negative

impact on the presence of women in this important

institution. Based on the dominant outlook of the ruling

conservatives, female MPs in this period focussed on

cultural issues and limited women’s roles in the public

sphere of life. Similarly to their male counterparts, female

MPs in this parliament have tried to pass a bill to

encourage polygamy. In 2008, different organisations and

women activists united together and managed to stop this law

35

going through by lobbying the MPs in the parliament. We

argued with conservative clerics and tried to convince a

number of Ayatollahs that this conservative family law is

against the interest of the whole society. Different women

activists - journalists, filmmakers and university

professors -worked hard to convince the authorities that

this bill must be stopped. In response to the efforts of

this coalition of women activists, the parliament has

removed the two most contested articles of this bill;

Article 23 which enables men to marry more than one wife

without the permission of the first wife and article 25

which limits the rights of women in determining their mahr.

The discussion about the bill has been postponed

indefinitely and the plan is to send this bill to the

Parliamentary Judicial Committee for further revisions7.

Conclusion:

7 . Elaheh Amani, Women Say No to Polygomy: http://womennewsnetwork.net/2008/09/23/iran-women-say-no-to-polygamy/ 9 August 2010

36

Women have played a very important role in the modern

political history of Iran, in particular in the 1979

revolution and the establishment of the Islamic Republic in

Iran. The 1979 revolution created opportunities for women to

have active and constructive roles in Iranian society

(Koolaee 2009: 401-414) and gave rise to a constitution

which has the capacity of including gender equality at the

level of family and the society. The support of Ayatollah

Khomeini and his interpretation of women’s rights according

to Islamic teachings have been important for women in Iran

and their battle with the conservative clergy and

politicians. My analysis of women’s roles in the Iranian

parliaments, especially since the 6th parliament,

demonstrates that despite the fact that the number of women

MPs in different parliaments has been few; women MPs have

played an important role in the 6th parliament. In this

period women MPs had the support of the majority of the male

reformist MPs who believed in the process of democratization

of society. Female MPs in the 6th parliament had the

37

opportunity to amend many laws, more than during any other

of the parliaments. They were able to influence different

executive branches for the implementation of laws and

regulations regarding women rights. They were also able to

positively influence national and regional official

institutions in terms of gender equality. With the fall of

the reformist government and parliament the conditions for

defending women’s rights changed however women are still

struggling to achieve their demands.

In order for us to be successful in the future I argue

that we must consider the importance of democracy,

grassroots social change and independence from foreign

domination. Those women’s rights’ activists, who focus on

the women’s movement in Iran in a way that is detached from

other changes in society, do not consider the relationship

between democracy and women’s rights issues. Throughout the

20th century and until today, the struggle for democracy in

Iran clearly highlights the link between women’s rights and

the process of democratisation of the society, as the

38

struggle for women’s rights have been interlined with the

struggle for democracy throughout the Iranian history. It is

also important to consider the reality of society and for

activists to work to change perceptions of women’s roles at

the grassroots level. But we have to be patient and resolve

our issues in our own way and step by step. The experience

of Iraq and Afghanistan has shown that we need to change our

society according to our own culture and our society’s need.

We cannot copy from the West; we have to do it according to

our own culture and society’s needs.

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Notes

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