A woman flashes a victory sign as she walks in the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran. Photo / Vahid Salemi, AP
A woman flashes a victory sign as she walks in the old main bazaar of Tehran, Iran. Photo / Vahid Salemi, AP
Opinion
OPINION
The new round of protests sparked in Iran after the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, is a part of the bigger Iranian movement for democracy that started after the Islamic Republic came to power in 1979.
The circle of protests in Iran has reached its starting point again.
Thefirst mass protest after 1979 was in response to the enforcement of hijab by the new Islamic regime and happened only 25 days after the victory of the regime.
Ayatollah Khomeini, founder of the regime, criticised women's lack of conformity with Islamic dress code and ordered officials to prevent women who were not wearing hijab from entering ministries and other government organisations.
Women from various backgrounds - religious and non-religious, left and right, educated and uneducated - protested against this new veiling law. The demonstration on International Women's Day was massive. The call to action was clear - to keep the rights women had gained through the family law passed in 1975 in the Shah's era.
Iranian pro-government demonstrators rally to condemn recent anti-government protests over the death of a young woman in police custody. Photo / Vahid Salemi, AP
Although Khomeini temporarily retreated from his position to curtail the protest, the regime did not give up on the veiling law. Instead, it abolished the 1975 family law and restricted women's rights even more.
The 1979 demonstration represented the only mass movement for women's rights in Iran.
Other protests in Iran since then have been either for political rights, such as the 1999 students' protest against restrictions on newspapers and the 2009 protest after the fraudulent presidential election; or in response to economic pressures like the 2019 nationwide protests when fuel prices increased 200 per cent.
Forty-three years after that first attempt by women to protect their basic human rights, they are again in the streets of Tehran and in cities across Iran, taking off their scarves, burning them, and chanting "women, life, freedom".
This return to the forefront of women's demands in Iran is a sign of a new era. The tragedy of Mahsa's death has shocked thousands of women. Realising how absurd it is to lose their lives over a few strands of visible hair, they have rebelled against the medieval law of hijab and all other forms of suppression over the past four decades.
The current protest in Iran is rightly hailed as a feminist movement by global observers, triggered by a woman's death and revolving around women's rights. The centrality of women and their demands in the movement have made it unique in the world.
It is the turn of Iranian women to lead the revolution. At this historic moment, they must not be pushed into the corner of the movement. Some may see this as irrelevant and even divisive at this stage. The image of Iranian men and women fighting shoulder to shoulder against the regime is positive. No one wants to damage that unity. But the leadership of Iranian women must not be weakened if it is to succeed this time.
A second slogan after "women, life, freedom" has already emerged: "Men, country, prosperity". It not only sounds patriarchal, it shows the deep concern some Iranian men have about being left out of the centre of this revolution.
The addition to the original slogan is hotly debated among Iranians.
If our society is not mature enough to understand why it is necessary to keep the focus of this movement on women; if our men have not yet realised how massive the gender gap is; if our men's egos are still so fragile that they feel threatened by women's leadership; if patriarchy is still deeply rooted in our heads; perhaps, it is still too soon for change.
Women have stood behind men and eagerly supported them in movements throughout history. Whenever women have asked for their rights, they have been told to be patient for the sake of unity. Women have parked their demands and waited for the revolution to succeed. But after the revolution, there is always something more urgent. Women are told to wait again.
Writer and activist Mona Elthahawy says of Egypt's uprising: "We removed Mubarak from the palace, but there are other Mubaraks in our beds and streets." The real revolution happens when society understands the triple oppression of women, as she says, "misogyny results from a trifecta of state, street, and home".
Without a revolution of patriarchal minds, social revolutions are incomplete.
In her 2018 article "Feminism and the Future of Revolutions", the Iranian scholar Valentine Moghadam wrote: "World revolutions won't be successful if women and their organisations are not fully integrated at all levels, especially leadership".
This movement will not lead to democracy unless Iranian woman and their demands are kept at the top of the agenda. This time, we must succeed - for the sake of all Iranians.
• Dr Forough Amin is a women's rights activist and the founder of the Iranian Women in NZ charitable trust.
