Essay about Women’s Rights in the Middle East

This fact shattered the hopes of millions of Iranians who thought the revolution would bring more freedom, not less. Women lost many of the social gains they had made under the Shah, and were forced to wear head coverings and full-body cloaks called chadors. Opponents were imprisoned and tortured as harshly and cruel as was done under the Shah. A parliamentary democracy existed mostly on paper, with true authority residing with the mullahs. With the Shah in exile, Khomeini identified the U.S. as 'the Great Satan' and an 'enemy of Islam.' Subsequent to this Khomeini regime, under the Shah dissent was also ruthlessly suppressed, and he jailed and tortured his political opponents. Moreover, under the Shah, Iran became a police state, monitored by the hated SAVAK secret police. Furthermore, the Shah's reforms, particularly those concerning the rights of women, angered Shia clerics such as the Ayatollah Khomeini, who fled into exile in Iraq and later France beginning in 1964. The US was intent on keeping the Shah in place in Iran in the 1970s, for many reasons, especially as a deterring buffer against Soviet expansionism ("Iranian Civil

Pre-revolutionary Iran was very different from revolutionary Iran. During the revolution, Khomeini held power(). He was a devout religious leader that enforced very strict laws on how the country should live by bringing religion and government together. Because of this, women were forced to wear veils and wear long garments to hide their figure. Reza Shah ruled Iran before Khomeini and had entirely different political ideals. He wanted to keep religion and government separate from each other (). As soon as Reza Shah was inaugurated into power, he seeked to progress Iran by adopting western ideas and culture (Sarder 1). Throughout his rule, Reza Shah turned Iran into an urbanized country by making social classes and improving their educational

Women didn’t even have the right to stand up and speak for something they believe in without getting severely punished. The very way these Iranian women dressed were a sign of the power that was being held over them. The women are dressed “in according to the law of the land, dressed in black robes and head scarves, covered except the ovals of their faces and their hands” (Nafisi 248). The nation tries to specifically degrade women to prove male dominance in an extreme way. Even though they were allowed an education, “the regime that ruled them had tried to make their personal identities and histories irrelevant. They were never free of the regime’s definition of them as Muslim women”(Nafisi 265). It is a classic example of abuse of power and how men in society use this power to dominate over the ‘lesser’ being.

Although it seemed from the outside world that Iran was making great progress, within the country the conservative Shiite Muslim population, which represented about ninety percent of the people, would not accept the liberalization of Iran. There was opposition to the Shah because of the changes in the cultural climate of Iran. The large presence of Americans in Iran also caused further fear that the culture of Persia would be lost. (Document D) The new rights given to women were not in alignment with the Shiite Muslim religion and one of the greatest fears of the conservative majority was the possibility of women gaining enough power to change the way the country was ruled as illustrated in the political cartoon. (Document F) By September of 1978 the conflict between the people and the government of the Shah reached a boiling point. The Revolution began with the Shah exercising martial law and the response of the people with confrontations and strikes. (Document D) By December it was obvious that the Shah was losing the power struggle and on

The UDHR and ICCPR permits every person the natural right to express opinions, thoughts and practice any religion. However, the Laws of Iran and Islam deprive women of these fundamental freedoms. The UDHR and ICCPR specifically guarantee the freedom of religion. They recognize how important it is for individuals to possess the power to choice what religion they practice, if any religion at all. Religious beliefs and ideas are a way of qualifying for higher education and even obtaining a job in Iran. The exam needed for entrance into college, for example focuses on religious knowledge. The government even goes as far as running routine background checks to make sure applicants have adequately followed the teachings of Islam. Thus, it is much

Women in Iran have had their rights diminished and revoked since the Islamic Revolution of 1979. The women of Iran are forced to follow laws governed by Islamic tradition, which do not allow the women to exercise their basic human and civil rights. Like the women in “A War on Women” the women of Iran have been forced to endure violence at the hands of the men in power in the name of Allah (God) since the new constitution has been in place. The women must wear a robe that also covers their head in public or face the punishment of flogging. Girls as young as eight are old enough to be married at the choosing of their fathers, and even as adults are not allowed to choose their own husbands. Stoning is practiced when there has been an adultery committed, and this stands for both men and women. Yet, when the men are stoned, they are buried up to their waist and if they escape they are punished no further. When the women are stoned, they are buried up to their chest, and if they manage to escape it is allowed by law for them to be arrested and killed by firing squad. The women of Iran, by law, are only worth half as much as a man in all areas of

women that needed to cover up. The women of Iran are dress restricted, well depending what area they happen to be in. Women in Iran are superior to their man, view more as a piece of property that belong to a man for pleasure.

Originally, Iranian women did not use the veil because they had too, although it is now a state law, but because it was a modest way of dressing

There are many ways in which Iranian cultural expectations are different from the western cultural expectations. They are different in regards to citizens’ rights and gender norms.

Iran was looked at as a country filled with male dominance. In Iran women were only allowed to stay at home and take care of the house and the children. But all of that changed in 1936. Beginning in 1936 women were given the opportunity

In the iranian revolution in 1979 women in iran suddenly lost the majority of the rights that they had fought for over the past century.

The Islamic Republic of Iran, formerly known as Iran or Persia, was crowded with a young generation looking for full freedom against the Shah. Persia, once as a powerful country with vast oil resources, soon became a vulnerable nation, ready to accept a new leader to guide them. The people were ready for change, but were the changes they got the changes they were looking for. The people wanted freedom against the shah, (For generations Iran was ruled by Kings) who allowed some freedoms, but it was somewhat limited. The people wanted freedom of speech, so that the press could freely publish their own opinions. They wanted to get rid of a law that made all eighteen-year-old males attend two

The Secular Feminism in the West has its own problems and causes that they fight for. Women in the West are fighting for things like equal wages, end rape culture and protect reproductive rights. In America Women’s rights are protected by the constitution and cannot be taken away. Women have the right to vote, they have freedom of speech, they are allowed to have property. In America, all women have basic fundamental rights and our government protects these rights. However, in the Middle East, in Iran specifically, women are not protected by their governments and they do not have fundamental rights. According to the 209th Article of the Iranian constitution a women’s life is only worth half of a that of a man. In western society like Britain or America the law covers women and men in the same ways and one is not worth more than the other. In 2014 an Iranian artist named Atena Farghadani was arrested for drawing parliament as animals. At the time the Iranian parliament was trying to take away all access to any type

The intentions of Reza Shah were the same as Ataturk’s intentions in turkey; he was working on paralyzing the role of Islam in the society and on banning the hijab among other things. Reza shah then forbade the Imam Hussain consolation gatherings. After he banned clerics from wearing turbans in 1935 and forced them to wear western style clothing, in 1936, he officially banned hijab and later on stopped working by the Islamic calendar. He also gave his official orders to stop condolences rituals in Ashura (10th day of the holy month of Muharram) and banned Friday prayers speeches and banned religious teachings at schools. For her part, Reza Shahs wife entered the Maisuma mosque in Qom without wearing the hijab, and when the mosques servant asked her to put on clothes that are suitable with her entry to the mosque, he was brutally beaten by her bodyguards.

last twenty years, progress has been made in many countries which has helped elevate the