Women's Role In The Iranian Revolution

Women’s rights in Iran or the Middle East has always been an arguable issue. Although there rights have been changed throughout the centuries they were never really compared equal to men or noone really accepted them. Specially for women in Iran, they barely had any rights in culture, marriage or other aspects of their lives. In the following essay you will read about the everday lives of Middle Eastern women.

Sadly, views of people in some of countries nowadays is still as foggy and limited as the people’s views thousand years ago. Having studied these laws, we learned that we need to respect women and honour them. They are very well deserved to be treated fairly, and to be looked up to. Hopefully in the near future, the legal system in Muslim countries will be changed in a positive way to foster the roles of women in the society. Women should have more freedom and should not considered as a tool of labor or a slave for

Iranian women have to depend quite frequently on men to survive. Women aren't even allowed to travel unless they have permission of their husbands or fathers. Marriage also is a crucial element to an Iranian woman's life. The legal age of marriage is nine years old and most women are not allowed their husband of choice. Women are also not allowed equal rights to divorce. It is only under extreme conditions, such as insanity of their spouse, that they are allowed to file for divorce. Even in the event of the divorce, the father has legal custody of boys after the age of two and girls after the age of seven. It is also crucial to have a husband because if women are involved in any other voluntary sexual

Throughout centuries of human existence, women have been deemed as inferior to men in multiple different cultures and religions. Men have developed a norm to be the individual who carries out duties to help maintain a stable life for himself and the family in which he is providing for. Because of this fundamentalist approach towards how society should be, women’s rights have been suppressed throughout political, social, and cultural actions. The Islamic religion in particular, is fond of abusing the rights of women and empowering the rights of men in such a way that it has created a permanent existence of conflict within countries who follow Islam. In fact, in the Quran it states that women must have lesser authority than men, therefore their

Various factors influenced the 1979 Iranian revolution, but at the core of this significant event was Islamic fundamentalism. The Iranian religious leader, Ayatollah Khomeini, led this movement to end the thirty-seven-year reign of Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, also known as the Shah of Iran (Diller 1991, p.152). The revolution was a combination of mounting social, economic, political and religious strains. The nation of Iran was never colonized, unlike some of its bordering countries, making its people intolerant of external influences. The Shah had gradually westernized and secularized his country, creating a strong American presence that was being felt

Iranian women have to depend quite frequently on men to survive. Women aren’t even allowed to travel unless they have permission of their husbands or fathers. Marriage also

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

In the eyes of many Iranians, the Iranian Revolution started before 1979. After the 1953 coup driven by the U.K and U.S ( specifically the C.I.A) the well liked prime minister Dr. Mossadeq was arrested. Reinstated in Mossadeq's place was Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, AKA the Shah. The 1979 Revolution was then led by Ayatollah Khomeini who found many problems with the Shah’s rule of Iran, beginning with the Shah’s reform program. Key drivers of the 1979 Revolution were Iranians' growing frustration with economic inequality, the Shah's suppression of political opposition and widespread resentment of the government's close ties to the United States and Britain.

While often mistaken for the Iranian revolution, the cultural revolution is far different. The only real similarity they share is the fact that Ayatollah Khomeini played an important role in both. The Iranian Revolution lasted from January 1977 to February 1979 (Afary). Iran was in a sense trading in its monarchy for an Islamic republic (“e-Publications@Marquette”). The Shah was overthrown and the exiled cleric Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini returned from exile to Iran to lead the new republic (Reinbold). The cultural revolution however, was the period following the Iranian revolution where schools closed down to rid education of any and all Western and non-Islamic influences(“Iran Shuts Down Higher Education”). Although the differences between the Iranian Revolution and the Iranian Cultural Revolution were very distinctive, they are directly connected to each other.

The Iranian Revolution, also known as the Islamic Revolution of 1979 took place in Iran. It is when Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi the emperor of Iran during that time, was overthrown by the revolutionary forces led by Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and thereafter established the Islamic National Republic of Iran. The Iranian Revolution brought a big change into the international community and how it viewed revolutions. As Iran’s revolution lacked many of the fundamental causes that were though to give rise to revolutions. It was unusual in the sense that it had no ‘agrarian’ pattern. As the traditional social structure was maintained after the revolution and it reinstated old structure as the Muslim clergy came into power. To understand what led to the Iranian Revolution of 1979, we need to look back into the Iranian history and the timeline leading up to the revolution. In doing so, we can use the psychological theories of revolution and structural- functionalist theories of revolution in order to analyses and explain the cause of the Iranian Revolution.

Iran has always, it seems, been the breeding ground for some kind of political upheaval or another. In recent times, back in 1979, there was a major revolution which was, in some ways, similar to the revolution we are seeing today. The people were angry and they were tired of being controlled by the government that was in power. They had concrete ideals and were incredibly passionate about their revolution. The revolution Iran is experiencing today does not appear to be quite as passionate and does not appear to maintain a belief in any real solid political system. They just know they want something different. In the following paper we present an illustration of the current revolution that is taking

The Iranian revolution or the 1979 Islamic Revolution refers to an uprising that occurred in Iran between 1978 and 1979 that led to overthrow of Pahlavi Dynasty leading to the establishment of the Islamic Republic. The revolution which began as a democracy movement, ended with establishment of the first Islamic republic in the world and although it may have turned the Iranian state upside down, it become one of the defining 20th Century event. Many believe that the revolution lacked customary causes of a revolution and thus came as a surprise because Iran seemed to enjoy relative prosperity and was experiencing change at a great speed. However, the Iranians seemed unsatisfied with the way its government was run. They

Religion goes hand in hand with culture, and in the Muslim countries this is very apparent. The cultural importance of men over women may have stemmed from religion, however it was further recognized when imperialist countries introduced capitalism and class divides. “Islam must combat the wrenching impact of alien forces whose influence in economic, political, and cultural permutations continues to prevail” (Stowasser 1994, 5). Now, instead of an agrarian state where both men and women had their place, difficulties have formed due to the rise in education and awareness that women can and do have a place in society beyond domestic living Though women are not equal to men anywhere around the

For example, after the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and the rise of an Islamic republic in 1979, Iranian women’s rights declined drastically, as can be seen in the political cartoon from The Minneapolis Star. In this cartoon, a wilted flower represents Iranian women’s rights, and a devious Muslim man is seen in the background, which presumably symbolizes the new Islamic government led by the Ayatollah Khomeini. Thus, the creation of this new government has greatly diminished whatever women’s rights were previously established in Iran (Doc 9). This source, an American newspaper, may not be as accurate as, for example, a Muslim source because of a general American unfamiliarity with Islam. Princess Ashraf Pahlavi, a high-class Islamic woman, described her experiences as a Muslim female during this period in her memoir Faces in a Mirror: Memoirs from Exile. This specific excerpt depicts the immediate obedience of high-class Islamic women to their male superiors, despite their own intentions (Doc 10). Thus, although there were sparse attempts to reform the status of Islamic women in the 20th century, in general, the role of women remained the same, or in some cases it was even worse than before.

A revolution is a mass movement that intends to violently transform the old government into a new political system. The Iranian Revolution, which began in 1979 after years of climax, was an uprising against the Shah’s autocratic rule resulting in much religious and political change. Shah Muhammad Reza Pahlavi made efforts to remove Islamic values and create a secular rule and “westernize” Iran through his White Revolution. In addition, his tight dictatorial rule and attempts at military expansion felt threatening to the people, who desired a fairer governmental rule immensely influenced by Islam. Afterwards, governmental affairs became extremely influenced by Islamic traditions and law which created changes religiously and politically