Iran: The erosion of women's rights and "political Islamism"
Source:
SCMP From the universities to the theatres, Iranians have a tradition of civil activism that predates the revolution.
Writing in the South China Morning Post, Ivan Broadhead looks at how, following the 2006 re-emergence of stoning as a means of execution, Iranians are demanding changes to the country's hardline laws to match modern society's lifestyles.
This is an excerpt from the SMCP article:
"It surprises people when I tell them that the women's movement in Iran is one of the most vibrant in civil society," says associate professor Vivienne Wee, director of Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts research at Hong Kong's City University. "Remember, Iranian women were fully engaged in the overthrow of the brutal shah [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979] and the creation of the republic. As revolutionaries and equals in the struggle, they sought to claim full citizenship rights alongside the men."
"It surprises people when I tell them that the women's movement in Iran is one of the most vibrant in civil society," says associate professor Vivienne Wee, director of Women's Empowerment in Muslim Contexts research at Hong Kong's City University. "Remember, Iranian women were fully engaged in the overthrow of the brutal shah [Mohammad Reza Pahlavi, in 1979] and the creation of the republic. As revolutionaries and equals in the struggle, they sought to claim full citizenship rights alongside the men."
The erosion of women's rights, Wee argues, is rooted in the way "political Islamism" suppressed the egalitarian ideals of the revolution. The political Islamists who captured power justified their opposition to the relative emancipation of women under the shah - superficially symbolised by women smoking American cigarettes, driving Italian cars and wearing French fashion - on the grounds that feminism was a western concept and therefore alien to their religion. But such a rationale flies in the face of the core values of Islam, as Wee and other scholars view them.
"Islam is very concerned with equality in the eyes of God," she says. "The religious duties of women are no less than those of men. And, if you look at religious texts and other sources, you see that in the historical context of his time, the Prophet was a supporter of women." She notes, for instance, how Mohammed promoted inheritance rights and proscribed female infanticide. "Many Iranian women find it possible to assert their rights based on this interpretation of an emancipating Islam," Wee says.
[...] Stoning, prescribed for adultery under section 83 of the penal code, re-emerged in the spring of 2006 with the judicial killing of a couple in the holy town of Mashhad just a few months after President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's conservative government took office.
Despite a 2002 moratorium issued by Ayatollah Shahroudi, the head of the judiciary, human rights activist and lawyer Shadi Sadr reported just months after the Mashhad stoning that another woman, Ashraf Kalhori, faced imminent execution for adultery. Mobilising support nationally and internationally, the Stop Stoning Forever campaign was born and soon discovered nine women and two men were facing death by stoning for the same offence.
Article 104 of the penal code indicates that the stones used to execute an adulterer should not be so large that they kill immediately nor so small that they are mere pebbles. Wee, who is an adviser to the campaign, explains, however, that the Koran does not mention the punishment, even though it appears in the Torah and, subsequently, the Bible (Deuteronomy 22:22-23). She says the method of execution discriminates against women.
"The victims are buried in a hole but, while the men are buried up to their waists, for women, the soil is compacted to shoulder level. This is a crucial distinction because traditionally, if the victims can escape, they are allowed to live ... of course, women seldom do," Wee says.
08 February 2009
By: Ivan Broadhead
Source: South China Morning Post
