Sixty years ago, women in Iran could wear miniskirts. Today, they are punished for showing their hair. How did Iran get here?
Here's a brief history of women's rights in Iran.
Here's a brief history of women's rights in Iran.
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00:00This is Iran 40 years ago. I know it's hard to believe but this
00:04is literally how we used to dress. This, this is Iran now.
00:30Women in Pahlavi, Iran did have the right to vote. They had the
00:35right to divorce. Women were in all fields um as in terms of
00:40their careers. There was not really uh too many limitations.
00:51He in essence forces uh women to remove their headscarves by
00:57law and by force. Um and it was very traumatic uh and and in
01:02the sense that um society was not ready for it and people did
01:05not want that. Uh and then uh later his son actually allows
01:11and and reduces the enforcement of this. So, that's why you
01:14have pictures throughout the 60s and 70s of women in mini
01:18skirts as well as a full body covering.
01:27In particular because of the forced removal of the hijab on
01:39women when the Islamists come to power, they use this as a
01:42cultural marker and so in the same way that the removal was
01:46forced in 1979, you have the forced uh reimposition of
01:51uh different types of hijab on women. It was really the
01:54signifier for the the the laws to come, right? The
01:57elimination of women from the legal profession, the
02:00elimination of women from so much the public sphere. Once
02:04the decree goes out that women will have to wear hijab, it
02:07will be mandatory the next day which is International Women's
02:11Day in 1979. You have tens of thousands of women who go out
02:15into the streets and they protest against this. The
02:18position of Islamic law here has started with an order to
02:21women to cover their heads in government offices. Many of
02:24furious, only a minority in Tehran already follow the
02:28instruction.
02:37I think the biggest movements have been in 1999. So, you have
02:42during the Khatami administration that was largely
02:44a university student movement. Um men are the faces of that
02:49movement but you have been definitely the involvement of
02:52women. Women have been part of all of the protests that have
02:56occurred over the past 43 years and before and then in 2009, a
03:01woman again became the face of the Green Movement. Neda Allah
03:05Sultan was murdered on film uh on camera and that was largely
03:10a political movement for reform.
03:22This one is uh very significant because how it crosses all sorts
03:27of different lines of Iranian society. First of all, the
03:30ethno-religious line, even the slogan, women, life, freedom is
03:36a Kurdish slogan and then importantly, men um as women
03:40went out into the streets, men very quickly joined them. So uh
03:44to basically say that this is not just about women or ethnic
03:48groups but it's about human rights and then I I would be
03:52remiss to not add the importance of the administration.
03:56The fact that this administration has during this
03:59time period when Iran has is facing so many economic
04:02problems and so much budgetary mismanagement has decided to
04:06institute a re-Islamization program. All those members of
04:10Gen Z who can't get jobs, who can't get into the
04:13universities, they look and they see is the government helping
04:17pay their bills? Is the government helping them get
04:19jobs? Is the government helping with the budget? No, the
04:22government is going after them for hijab.
04:32They're risking everything. Uh they're risking their very
04:36lives. Uh we are in the thousands now that have been
04:40arrested. We are in the dozens that have been um reported as
04:44dead. Um students and younger people who are not of 18 years
04:50old, they get blackballed out of universities. Those who are
04:53university students will be expelled um and this is
04:56assuming that one is not jailed, tortured, or doesn't die
05:01in custody. Um and so it is very much the basic elements of
05:06human rights that they are risking by engaging in the
05:09protests.