A brief history of women's rights in Iran

Brut America

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.

Transcript

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.

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