Iran Curbing Women's Rights

As religious conservatives in Iran gain more power, the rights of the people begin to reduce. The first to feel the pinch are, of course, Iranian women: hardliners want to severely curtail the rights and freedoms women have managed to eke out over the past years.

According to Straits Times:

After the legislative session began in June, the 290-member Parliament, including all 12 of the women, abruptly rejected proposals to expand the inheritance right of Iranian women and to adopt the United Nations convention that bans discrimination against women. They also backed away from previous efforts to make gender equality a goal of the country's next four-year development plan. Instead, the new Parliament has called for placing more restrictions on women's attire and on their social freedoms.

In recent months ... newspapers have reported that scores of women have been arrested in Teheran and around the country because they were wearing what the authorities considered to be un-Islamic dress. Members of Parliament have called for segregating men and women at universities and for other limits on women's activities. Hardliners have held protests to call for a crackdown on freedoms for women and have contended that women ridicule religious sanctities by violating the dress code.

Unfortunately for religious conservatives, it may be that freedoms have already gone too far for them to reverse:

Nearly two-thirds of Iran's population are under 30, and more than 60 per cent of university students are women. They have become more vocal and they demand equal rights, jobs and more legal rights within the family structure. 'The general trend in this country is moving towards reforms,' said Ms Haleh Anvari, a political analyst. 'These restrictions are like putting a little stone in front of a huge storm that is going for reform.'

Women also reacted when Ms Fatimeh Aliya, a hardline MP, suggested that polygamy was a way to improve the lot of poor women. ... A former MP, reacting to her comment, suggested that perhaps Ms Aliya's husband should be encouraged to lead the way.

The current system is facing many of the same pressures that brought down the Shah and created what we see now: large numbers of young people, too little work, and an autocratic regime that is more interested in maintaining its own power than in serving the people, even at the expense of the average person's liberties. It's unlikely that we will see another full-scale revolution, but there could be some major changes in store.

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