Feminism in Iran Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2000 words

Feminism in Iran - Essay Example Such a rejection in Islamic societies is often associated with the fact that it is seen as being part of western, middle class ideology and a very negative aspect of modernization. Modern day Iran is a strongly fundamentalist Islamic nation, at least as far as those who control it are concerned, with only 2% of the population being non-Islamic. Of the Muslims 89% are Sunnis and the rest are Shia. Despite all the elderly clerics who the media seem to concentrate upon Iran is a relatively young country with a median age of 28.6 years and only 5% of people living beyond retirement age.( World Fact Book, undated) Both sexes average the same length of schooling, but men out do women as far as literacy rates go – a difference of 13.1% in 2002. (World Fact Book) . The women have comparatively few children compared with many other countries – an average of 1.88 each. This is in part explained by an infant mortality rate running at almost 10 times that of the United Kingdom (World Fact Book), but also be the easy availability of contraception. What the figures do not show is how a society that was privately patriarchal has now become publicly patriarchal. Has women’s position really been changed as the post revolutionary state put in place a strongly patriarchal system of legislation – or is it just that the control over women has become more public – as the picture at the head of this piece seems to show? Less than 4 weeks after the downfall of the ruling family and the exit of the Shah, Khomeini was launching an attack on female Iranians. His timing was important - the eve of International Women’s Day - this was when he demanded a strict observance of Islamic dress codes.(Shahidian 2002, page 112) In June 2009 there were elections in Iran. The two main contenders were Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the pro- polygamy incumbant, and Mir-Hossein Mousavi, a more liberal thinker who had vowed to remove laws which were oppressing women . However he did not win the election . In the period immediately followin g the Second World War many Islamic nations embraced modern , Western inspired ideas. ( Haddad and Esposito 1998, page ix) .These ideas included such things as educational patterns, legislation and social codes. Mnay women stopped wearing the veil and became increasing involved in public activities, and to a certain extent barriers between the sexes were