Day of solidarity for Iranian women + elections

(several links go to the photo-blog of Arash Ashoorinia for his great photography of Iranian events)

June 12th is the Day of Solidarity for Iranian women’s rights activists. On this day 4 years ago, there was a public gathering of a large and diverse group of Iranian women’s rights activists in front of Tehran university. They demanded equality in the Iranian legal system. On June 12th of the next year, a similar gathering which was planned to take place in Tehran’s 7-Tir square was met with police violence before it even really started and several women’s rights activists were arrested. The One Million Signatures Campaign to Change Discriminatory Laws was born out of this day. For the past years, Iranian women’s rights activists celebrate this day every year, sometimes not being able to congregate due to security pressures and simply resorting to smaller gestures of reminder across Tehran.

This year, June 12th coincides with Iranian presidential elections ; campaign rallies for this election have brought Iranians to the streets in record numbers in support of their candidates. As you might have heard, and as I have blogged here and here previously, the activism of feminists during the past 4 years (and their collective push for shedding light on women’s demands before the election) has started to bear fruit  and one can see this in the platforms and discourse of presidential candidates. Two reformist candidates, Mousavi and Karroubi, and one of the conservative candidates, Rezaie, have expressed clearly what they are planning to do to improve the status of women in the country. Some of these plans are better than others, but the point is the fact that they exist, and that they are detailed and specific. The only candidate who is not really talking about women’s rights is Ahmadinejad, Iran’s current president. But even he has been appearing with his wife next to him on the campaign trail, very much like other candidates’ spouses. In fact it is the first time in Iran’s elections (at least since I was born) that the spouses of candidates are visibly campaigning with them. Here is an excerpt of NPR’s short report on the positions of each candidate on women’s rights:

Mehdi Karoubi: Mehdi Karoubi was the first presidential contender to clarify his thinking on women, which was outlined in a statement issued on May 20, 2009. In this statement as well as a later ones issued on civil rights he emphasized the need to review laws that discriminate against women, the need to ensure the presence of women in governmental and state decision making positions, including as ministers, as members of the guardian council, the expediency council and the council of experts.

Mr. Karrubi has emphasized the need to implement articles in the constitution that support women’s rights and to try to sign on to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). He has also emphasized the need for women’s access to education, the reversal of limiting educational policies pertaining to women adopted during the Presidency of Ahmadinejad and the important role of housewives.

In fact, Mr. Karoubi has been rather progressive in his declarations with respect to women’s rights, human rights, citizen’s rights, even the rights of minority groups, which has served to elevate the level of discourse in these respects within the elections and at least among the reformist candidates.

Mirhossein Mousavi: Mirhossein Mousavi, who has been identified as the main challenger to President Ahmadinejad, also issued a statement outlining his thinking and programs for women. This statement is very comprehensive and rather detailed in terms of policy initiatives he intends to adopt as President and calls for the re-examination of laws that discriminate against women, the joining of CEDAW with exceptions to ensure that it is in line with Islamic and cultural values, and working to empower women in the social, economic, professional and education spheres, through the adoption of policies addressing these issues as well as inclusion of women in decision making roles as ministers and high level managers.

In this statement he also commits to reversing some of the policies that Mr. Ahmadinejad had adopted with respect to placing quotas on the university entrance of female students. This statement also emphasizes the need to address the "glass ceiling" faced by professional women, a concept which was first introduced in Iran during the Khatami Presidency.

Mohsen Rezaee: Mohsen Rezaee too issued a statement outlining his views on women, in which he emphasized and placed great value on the traditional roles of women, especially housewives. In this statement he provided assurances about providing salaries and insurance to housewives, while also committing to taking steps to ensure the "equality" of women in society.

The use of the term equality between men and women is significant, but especially significant coming from a conservative candidate. Policy with respect to women in Iran has been defined in the context of equity, which emphasizes the concept of fair treatment of men and women but claims that women and men are different and therefore they have different roles, responsibilities and "rights".

Specifically Rezaee has proclaimed that he will pursue policies which seek to: bring about a balance in the rights and responsibilities of men and women within the family and the equality of rights for men and women in society; promotion of women’s organizations; and the fair distribution of opportunities and resources for women in sports, education, professional and jobs, health and production and business.

Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: While President Ahmadinejad has been largely silent on his policies on women, his administration took several major steps in this respect, which have come under severe criticism by women’s rights and human rights activists. These include the changing of the name of the Center for Women’s Participation to the Center for Women and Families, which has worked ever since to promote the role of women as mothers and wives.

The adoption of the Social Safety program, which targets women on the streets for their Islamic dress, the adoption of quotas limiting the entrance of women into university and proposals designed to ensure that women attend university in their local communities, unless they have the permission of their fathers or husbands to do otherwise–a concession after the proposal received great criticism.

Additionally, Ahmadinejad included two contested and highly criticized provisions in the Family Support Bill put forth to the parliament by the Judiciary. In and of itself this intrusion in the domain of the Judiciary by the executive branch was unprecedented and received great criticism from women’s rights groups as well as the Judiciary. The two provisions sought to ease restrictions on polygamy and impose a tax on Mehrieh (the sum specified in the marriage contract which is to be paid to women at their demand and which is often the only safeguard women have after they get married, given their limited rights in marriage). Reportedly both measures have since been taken out of the Bill after outcry by women’s rights activists and their march on Parliament. The revised Bill will be taken up for review by the full parliament after the elections.

Despite the fact that Ahmadinejad has been silent on women’s issues in the Presidential race thus far, his Advisor on women’s issues and the Head of the Center for Women and Families, broke her general silence on women’s issues and speaking to the press in a surprising hostile tone, attacked the policies of reformists who had tried to sign onto CEDAW in the previous administration vowing to disclose damaging information in this respect. She went on to further attack the members of the One Million Signatures Campaign and also Shirin Ebadi.

As I’m blogging, Iranians are casting their votes in Iran and around the world. Iran is only a partial democracy and most of those who try to become candidates are rejected by a council of "guardians". But even now the selection of a president who might improve freedoms and equality can make a difference for the women’s movement and other civil society groups. So let’s all cross our collective fingers.