Veiled Employment: Islamism and the Political Economy of Women’s Employment in Iran

3. From Postrevolution to the Reform: Gender Politics and Employment

83 3 From Postrevolution to the Reform Gender Politics and Employment Roksana Bahramitash and Hadi Salehi Esfahani Gender Rights and the Reform Movement The previous chapter concluded with a brief discussion of dynamic jurisprudence. In the current chapter we will further examine how this hermeneutical turn became an important part of the reform movement. The concept of dynamic jurisprudence was not a novel one, but it was in the aftermath of the revolution that debates over it became animated. Once in power, religious authorities faced shortterm and long-term economic and social problems. To tackle the complexities involved in the economic and social planning for a huge country like Iran, a certain flexibility of religious interpretation was required. From the very beginning, the religion-based state had to operate on a pragmatic level to maintain the operations of a state and national economy in an increasingly globalized world. For instance, immediately after the revolution with the onslaught of the Islamization process, a debate erupted over the question of charging interest, putting in jeopardy the whole banking system. According to Shari‘a law, any interest charged is considered usury and is therefore forbidden . However, it became immediately clear that it was not possible to envision a country such as Iran closing all its banks. Iran’s ruling clerics wanted the Islamic banking system to be an example, one that would inspire the rest of the Muslim world. The founding elite 84 • Veiled Employment of the Islamic republic were not the Taliban; there was a pressing need to solve matters in such a way that would reconcile religion with the everyday reality of the country. Ironically, the debate over usury and banking took place while the banks continued to operate. Until a solution was found, banks did not pay interest; instead, they paid their clients a share of their profits. Debates similar to the one just mentioned were subject to heated discussion while Iran’s new constitution was written. One of these subjects became increasingly central, eliciting a debate that was long-lasting and in some eyes the most significant debate of postrevolutionary Iran, namely the question of women and their public role. The revolution relied heavily on the massive support of women, many of whom came from low-income backgrounds. After the revolution, the Islamic government and the ruling elite needed the support of women to carry out social and economic programs. As discussed in the previous chapter, a large number of women worked as volunteers, and without their effort the Islamic Republic could not have survived (see Rostami-Povey 2001). During the war with Iraq, millions of women, many of them from small cities and villages, supported the war effort by preparing food and clothing and donating money.1 Ironically, while the state needed their support, the same state changed women’s legal status in such a way that it undermined women’s significance in Iranian society. What few rights women had gained under the Shah’s family law reform were suddenly lost. Millions of women who supported their husbands, sons, and brothers as they went into battle for their country and for the revolution found themselves, when their husband or son-in-law died on the front, losing custody of their children, or grandchildren, to their father-in-law. There was a huge contradiction between the state’s need for women’s support for its legitimization, coupled with public celebration of female roles as mothers and wives, and the state’s withdrawal of support for the same mothers and wives when it came 1. Interview by Bahramitash with Professor Sam Aram in Tehran, 2005. From Postrevolution to the Reform • 85 to gender laws such as the custody of their children. The loss of custody rights in particular sent shock waves throughout Iranian society and outraged women, especially those who had fought hard to bring the Islamic Republic into power. For many of these pious women who had worked hard in the service of revolutionary goals, violation of their rights was unacceptable. The unjust changes in women’s rights fueled a movement of gender advocacy among both religious and secular women. This process slowly gathered momentum, particularly among the Islamist women. Islamist women, inspired by the revolutionary rhetoric of social justice and equality, demanded an extension of the concept of justice to women’s issues in order to address gender inequalities. They were mobilized around the issue of...