Freedom under the Veil

Description

After the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Western press frequently reported that women had definitively lost the freedoms propagated by the Shah, based on European models. Indeed, several laws intended to grant women equality along Western lines were repealed. The chador, a long, flowing cloak that conceals hair and body shape, is also being worn more frequently again, primarily by female students and activists. Conversations with Iranian women—professors, women's rights activists, workers, and farmers—reveal that the chador was also an expression of resistance against the Shah's regime. Women, in particular, actively participated in the struggle and left their traditional sphere of home and family. Whether they can maintain their active role in society depends, in part, on whether Islam continues to be interpreted as requiring women to be subservient to men, or whether they are recognized as having equal rights in religion and society.