Women and Politics in Iran: Veiling, Unveiling, and Reveiling

by Hamideh Sedghi

Why were urban women veiled in the early 1900s, unveiled from 1936 to 1979, and reveiled after the 1979 revolution? This question forms the basis of Hamideh Sedghi's original and unprecedented contribution to politics and Middle Eastern studies. Using primary and secondary sources, Sedghi offers new knowledge on women's agency in relation to state power. In this rigorous analysis she places contention over women at the centre of the political struggle between secular and religious forces and demonstrates that control over women's identities, sexuality, and labor has been central to the consolidation of state power. Sedghi links politics and culture with economics to present an integrated analysis of the private and public lives of different classes of women and their modes of resistance to state power.

Genres: Islam, Gender, Religion, Middle East, Nonfiction

360 pages, Hardcover

First published May 31, 2007

Reviews

[Brian Griffith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Sedghi gives a good, critical presentation on the evolution of public standards for women over the past century. She covers the efforts of Reza Shah's government to "liberate" women by banning the veil -- as a means for drawing them into “productive” work. As the shah bluntly instructed a crowd of newly unveiled women in 1936, “Remember your duty: work … Be good educators of the future generation … Serve your country. Save, avoid luxuries and be useful to your nation” (p. 86).

She covers the efforts of female reformers under Muhammad Reza Shah, for example the shah's sister Ashraf's initiatives to consolidate the country’s 17 major women’s associations, forming a federation later called the High Council of Women’s Organizations, with herself as honorary chair. Over the objections of many organization leaders. Ashraf then presided over a kind of “state feminism,” where established, conformist women took “queen bee” roles, and oppositional women’s organizations were basically silenced (p. 13). Meanwhile, the government killed 37 female leaders of left-wing rebel groups (during the 1970s), with the shah’s security agents "disappearing" non-violent female critics, such as literary commentator Atefeh Gorgin or sociologist Dr. Vida Hajebi Tabrizi (p. 188).

The action only gets more dramatic following the 1979 revolution.

[Bryan Mercke · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very informative. The book could have dealt more with the population and how they reacted to the government's policies.

[bara · Rating 4 out of 5]

I used this book to write my ee and it has been one of the most helpful pieces of literature I have read in the last few years; Sedghi goes into depth in many aspects of both causes and consequences of the three policies - Veiling, unveiling, and reveling. There could have been more added on the judiciary part:)

[Limme]

A wonderful book about the Iran cultural changes since the revaluation took place.It's a good resource to understand part of Iranian society view from a indigence prospective.

[Jessica]

Why do I always find the book I needed for a project at the very end, when it's too late to read it?