[Professor]
Iran and Turkey are predominantly Islamic countries. Women since time immemorial share the same sentiments of male domination and severe violence and non-participation. On the other hand, both countries have women’s movements that are still in place up to this day. Both of the movements have ebbs and flows but they were able to withstand the wrath of patriarchy, and most importantly, they were able to fight back. From being marginalized and subjected to state fascism, women in Iran and Turkey are now enjoying some of the fruits of the long-running women’s movements. Their dreams of equality regardless of sex, gender, class and religion are not achieved yet but some had been served through policies and laws because of their strong dissent. Iran and Turkey women’s movements did went through several influences of feminism namely Socialist Feminism, Kurdish Feminism, and Islamic Feminism but their movements both aimed at attaining full women’s participation in decision making, equal rights in the Islamic law regardless of sex and equal opportunities in livelihood.
The Birth and Rebirth of Feminism in Iran
In Iran, Esfandiari, Haleh in “The Iran Primer” mentioned that in the late 20th century, women were strongly claiming their rightful places in society despite the women unfriendly situation in the country. It was a result of a five-decade long struggle of women. The glory was however short-lived as the theocracy regime came to again push women’s rights under the rug. Repression came back with a curse as the hejab which is an Islamic dress code requiring the covering of face and head was imposed to all women including girls in first grades schools. Esfandiari also mentioned that women were all sacked from their political positions. They were not allowed to positions of power even if they studied for it. Moreover, the Family Protection law that favors women was scraped by the theocratic government resulting to more violence against women. The marrying age of women that was lobbied for several decades to be adjusted to eighteen was retracted. The government imposed what they call part of the shariah or the Islamic law that nine years old is already a marrying age for girls.
Further, polygamy which was previously punishable by law was also scraped giving men the liberty to divorce their wives as they please without any due process. The women were also stripped off their rights to custody of their children. It was the men who have the sole custody to the children. Women were also confined in “soft” jobs like nursing and education while men occupy positions of power including the jobs in the judiciary.
The First Female Judge in Iran
In the biography of Shirin Ebadi, a Nobel price awardee for championing women human rights, she stated that before the theocracy, she held positions of power in the judiciary. She is the first woman in Iran’s history to have occupied position as a judge in 1975. When the Islamic revolution won in 1979, she was sacked from her post as it was prohibited in the Islamic law that women serve judge’s position. She mentioned that she was radically demoted from being a judge into doing clerical work. She was not the only woman who was demoted during that time but all women holding positions of power had to be appointed into “softer” occupations. This was met with dissent by the women’s movement including Ebadi. As a result of their protests, Ebadi and the other women were appointed as “experts” in the Department of Justice. In her frustration, she submitted her resignation which was gladly accepted. She was then confined in her home as she was not allowed to practice law by the Bar Association until 1992. In her unemployed years, she wrote many articles which were published in several papers in general publication. Her writings were mainly about women’s rights and equality under the Islamic law. When she was finally given her license in 1992, she used it to help the victims of violence against women in the legal arena. In the repressive society in Iran, Ebadi was strong enough to resist and continue fighting.
Personal is Political Movement in Turkey
Meanwhile, the struggle for women’s political participation paved way for the first wave of feminism in Turkey in 1923 during the formation of the Turkish Republic. Leake, Adam cited that the situation was favourable for women as they were given equal rights in terms of inheritance, divorce and custody over children. The new state was however threatened with the formation of a political party that only focuses on women that is why the government shut it down. This repression pushed Nezihe Muhittin who was a staunch women rights activist to form the Turkish Women’s Union. The union made a huge success in lobbying for the women’s right to vote. This success made the Kemalist elite to shut down the women’s union in 1935. This ended the life of a growing feminist movement.
Leake, Adam in his essay entitled, “A Brief History of Feminist Movements in Turkey” said that the second wave of feminism was came to life in 1980 after the Ottoman Empire. The most powerful feminist movement at that time was the Western influenced which adopted the popular call, “personal is political.” They believe that domestic violence is a reflection of a structural problem that allows men to dominate women. The other feminism that was also gaining roots after the said empire was Islamic feminism and Kurdish nationalist feminism.
It was in 1987 when about three thousand women march the streets of Istanbul to rally against domestic abuse. The birth of Islamic feminism was also in the 1980s when women started to complain about wearing the veil as a standard in the Islamic law. The Islamic feminism was however criticized as they consider the Islam religion as the only way to achieve equality between men and women. They used the religion to counter the growing socialist feminism which they tagged as “communist”. The Kurdish nationalist feminism grew during the massive evictions and fascism against the Kurdish population in the villages in the late 1980s to 1990s. They are fighting for gender equality within the scope of their struggle to liberation from the Turkish domination.
The spectrum of women’s rights in Turkey like that of Iran was mainly fighting for the equal rights of women and men and the end of domestic violence. However the movement did not only focus on domestic violence but also include in its campaign the gender discrimination in the workplace and women’s participation in politics.
Leake only mentioned the strands of feminism after the Ottoman Empire in Turkey. He missed to tell about the ideas of feminism even during the reign of the empire. In the article entitled, “Turkish Feminism – Fatma Aliye in the late Ottoman Empire,” there was an educated woman who tried to question Islamic patriarchy through her writings. She was Fatma Aliye who unlike most women in the Ottoman Empire was learned. She was raised in an elite family who encouraged their children, both men and women, to study. Aliye studied alongside her brother which was prohibited during that time as women were confined with the roles dictated by the Islam religion. She was voracious in learning that even literatures written in foreign language caught her interest. At a young age, she secretly studied to speak French but when her father knew it, he even hired a private tutor for her.
Aliye’s world views on women were influenced by the Western literatures. In her writings, she started expressing her views on the inequality between men and women in terms of access to education. She believes that Islam religion did not prohibit the women to gain knowledge. In fact she was famous in a quotation that says God possesses knowledge and gave it as a gift to his slaves who are men and women. Like Ebadi of Iran, she is known for being a journalist. He views on equality regardless of gender were published in one of the women newspapers. But unlike Ebadi who battled theocracy by using her profession and defending people in need, Aliye has an individualist tendency. She never joined any group which can be explained by her upbringing hailing from an educated and elite family. Her participation in the women’s movement during the Ottoman Empire was mostly in contributing analysis to patriarchy through her writings. She and other women writers during that time were influenced by the European liberal ideals especially during the French Revolution.
On the other hand, Aliye was criticized for trying to maintain the status quo of women’s roles in the family according to the Islamic laws. Yes, she was a staunch defender of women’s rights to education but ironically, she believes that women should still maintain their positions. Ebadi was different from Abadi of Iran who fought for women’s political participation and the right to hold positions of power. Aliye’s writings are being criticized by today’s feminists. Most feminist say that fighting patriarchy needs bold and daring movements that will go against their traditional roles as women based on the standards of the Islamic law.
The Solidarity within the Feminist Spectrum
Going back to the second wave of feminism in the 1980s, Gündüz, Suhal in his article entitled, “The Women’s Movement in Turkey:From Tanzimat towards European Union Membership” said that the pluralistic yet bound in solidarity women’s movement grew stronger that they were able to demand the new government to ratify the United Nation’s Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Before the three thousand delegations in women’s protest in Istanbul, the women’s movement were able to collect seven thousand signatures for the state to implement the CEDAW. On the other hand, Gündüz mentioned that the women’s protest in Istanbul which was mentioned above was ignited by the case of a pregnant woman who filed for divorce due to the domestic violence perpetrated by her husband. The judge at that time dismissed the petition for divorce because of traditional and religious reasons.
It can be said that the women’s movement in Turkey is highly influenced by the situation where domestic violence is rampant and is being covered by the religion and the patriarchal state. The solidarity of the strands of feminism in the country made change possible for the lives of many Turkish women. There is however an observed marginalization of the Kurdish nationalist feminist among the spectrum of feminist movements.
Both Iran and Turkey experienced the ebbs and flows of their feminist movement. Both fought for their rights to education which had been denied to women for countless generations. Islamic feminism is also common to both countries with Iran as more progressive than in Turkey. Turkey’s Islamic feminists assert that equality can only be achieved within the Islamic laws and condoned the confinement of women in traditional roles. Iran’s Islamic feminism on the other hand was able to break women’s roles under the Sharia. They dared to wage battle against male domination in the workplace and redeemed their selves from being confined with “soft” jobs like nursing, education and clerical work. Iran’s Islamic feminist movement was able to lift the law that prohibits women to practice law and become judges.
As an impact of strong women’s movements in both countries, maternal deaths according to the data from the World Health Organization declined from 1990 which was the peak of feminism to 2013.
Works Cited
Basu. Amrita (Ed.). “Women’s Movements in the Global Era.” Westview Press, (2010).
Ebadi, Shirin. “Shirin Ebadi – Biographical.” Nobelprize.org: The Official Website of the Nobel Prize, (2003). Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Esfandiari, Haleh. “The Iran Primer: The Women’s Movement.” United States Institutes of Peace. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Iran Human Rights Documentation Center. “Silencing the Women’s Rights Movement in Iran.” Iranhrdc.org, (2014). Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
WHO. “Maternal Mortality in 1990-2013: Turkey.” World Health Organization. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
WHO. “Maternal Mortality in 1990-2013: Iran.” World Health Organization. Web. 5 Dec. 2014.
Leake, Adam. “A Brief History of Feminist Movements in Turkey.” E-International Relations Students, (29 Aug. 2012). Web 5 Dec. 2014.
