Women’s struggles against compulsory Hijab in Iran

will pave the way for deepening the struggle against oppression and exploitation!

The recent uprising of the Iranian people against Islamic regime of Iran has rightly targeted all fractions of the regime. The main force of this uprising was the working class and those who are driven out of the formal economy and the basic life. 40% of the population and 70% of workers live under the poverty line. Unemployment is estimated to be up to 40%. Workers wages have not been paid for several months and in some cases even years. The class division has reached its highest level as the lives and works of the people, national resources and the whole society’s wealth is at the hands of a few who are in the circle of government or somehow those connected to the government.

But there is another important aspect to poverty. It has become very feminine. The phenomenon of women's prostitution and street sleeping in Iran has reached its highest level. Unemployment among women is increasing and is said to be three times higher than men. While women who have jobs, their salaries are lower than those of men. In the process of unemployment, female employees are easily sacked. Women are the most deprived among the deprived, and this particular situation of women in the society is not accidental. They are not only the most oppressed but also the most exploited in the society. With the intensity of the patriarchal relation in society, it can be expected that poverty has become so feminine, and violence against women, to become more intense. Property relation, domination and exploitation relations in the whole society are most evident and most severe with women by all the oppressive laws and class relations. At the center of these laws and property relations, is the law of the compulsory hijab.

About 40 years ago, Khomeini built one of the most important foundations of his "Islamic Revolution" on women's Hijab and made it the symbol and ideological flag of their system. By declaring compulsory Hijab, the Islamic regime declared unequal relations as the basis of its sovereignty and that the regime was based on repression, discrimination, widespread violence and women's slavery. The regime intended to force women to get used to being obedient, second class, fearful and unaccounted, humiliated and insulted, and thus alienate them from their identity and humanity. With compulsory  Hijab, this regime promoted an intensive patriarchal culture in the entire society, and gave men more privileged status and special place both in law and in culture and tradition more than before, so as to make women part of their own private property. The depth and breadth of this violence on women in a society that half are controlled by the other half, reflects patriarchal relations, which directly connects to the dominant production relation in the society

Therefore, women not only play a major role in the struggle, but because of the particular oppressions that are imposed on them by anti-women laws, they are a special explosive force. 

in today's turbulent scene, where all class forces from the Us imperialists - with Trump/ Pence fascist regime on its top- to patriarchal imperialists of Europe and Russia, who each seek their short and long-term interests in Iran, it is imperative to remain conscious and struggle for women’s freedom and equality. We have witnessed the hollow, populist and highly opportunistic claims of these states to the struggles of the people and the role of women in it, reflecting their reactionary aim to exploit the struggles of the people, especially women. These governments that are the main operators of the worldwide male-dominated capitalist- imperialist system based on inequality, with gender inequality one of its foundations, and are now presenting themselves as "advocates" of the people's protests and women's rights in Iran.

As one of the most fundamental rights of women, the issue of fighting compulsory Hijab in confronting the Islamic regime of Iran, and the emergence of a political conscious struggle in public even by individuals; out of everyday women’s resistance and struggle, must be one of the important achievements for women's movement at this time. But women need a quick and serious advance with targeted plans in order to sustain this achievement.

Without revolutionary organizations, and without struggle for women’s freedom and equality, a new society in which all the people are free from oppression and exploitation cannot be created. It’s time for women to be united and organized and be at the forefront of a revolution that not only overthrow the Islamic Republic regime, but also help to build a new society that is the beginning of the emancipation of women and society from oppression and exploitation.

8 march women’s organisation (Iran- Afghanistan)-UK

 1 May 2018  

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