Iranian woman

Context

Like any treating article of sociological subjects and the basic rights of the individual in an means-Eastern country, it is useful to keep in mind the importance of the historical and cultural contexts. Thus, a better reading of the article must hold account owing to the fact that the use of terms such as “ sexual segregation ”, necessarily does not carry to Iran of negative connotation as to occident. The glance which an individual carries on identical social facts can vary according to the sociocultural prism with through which these facts are considered. The treatment by the topicality of subjects concerning the human rights or the female condition in Iran, takes different forms thus according to whether one is in Occident or Iran. If the Westerners frequently pay their attention on the questions of the port of the veil, about the appropriate dresses, or the application of the capital punishment to the women, the feminist movement in Iran, him, is worried mainly legal inequalities, living conditions or access to the work and the education of the women in Iran.

The woman in Persian mythology

To include/understand the place of the woman in the Iranian company, it is initially advisable to consider Persian mythology describing the creation of the world and the gods of the Aryen S, which one can find the account in the crowned texts zoroastriens such as the Avesta or the Yasht S. These writings very old probably date from the Indo-Iranian era, the myths were then taken again partly by Ferdowsi in the epopee of the Shah Nameh

Yasht V ( Aban Yasht ) is devoted to the goddess Ardvi Sura Anahita, described like a pretty woman with the firm and hurled body. She is the goddess of all water on the surface of the ground as well as rain, abundance, fertility, unions, love, maternity and victory. The Old ones saw in it the source of the life and it symbolizes the preponderance of the feminine role in the company. It is one of the reasons evoked to explain that the ceremonies of royal crownings were held with the temple of Anahita, first man and first woman. For the Iranian People, man and woman were thus created at the same time, contrary to the revealed religions (Judaïsme, Christianisme, and Islam). Moreover, the original sin for the Aryan ones is as much the fact of the man as of the woman, who enjôlés by Angra Mainyu, see in him them creative.

Historical prospect

Place de la woman during Persian antiquity

One knows few things concerning the women in civilizations pre Achéménides. However, of many archaeological excavations relating to various Iranian sites, of which some go back to 4700 years before J. - C., highlight the use of body make-up and dyes, as well as instruments having been used for their manufacture and their application. In the same way, collars, bracelets, pins, or combs were found in female tombs. Moreover, the religious doctrines developed during the period zoroastrienne and pre-zoroastrienne attest equality which reigned between the man and the woman.

The absence of female representation to Persépolis, whose stone preserves the history of the ancient Perse, is remarkable. All the Low-relief S and statues carved with the apogee of the empire achéménide are male there, representing Taureau X, Lion S, winged standards, men guerroyant, or of the servants going following the king. However, most of Persépolis (particularly interiors) having been destroyed by Alexandre Large the or deteriorated by time, from the researchers does not exclude the possibility of female representations now disappeared. On other Persian ancient sites, female representations on stone were found in a good state of safeguarding. A representation of woman achéménide of high ranking is visible in Louvre, showing this one sat on a stool and ventilated by a maidservant. Its neat setting including make-up in particular, suggests the importance which esthetics could have at the time achéménide.

The sources known about the private life at the time achéménide and sassanide bring above all the elements on the life of the king, the royal family, and to a lesser extent, of noble and the courtiers. Plutarque underlines even the jealousy of the kings towards his/her concubines, which punished of dead those which had approached too close to those.

The women of high birth could even have an influence on the businesses of the State, and the family members royal had their own fields. Many documents arrived to us testify to their implication in the management of the businesses: letters relating to the routing of grain, wine, or animals to the palate since remote possessions. The only limits with the authority of the queen dowager were fixed by the sovereign himself. Such habits persisted until the empire Sassanide, with less importance, even if Purandokht (or Bûrândûkht ), girl of the king Khosrau II, controlled the Persian empire lasting almost two years. At that time, more the female high ranking was held by the mother of the king, then the mother of the crown prince and finally the girls and sisters to the king. In fact, the women were divided into two categories at the time sassanide: the free women had rights and legal responsibilities, like those to sign contracts, to pay its debts, to inherit. These rights were however not equal to those of the men, because the legal capacity of the women was comparable with that of the minors. The women slaves, had only few rights; they were regarded as goods and their value was generally lower than that of a male slave.

Medieval period and Islamization of Iran

The female condition in Iran changes in an important way during the medieval period. Starting from the Islamic Conquest of Persia, the social role of the women changes. Any participation in the public life or the exercise of the capacity their is prohibited. Rights concerning the private sphere are also removed, and of the laws taking as a starting point the Islam from now on the men favor. The Polygamie is facilitated and the port of the Hijab becomes the rule.

In the Shahnameh, the large Persian poet and iranologist, Ferdowsi, itself married with an educated and cultivated woman, an image of the Persian woman presents contrasting with this legal situation. More than twenty women in this work, all appear thus wise, intelligent and sizeable. Two of them, Homai and Gardieh, become “queens” of Persia during the epopee. One can have an idea of the importance of the place that the Persian culture reserve then with the women and their beauty by considering the multitude of masterpieces which are to them dédiés  ; that it is through the miniature , of the painting, or the literature of a Hafez, of which work magnifie femininity. The image showing an young girl equipped with beautiful high clothing colors, holding a cut of Wine with the hand, is a leitmotiv of the portrait in love Persian with the time. The strong erotic load of these images lies more in association of the pleasures enivrants of the wine and the love that in a representation, here unthinkable, nudity. The equality of the kinds is one of the basic principles of the Persian culture, perdurant centuries, just like at the Zoroastriens.

Entry in the modern era

The 19th century should be waited so that women start to mark the history of Moslem Iran.

The first woman appearing nonbuckled in public is Fatemeh, born in 1814, figure of the movement Baha' I. This movement decides indeed in favor of the female emancipation and gives its support for the Iranian feminists. Women resulting from this movement such Khorshid Khanoum and Roustameh travel then in Iran to sensitize the Persian people in connection with the female emancipation. This movement delights the women by the court Qajar E, who support the initiative of Fatemeh, although perceived like radical. Fatemeh finishes carried out by hanging to have tried to kill Nasseredin Shah.

During second half of the 19th century, Taj Saltaneh, girl of Nasseredin Shah devotes part of its autobiography to describe the deplorable conditions of the woman iranienne : she criticizes the obligatory wearing of the veil and insists on the fact that the women are kept away of progress and freedom because of the vestimentary codes which are imposed to them.

At the dawn of the 20th century century, unquestionable modernistic Iranian having travelled in Europe in order to follow high studies there, regard the Islamic Voile as a symbol of backwardness. Its withdrawal, from their point of view, is essential with the progression of Iran which they wish to free from the arabo-Islamic culture. Others, on the contrary, base their speech on the need for educating the women and for making them leave their containment to the hearth. All the modernistic ones were however not opposed to the veil.

The constitutional revolution of Iran between 1905 and 1911 mark a turning in the life of the Iranian women. Only a minority of men and women take by with this revolution, but the engagement of the women their fact of gaining in consideration. The claims of the women during this revolution relate mainly to their political rights: they wish a wide-ranging debate on their place in the company. The participation of the women in the constitutional revolution legitimates the integration of the women and of the men in the company, the need for the education of the women underlines, gives birth to debates on the family and the veil, and finally gives the women an opportunity of organizing and of creating a movement for the women's rights.

It is then a period of growing freedom of expression and social progression of the women (1911 - 1924). Thus, the first school for girls it is rested by American missionaries in the Iranian Azerbaïdjan, the tendency is spread then in other cities (Teheran, Rasht, Hamedan). In 1910, the Times English newspaper underlines the existence of fifty schools for girls with Teheran. These schools are generally held by Christian nuns.

That they are of confession zoroastrienne, Jewish, bahaïe, Armenian or Moslem Christian woman, of the women claim rights émancipateurs as much as the adoption of the Constitution, which takes place during the same year. However, the right of the family remains subjected to the Charia.

Pahlavi period

The defeat of the constitutionnalists (1921 - 1925) and the reinforcement of the capacity of Reza Shah (1925 - 1941) have two contradictory consequences. The newspapers and the independent groups of women are prohibited by the capacity; while the State applies social reforms promoting the education of mass and the remunerated employment of the women. Reza Shah initiates also his discussed policy of Kashf-e Hijab , banishing the port of the Hijab as a public. But, following the example other parts of the company of the time, the women lose the right to express themselves and any dissension with the policy of the mode is repressed.

Acquisition of the political and civil rights for the Iranian women (1931-1979)

It is during the reign of the Pahlavi that the most considerable evolutions of the female condition take place in Iran. In 1931, the Parliament, or Majlis, approves a law which fixes the lawful age of the marriage at 15 years (instead of 13 before). The civil code adopted at that time represents on the other hand a secularization of the Charia; indeed, the judicial power before reserved for the religious courts is given to the jurisdictions of the state, but the spirit of the law is not modified in-depth.

Under the impulse of Reza Shah, a system of state education not making is created any distinction between boys and girls in 1936. This same year, the first women make their entry with the Université of Teheran, a law prohibits purely and simply the port of the veil for the women (and the port of the habits for the men).

The ultimate evolutions of the condition of the women take place under the reign of Mohammad Reza Shah  :

• Right of eligibility and vote granted in 1963
• “Law of Protection of the family” voted in 1967. This law limits the unilateral right of the men to the divorce and the Polygamie whose practice is done very rare because of these new constraints. Article 8 of this law thus prohibits the husband from divorcing without to have obtained a certificate of not-reconciliation on behalf of a court, which is held to try by all the means of reconciling the couple. Moreover, the husband needed the assent of the first wife in order to conclude a second marriage. The temporary marriage ( Sigheh ) was in force like today.
• Foundation of the OFI (Organization of the Iranian women) in 1964 by the princess Ashraf Pahlavi. This organization joins together various organizations which deal with family comfort, of protection of the children, professional training, family planning and legal council.
• Passage of the lawful age of the marriage at 18 years in 1973.
• Of other laws follows then, aiming at facilitating the access of the women to the functions hitherto a41dernier $c-b1, e,10 $c-b26 ce $c-b16 $c-b43, bn,84 reserved to the men (in particular in the legal field). The national service (copied on the model of the Military service Israélien is made compulsory for the unmarried women, who can reach more easily employment in the armed forces and the police force. During the white Revolution, the women called generally serve in the body of the Sepah-e Danesh (" army of the savoir" , with the service of the population in the fields of education, of health and technology).

In a few years, the Iranian woman thus acquires important civil laws and policies. One of the legislatures sees even the election of 22 women among the deputies and two among the senators. The first woman minister (of state education) is Farrokh-Rou Parsa, in the years 1970. In 1976,13,8% of the active population are women, in majority rural In 1978, the women represent 30  % of the students. In 1979, men and women profit from the same educational advantages. The women can moreover work in many professional fields. However, the situation of the rural women is still far from the situation of the urban women. The rural women are educated always little and their situation would have been even degraded because of the fast modernization of the country

Traditional and occidentalized conflict between social models

The attitude of the traditional Iranian company (i.e. other than the middle-classes and higher occidentalized) before the Iranian Révolution is to practice the sexual segregation in the public sphere. In general, the women cover a Chador (fabric part of the size of a cloth whose women entirely cover themselves) when they are in public space, or that men not counting among the members of their family are present in the house. The role of the woman is limited to the tasks domestiques : to hold the hearth and to raise the children. The role of the men is reserved for the sphere publique : they work in the fields, with the Bazaar or in offices. Those which deviate of this model can see the reputation of their family called into question. The clergy seeks to maintain the woman in this traditional role within an Islamic company.

These traditionalists attitudes are confronted violently with the attitudes and the habits of the middle-classes and higher laic, particularly with Teheran. The mixed meetings, in deprived and public, are indeed the standard at the time Pahlavi. The government is the principal promoter of the change of role of the woman in the company. This confrontation between governmental and clerical ideals creates a social conflict which becomes one of the causes of the Iranian revolution.

Before the revolution, three types of women travaillent :

• in the higher social classes, the women work like employees, exert liberal professions, or take part voluntarily in divers  projects; ;
• the laic women of the middle-classes try to follow this model, whereas the women traditionalists of the same class work with the outside only in the event of extreme nécessité  ;
• the women resulting from the low social classes frequently work apart from their hearth, having if not only insufficient incomes to make live their family. This is particularly marked in the big cities.

The day before the Iranian Revolution, the Iranian Société is thus divided between monk traditionalists, preaching the maintenance of the woman in a domestic role in harmony with an Islamic company, and laymen occidentalized, who promote and put into practice the active participation of the woman in the public sphere, and contribute to his victory. Many, resulting from low and average classes is thus projected in the public sphere. During years, impossibility of breaking the barrier of containment to the private sphere was the independent source of frustration for lawyers of the women's right in Iran. The revolution paradoxically makes yield this obstacle in particular relating to the right to leave during the night. When Khomeini, in 1978, invites the women to take part in the demonstrations by being unaware of the curfew to show their opposition to tyranny; million enters, including the nuns traditionalists not having never before thought of leaving their houses without their husbands or their fathers, go down in the street ^, . The call of Khomeini with rising against the Shah thus removes all the doubts in the spirits of the Moslem women as for their right to go in the street of day like night.

Many women who take share with the Iranian revolution belong to the secularized middle-classes, among which the adverse ones with the mode were recruited. Like their companions, these women have as nationalist aspirations and think as the Shah is with the orders of the United States. Some also enlist in groups of Guérilla, like the moudjahedin or the Fedayin S.

Loss of the assets of the time Pahlavi (1979-1989)

With the Iranian Revolution of 1979, the women's right essuie of deep modifications related to religious conservatism. The group which inherits the capacity after this revolution is that of the middle-class traditional and religious (as a majority of the bazaris , working in the Bazaar S), which privileges the restriction of the place of the woman on exclusive private space. The first consequence for the women is the abrogation of the law on the protection of the family, favorable to the women, voted at the time of the Shah. The Islamization of the company thus starts with a reform of the statute of the women, again subjected to the Charia, and drawn aside from all the high public office. Moreover, all the assets of the 20th century are perdus : lowering of the lawful age of the marriage at 9 years, segregation in the buses (women with the back and men with before). This involution causes strong disputes then. A demonstration gathering of the thousands of women, in laymen majority, takes place the day before international day of the Woman, on March 8th, 1980, to protest against the measurements taken by Khomeini. March 11th, nearly 20.000 women meet in the University of Teheran to protest against the measurements taken by the mode, and of many women join them at the time of the demonstration. If the main targets of these measurements are before all the educated and modernistic women, they touch the militant Moslem women also hard. The image of the woman in the speech dominating changes then, passing from that of a socially active woman to that of a woman-wife. One counts nothing any more but four women appointed during the first three legislatures of the Islamic Republic. Nevertheless, many women refuse to return to the hearth and continue to be active in all the fields where they can it, taking part even actively in the effort of war against Iraq. The movement of defense of the women's rights is thus reinforced paradoxically.

Period post-revolutionist

At the end of the years 1980, the Iranian company knows two major events which sign the advent of a new period for the women iraniennes : the death of Khomeini which turns the page of the revolution, and the Guerre Iran-Iraq which finishes by leaving a bloodless nation having sacrificed its lifeblood and whose economy is disaster victim. The urgent need to rebuild and stabilize the country amends of the women, and makes more than ever necessary their reimplication in the Iranian Société.

Resumption of the female militancy

The claims of the civil society start again to be expressed in a rather notable way, particularly those of the women with whom it State can with difficulty refuse to recognize the participation in the revolution, the war, and the implication in the good walk of a country whereas many men were with the face. After the end of the war and the death of Khomeini in 1989, whereas the religious dirigrants take again the speeches preaching a role of the woman limited to that of housewife, educated women become increasingly critical positions of the mode, that they do not find compatible with their new aspirations

There exists in Iran three types of militant for the women's rights:

• the Moslem women traditionalists (resulting from the traditional middle-class or the clerical families or bazaris ), for whom only the Charia is source of law. They preach the return to the active social life while remaining separated from the men (the women would work only for women).
• the modernistic Moslem women (originating in the middle-class traditional but educated and active), who want to reform the legislation to improve the statute of the women in the sphere public and deprived while basing themselves on a modern interpretation of the Charia .
• modernistic laymen (resulting for the majority from the modern middle-class, very educated following the changes brought by Pahlavi). They do not regard the charia as a source of legislation and assert the separation of the clergy and the State. They are these militant which receives the support of the Iranian Diaspora.

Notwithstanding their differences, these types of militant clash less and less after the end of the war. One attends then gradually with the obliteration of the differences in order politico-monk, and emergence, within a total feminist movement, speeches marked by the convergence from the claiming points of view. The feminists, Moslem women or laymen, traditionalists, reformists, or modernistic discuss in the same newspapers, organize meetings, letting take shape a solidarity of sex authorizing collaborations.

A new phase of acquisition of rights

In front of so much of pressure on behalf of the female population and under the aegis of Rafsandjani, the High council of the Cultural revolution creates in 1987 the cultural and social Council of the women. This council founds the executive Institution of the women, makes admit the idea of an adviser of the president for the women, created an Office of the businesses of the women (in 1991), and succeeded in making remove the laws or payments prohibiting or limiting the access of the women to certain university courses. In the same spirit, certain professions open to the women: teaching, medicine, work in laboratory, engineering, pharmacy, social assistance and translation. Certain trade associations remain to them however inaccessible, like the magistrature, the civil help (firemen), or the presidency of the république^, , a clerk reformist who promises a fall of repression and a greater tolerance with regard to the institutions of the civil society. Its election opens one period during which the women can again express their ideas, some making proof of more than audacity in their requests and criticisms.

Under Khatami, the Bureau of the businesses of the women becomes the Center of the Businesses of the participation of the Women . The objective of this new institution is that the women organize and defend their rights. The ONG of defense of the women's rights have thus multiplied for this time, but the government does not give them however the means of being independent. Except the Center of the Participation of the Women , there exist other organizations such as the Cultural and Social Conseil of the Women (created in 1987), the Commission of the Parliament for the Questions of the Women, the Family and Youth (created in 1997), the General Bureau for the Questions of the Women and the Questions Legal the purpose of which is to promote the equality of the sexes in all the fields of the social life, including the legislation, the programs and the projects.

The sixth Majlis of Iran sees the election of partisanes women's rights: one then counts 13 deputies out of the 270 seats. They undertake to change some of the most preserving laws which devote the cultural domination of the men.

But thereafter, during the elections of the seventh majlis, all these representing are declared ineligible by the council of the guards, which authorizes only the candidatures of women of the conservative camp. The new assembly, as envisaged, starts to upset many the laws which the reformists of the sixth majlis had made pass.

The point of view of the women of the conservative camp in connection with the female condition in Iran and of the inequality of the statutes is generally similar to that of the men. Massoumeh Ebtekar, vice-president of Mohammad Khatami for environmental protection does not prefer to give more freedoms to the women and justifies the laws on lapidation while saying: One must also take into account the legal and psychological businesses of the company. If the usual laws of the family are broken, that would have serious consequences for all the company. . It defends also the obligation for a woman to have the authorization of her husband to travel: the man is responsible for the financial businesses and the safety of the hearth. Thus a woman needs the permission of her husband to travel. If not, from the problems and the quarrels will be born within the couple.

The year 1997 marks also the birth of an islamist feminist movement in Iran, which gathers several organizations and individuals. Most influential of them is the Société of the Women of the Islamic revolution , created after the revolution. Its goal is to develop suitable methods to build the company by putting a term at the oppression of the woman. The islamist women in Iran criticize the condition of the women in the historical and modern Islamic companies. From their point of view, thanks to interpretation, handling, and the exaggeration of the direction of certain Koranic texts, the Moslem companies oppress the women since centuries, refusing rights to them and a dignity which an Islam authenticates guarantees them

According to a study carried out with Chiraz in 2000, the Middle Age of the women to the marriage is 17,1 years and the age of the first the 19,5 years procreation. These data are considered to be comparable with those of the country and confirm those of another study going back to 1993, the authors advise with the government to record the lawful age of the marriage. The Middle Age with the first marriage of the women went up to reach 22 years with the census of 1996 the overpopulation induced by the exponential population growth which has followed the revolution led Iran to set up for more than 10 years an ambitious program of Birth control to the center of which the education of the woman on the Contraception revêt greattest importance. The control by the Iranian woman of its fruitfulness and its access to knowledge are thus recognized by all the authorities as being the central pivot of this program. The spectacular fall of the birthrate observed, fact of the exemplary realization of this program a model for all the other countries. The access to contraception is thus facilitated, just as its use, including in the rural areas of the country. The variation observed with the urban areas is reduced notably.

The therapeutic interruption of pregnancy is authorized in Iran since the advent of the Islamic Republic. However, the abortion is prohibited by the penal code.

The combat for the women's rights

New social realities of the Iranian women have constrained the legislators and the specialists in the Islamic law to devote an important part of their writings to the problems of the women and their place in the company. The women and their rights are from now on in the middle of the jurisprudential debates where clash the reforming and preserving visions.

In 1995 is launched the magazine Khānevādeh (" Famille") to speak about problems of families. It becomes in fact a platform to tackle the problems of the women who seek to be constant in their protests against the legal inequities concerning the marriage, the divorce, the guard of the children and domestic violence. This magazine expresses the positions of Moslem feminists, who denounce contradictions of a society based on the Islam which however continues to expose the women to the injustice. Moslem feminism is thus born in Iran in the years 1990; it is a speech of educated urban women (but also of some men) who seek to specify the women's rights under one day religious by carrying out a second reading of the crowned texts. This combat aims at giving a theological legitimacy to a movement for the women's rights in the Muslim world.

Other islamist women go even further in the combat for the rights of women by presenting a vision of the society based on an interpretation of the Islamic texts centered on the women. They denounce the “ways authentically Islamic” presented to the women like being only “patriarchate in an Islamic costume”.

Making following a request expressed by the European Union, the Majlis vote in 2004 a law establishing the equality of the sexes with regard to the Death taxes. This provision is quickly cancelled by the assembly, reorganized by new elections. The withdrawal of the concept of equality of the sexes gained the support of 10 of the preserving female deputies composing new Majlis, one of them justified by the concern of avoiding brimades with the men.

The day of the woman in Iran

According to the Iranian calendar, the 29 Bahman (February 18th) is regarded historically by Persians as the day of the woman, whose celebration goes back to the olden days of the traditions zoroastriennes.

Two days of the Iranian woman are celebrated in Iran: the Iranian mode celebrates on December 16th, day of the birth of Fatemeh, the girl of the prophet, like a celebration of the social role of the woman as a mother, while the militant ones of the women's rights celebrate the world day of the woman on March 8th. A gathering of women asserting the end of sexual discriminations in the country having taken place in Teheran on March 8th, 2006, thus gave place to a violent repression.

A strong presence in arts and the letters

If the Iranian women are present since always in the Art S and the Islamic Littérature, they there are especially represented through the glance of the men, “are dispossessed of their body or their emotions”, often reduced to a social status idealized in a role of wife, widow or mother. The Islamic revolution, in a political attempt at control of art, has maintained for twenty years a literary production and artistic State which is based on this not very innovative model. In parallel, one attends an Iranian female explosion literary and artistic, initially restricted with the Iranian diaspora abroad. This cultural dynamism carrying deep changes is diffused then in Iran even, concerning other artistic sectors. Indeed, because of their broader access to education, the Iranian women have held for several years a place of most important in the contemporary Iranian production intellectual and artistic. This massive presence at the top of all the forms of arts and cultural expressions not only makes carry one new glance on the country, but also radically changes the image which the Iranian women have of themselves One notes however - sign of times - that certain works of male authors like Ten , film of Abbas Kiarostami, attempt to make the portrait of Iranian women in a new register up to now, exposing their femininity.

In 1996, 236 publishers are directed by women. In 2000, the country counts 1309 writer are and 104 newspapers or reviews are published by women

However, ideologically, the speech of the monks proclaims the very great importance of the woman for the family and the place even above the man. Ali Khamenei quotes Hadith S to support this point. One day, a man asks the prophet: " Who do I have to be useful? The prophet answers " Your mère" and this answer three times repeat. When the man puts the question for the fourth time, he answers " your père". This is why the woman has more rights in the family. because they have more responsibilities.

The women are authorized with the practice of the sport and, in 2000, the country counts 3 million laid off. The sporting practices requiring the port of adapted behaviors, it results from it a strict exclusion from the men of the places of drive, generally limited to the closed rooms. That particularly complicates the participation of the athletes in international competitions: Nassim Hassanpour, champion of shooting (of which the practice is not obstructed by the chador), is thus the only female athlete sent by Iran to the Olympic Games of Athens in 2004. Another consequence of the sexual segregation in sport was the need for recruiting and for forming female sporting executives. If the Iranian women are interested massively in the male national team of football, the access at the stages is paradoxically always prohibited to them whereas the matches are diffused on the national chains of TV.

The financial position of the Iranian women worsened because of the economic situation of the country. The Chômage touches in a way much more important the women than the men, this factor explains partly the frequency of the Prostitution. According to Hamid Koucha, the inadequate application of the crowned laws of Islam, just as the strong social strains or economic, drove back part of the Iranian women to criminality, the use of hard Drogue S or to the Suicide . Iran, with a strong rate of female delinquency, is classified among the Islamic states more the violent ones.

Iran committed itself since 2002 not applying the Capital punishment by Lapidation apart from judgments for serious facts (Meurtre S). If the Adultery, remains officially to date, an punishable offense of the capital punishment, this one is not more necessary in the isolated facts of adultery. On the other hand, it remains necessary when adultery is associated with the murder, and concerns the women as much as the men.

In spite of this reality little reluisante, the number of women registered in higher learning exceeds sometimes that of the men in the scientific studies, which were traditionally reserved to them.

If restrictions induced by the vestimentary codes into force in Iran imposing the port of the hijab (in general scarf of color sinks whose colors vary according to the administrations) for the women employed in the public office or the exercise of official functions, or dark uniforms of colors for the coeds, the Iranian women have learned how for several years to express their opinions indirectly, while using of a body and vestimentary language circumventing these rules. Many women, especially the young people, cover their head of coloured scarves, which, carried very behind, voluntarily let appear worked loops and hairstyles. The erudite use of the make-up revêt also a character protestor, just as the wearing of coloured coats, possibly carried to the top of the knees. This indirect mode of expression of their sensuality by the women is particularly visible in the big cities. Industries of the ready-made clothes, creation, the mode and the cosmetics, thus represent in Iran a growth sector, to which many magazines are devoted which gain one big hit. Many women knowing to sew also sell the product to know to them to make.

Future prospects

Iran, to date, still did not ratify international convention against the discrimination of the women. The ratification is authorized by the Majlis in 2003, but this one is invalidated by the Conseil of the guards, which considers certain provisions contrary with the precepts of Coran. The election of the preserving president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad causes a fear at militant women's rights, who fears to lose their assets. According to Nayereh Tavakkoli, sociologist and militant of the women's right, there is no optimistic raison d'être with the new government and the new president. Even if there are women with the government and the Parliament, they do not believe in the equality of the sexes and find that the inequality is a good thing. The policy of Ahmadinejad concerning the women preaches their return to the hearth, the family having to be their priority.

One of the major stakes for the future is the reconciliation between Islam and modernity, making it possible to create an Iranian company not perennializing the inequalities with the detriment of women who must be recognized like component an important social force and the official maintenance of the traditional statute of inferiority for the woman, Iran is according to Bernard Hourcade, iranologist with CNRS, Islamic country where the feminist revolution is moving! The buckled women only leave, found associations, vote, express, work or study. The combat of militant remains hard in rural areas and in the small towns, but the phenomenon is massive.

The massive access of the women to education (60% of the students of university), their increasingly active share in the social cohesion of the country (11% of the active population), the importance of their role in the development of the country, thus lets think that their emancipation is only one matter of time. Iran changes, and according to Elāheh Koulāi (former deputy at the Iranian Parliament), the ditch which exists between the Iranian Société and the Iranian state make a crisis of the kinds inevitable .

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