The presence of women and girls at the forefront of protests across Iran is not a new development. At the end of the 19th century Iranian women took to the streets to demand their rights, education, and economic and social development. Between 1905-11 the Constitutional Revolution initiated reforms which propelled the country into the modern era, installed a parliament, and finished off the Qajar dynasty. In 1925, it was replaced by the Pahlavi dynasty which was much more committed to reforms as a means of self-preservation.

In 1936, Shah Reza Pahlavi banned the hijab. While this prohibition penalised conservative women, it became a symbol of emancipation for educated, largely urban upper and middle class women. They also benefitted from the sweeping reforms of the White Revolution initiated by his son Mohammed Reza Pahlavi. Resentful rural and working-class chador-clad women responded by joining the vanguard in the 1978-1979 protests which ushered in the cleric-led Islamic Revolution.

The ban remained in place until 1979 when the clerics took power and decreed that women and girls over the age of nine must wear a head-covering. This was met with protests which were promptly crushed by the government. During subsequent protests over censorship, curbing of rights, and economic issues, the hijab became a side issue. In 2017, however, Iranian women launched an anti-hijab and dress code campaign by wearing white headscarves or white items of clothing on Wednesdays.

In December of that year, women began taking off and waving headscarves as part of wider protests. In response, the regime stepped up repression and increased the prison sentence for doffing the hijab from two months to ten years. In July 2022, hard-line President Ebrahim Raisi boosted enforcement of the clothing code. This policy led to the arrest by morality police of Mahsa Amini, her death in custody on Sept.16 and precipitated the ongoing nation-wide demonstrations which have been led by girls and young women with men backing them up.

While anti-hijab protesters have dominated the scene, women in black chadors who take part in loyalist counter-demonstrations must not be taken for granted as they represent the female pillar of the clerical regime. Many are employed in the morality police which enforces hijab wearing.

The ruling clerics have only themselves to blame for the revolt against the hijab. Since taking power, they have promoted primary, secondary and university education for women. Literacy is estimated by UNESCO at 97 per cent for females between 15 and 25 years of age and women account for 60 per cent of students entering universities. They regard education as the road to freedom.

For the majority, unfortunately, this road has a dead end. Women comprise only 14.35 per cent of the work force as compared to 46.54 per cent in the UAE, which is just under the 50 per cent world average. In 2018, the employment figure for Iranian women was 17.44 per cent, revealing that they are losing ground. Women are denied senior positions in the government and administration and are poorly represented in business.

According to the World Economic Forum Iran is ranked second worst in the world in “Economic Participation and Opportunity” for women — ahead of Afghanistan and Pakistan — and second worst in female political empowerment among the 146 countries surveyed in the Forum’s 2022 Global Gender Gap Report.

While the compulsory hijab has triggered ongoing protests, the main driver is the decline in public services and the economy.

Iran is going backward in education as well as female employment. Education is chronically underfunded, depriving children of effective teachers and decent school premises. There are in Iran 13 million Iranian boys and girls in school while there are 15 million of school age. The two million who are not in school either lack schools in their home areas or drop out to work in menial jobs due to their families’ precarious financial situations.

Parliamentary education committee member Seyyed Mohammad Javad Abtahi said the number of illiterates in Iran reached 11 million in 2018. This was an increase from 9.5 million over seven years. However, those in the 10-49 age group were only 2-3 million (two-thirds of them female) in a population of 88 million. This means illiteracy is concentrated in the older population which is generally more conservative and more accepting of the status quo than younger groups. This situation has created a division within the society which is exploited by the clerics.

Why the decline? Long-term mismanagement and corruption have negatively influenced every sector from education to business and oil field operations. After the fall of the Shah in 1979, US sanctions — which amount to illegal collective punishment of the population — have also taken a major toll.  Iran has experienced steep economic melt-down since Donald Trump’s May 2018 withdrawal of the US from the agreement for lifting sanctions in exchange for limiting Iran’s nuclear programme.

The 1,500 sanctions he imposed cut Iran off from global banking, sent the country’s currency into a tailspin, froze Iran’s foreign assets, and reduced Iran’s oil exports and revenues. The covid pandemic collapsed an already troubled health care system and the economy went into recession. More than one-third of Iranians now live in poverty.

Although the clerical regime has faced mass protests since 1999, the current round is different because the revolt has spread across the country from Kurdistan to the Persian hinterland and Turkish, Arab and Baluchi regions. While the security forces may succeed in containing the unrest, they cannot tame the present generation which is demanding change from a regime headed by men of their grandfather’s generation.

Photo: TNS