11/3/2014 fis-iran.org/en/women/milestones/post-revolution?mode=print FOUNDATION FOR IRANIAN STUDIES. IRANIAN WOMEN AND THE ISLAMIC REPUBLIC: A CHRONOLOGY Posted August 25th, 2009 | By Reyhaneh Noshiravani | 1979 February 11 – Ayatollah Khomeini and his followers take power after the revolution. 1979 February 26 – Khomeini announces that the Family Protection Law (1967) is abrogated. The state officially launches its cultural revolution, which involves the purging of all western influences from Iranian society. The Islamization of women’s status becomes the cornerstone of this program. 1979 March 3 – Khomeini announces that women cannot be judges 1979 March 6 – Khomeini announces that women are to wear hejab in the workplace. 1979 March 8 – Thousands of women demonstrate in the streets of Tehran against the state’s Islamic gender policy. The protests are violently disbanded by radical Islamic forces, calling themselves Hezbollah (party of God). Although they were ultimately unsuccessful, these protests constitute the first civil society demand on the IRI. 1979 March 29 – Khomeini announces that beaches and sports events are to be gender segregated. 1979 April 1 – The Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is proclaimed following a referendum. 1979 December – The Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran (IRI) is drafted. It designates Khomeini as the supreme leader with total control over judiciary, executive and legislative branches. Family matters become the central focus of laws on women. Article 3 of the Constitution gives women the right to free education, employment, and equality before the law. However, these rights are made contingent on the realization of women’s primary role as mothers. This is indicated by the subjugation of these rights to the criteria of “conformity with Islamic law”. 1980 – President Banisadr’s cabinet proposes a bill that amends the Special Civil Courts Act of 1979 passed by the Guardian Council. The bill stated “In cases where there is no guidance on family matters either from the Majles or the Council, a Special Civil Court will base its judgment in relation to family disputes on Khomeini’s fatwas (religious injunctions).” This amendment gives the clergy total power in interpreting the Shari’a (Islamic Law) 1980 May – Farrokhrou Parsa, the former Minister of Culture and an outspoken supporter of women’s rights in Iran is executed after a summary and secret trial on charges of prostitution and being a Baha’i. 1980 June – Khomeini announces the “administrative revolution” which requires women to wear the hejab in all governmental offices. Later, Bani-Sadr also asks women to comply in order to fight “the western consumer culture”. Four women are elected to the first Majles (Parliament), including Gohar-ul-Sharieh Dastgheib, Azam Taleqani (daughter of Ayatollah Taleqani), Atefeh Rajai, and Maryam Behruzi. The women were elected based upon religious and revolutionary credentials rather than professional and educational merit. 1980 September 22 – The Iran-Iraq war begins. 1981 June – Fereshteh Hashemi, Shahin Tabatabai and Zahra Rahnavard establish the Women’s http://fis-iran.org/en/women/milestones/post-revolution?mode=print 1/6 11/3/2014 fis-iran.org/en/women/milestones/post-revolution?mode=print Society of Islamic Revolution (WSIR). The organization is created to raise women’s consciousness regarding their new roles as “authentic” and “true” Muslim women in the new society of Iran. 1982 March – A bill proposed to the Majles on the right of mothers to have custody of minor children (boys until age 2 and girls until 7) after divorce is rejected on the grounds that it does not comply with the Sharia. (Below this age, a mother is permitted custody of the children. After reaching this age, custody is given to the father.) 1982 September – Educational institutions with the exception of universities become gender segregated. 1983 – The state legislates the Qesas (the Bill of Retributions) which among other things, assigns 74 lashes to women who fail to observe veiling rules and lowers the official value of a woman to half that of a man, including in adultery cases that involve death sentences. Legislation is passed to grant special loans to men and women who want to get married. This fund organized by the Martyrs’ Foundation, which deals with matters related to the veterans of the Iran-Iraq War, aims at easing the costs of marriages. Siqeh (temporary marriages) becomes legal according to a fatwa decreed by Khomeini’. 1983 April – Seminars are held to ensure a unified interpretation of Shari’a as civil law. Zan-e Ruz, a woman’s journal, publishes discussions that highlight the necessity of having multiple interpretations of Shari’a. 1983 August – The Majles drafts a bill concerning the status of “unprotected women”. The bill is designed to provide state support for war widows and orphans to become self-sufficient. It is not enacted until 1987. 1984 Summer – The state mobilizes underprivileged women to form a special patrol officially referred to as the “guardians of orthodox Islamic culture”. This organization is charged with the responsibility of consolidating the IRI’s gender policies through the concurrent enforcement and indoctrination of its gender policies on nonconformist women. 1985 – The Women's Religious Studies Center, also called the Society of Al-Zahra, is opened in Qom. This is the first time the holy city of Qom allows a religious center for women. However, in all institutions of high education over 140 fields of study remain closed to women. These majors include those leading to any profession that necessitates interaction between men and women, from management to engineering. 1985 April – Khomeini gives a speech about the necessity of women's participation in the Iran-Iraq War. The Society of AI-Zahra in Qom calls for a mass mobilization of women in support of his call to defend the nation in one of the bloodiest wars of modern history. 1987 October – The Women's Social and Cultural Council is set up in order to make policy recommendations regarding women. 1988 July – Iran accepts a ceasefire agreement with Iraq following negotiations in Geneva under the aegis of the UN. The devastated post war economy and infrastructure compels the state to allow more women to enter the labor market. The doubling of the population in ten years compels the state to launch a rigorous family planning program to curtail the inflated birthrate. 1992 February – Shahla Sherkat establishes Zanan (Women) magazine. 1993 – Fa’ezeh Hashemi initiates Asian games for Muslim women. 1994 April – The Majles passes a law allowing women to become legal consultants in the Special Family Courts and Administrative Justice Courts. However they still cannot act as judges. http://fis-iran.org/en/women/milestones/post-revolution?mode=print 2/6 11/3/2014 fis-iran.org/en/women/milestones/post-revolution?mode=print 1994 June – Shahla Habibi and Masoumeh Ebtekar are appointed organizers of the Iranian delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. They conduct the first meeting of all-women NGOs in Tehran in preparation. The Beijing Conference coordinators recognize a total of 15 newly created Iranian women’s organizations. The majority of these organizations are dissolved after the conference. At the conference, the Iranian delegation allies with the Vatican and other conservative forces, like the government of Sudan to oppose progressive items in the conference especially those related to reproduction rights and family laws. 1996 March – The fifth Majles elections take place. 179 women and 2,751 men compete for 290 seats. 14 women are elected with Fa’ezeh Hashemi Rafsanjani obtaining the second highest number of votes. 1996 October – The first public sports event with women athletes takes place. 1997 – Iran's poet Simin Behbahani is nominated for the Nobel Prize in Literature. 1997 February – The International human rights organization Human Rights Watch gives an award to lawyer Shirin Ebadi for her efforts on behalf of women and children’s rights in Iran. She is the founder of the Iran non-profit Children’s rights committee. 1997 May – Reformist candidate, Ayatollah Mohammad Khatami wins a landslide presidential victory. Khatami’s receipt of 65 percent of the female population’s vote secures women’s position as a key constituency for the reformist camp. 1997 June – A bill is passed concerning women’s part-time work. Due to their domestic duties, women can now work 6 hours and get paid for 8 hours. 1997 October – Khatami selects Zahra Shoja’i as his consultant on women’s issues. The hardliner Ayatollah Mazaheri objects to Iran joining the United Nations’ Convention on Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), claiming it does not comply with the Shari’a. 1997 November – For the first time since the revolution, women in great numbers enter Azadi stadium to watch and encourage the Iranian soccer team in a game with the Australian team. They break down the gates and force their entry into the stadium despite the security guards’ presence. 1998 – At 18 Samira Makhmalbaf becomes the youngest director in the world participating in the Cannes Film Festival for her film entitled The Apple. 1998 February – A bill concerning women’s work hours is passed, in which, in recognition of their familial responsibilities: 1) women working full time may, with the permission of their boss, work three- quarter time and have it considered full-time; and 2) women working part-time are protected by law from losing maternity and other benefits. In Civil Code 1082, Mehrieh, the mandatory sum paid by the groom to the bride upon marriage, is amended so that the payment reflects inflation and its real value at the time of marriage. Civil Code 1173 passes in Majles, requiring a female legal consultant to be present in the court during child custody cases.