their opposition activities from abroad, elected a
woman as the head of their organization. Since the
Islamic Revolution, women have been members of
every political party and political and professional
organization, including the clerically-dominated
Islamic Republic Party and the reformist Islamic
Iran Participation Front.
Bibliography
J. Afari, The Iranian Constitutional Revolution, 1906–
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P. Paidar, Women and the oolitical process in twentieth-
century Iran, Cambridge 1995.
Haleh EsfandiariNorth AfricaConsidering the role women played in the strug-
gle for liberation, their participation in the political
process in post-independence Algeria, Morocco,
and Tunisia seemed only natural, as the terms of the
first constitutions indicated – even if the modalities
of their participation (the right to vote and their
access to the public sphere and to political repre-
sentation) were left undetermined. However, the
conditions under which they were associated with
the struggle for liberation – they were made to be
symbols of the preservation of identity, moral
integrity, and authenticity – meant, implicitly, that
they would be kept out of the political sphere and
that their inferior status would be perpetuated. In
all three countries, the question of gender identity
combined with that of political participation was
to determine the way women – or at least women
activists – would go about having their demands
taken into account by the political systems put into
place during the post-independence period. As we
examine that process, a certain number of para-
doxes must be considered.
Not counting charities and other benevolent as-
sociations established during the colonial era, the
first post-independence political organizations and
trade unions were created, if not to deny the speci-
ficity of women’s struggle, at least to underline that
their struggle was to be subordinate to the more
global struggles in which the nation – the people,
the movement for independence, the development
forces – was engaged. This was evidenced by the
existence of national unions closely supervised by
the central governments (the Union nationale des
north africa 557femmes tunisiennes, created in 1958; the Union
nationale des femmes algériennes, created in 1963;
and the Union nationale des femmes marocaines,
created in 1969). There were also women’s sections
within trade unions (themselves often controlled by
the state) as well as within political parties: the
Union socialiste des forces populaires and the
Istiqlal party in Morocco; and the FLN (Front de
libération nationale) in Algeria and the PSD (Parti
socialiste destourien) in Tunisia, both single par-
ties. Everywhere, women were asked to choose
between identifying themselves as women first and
Algerian/Moroccan/Tunisian second, or vice-versa;
and between identifying themselves as women first
and members of the party or the union second, or
vice-versa. Their mission was to mobilize women’s
energies and potentials toward a common goal
rather than to focus on specific demands, which
would have left them vulnerable to the criticism of
weakening the domestic front. As the 1964 Charter
of Algiers indicated, “Algerian women should be
able to participate effectively in politics and the
building of socialism by joining the ranks of the
party and national organizations and acceding to
positions of responsibility.” All constitutional texts,
organic laws, and charters adopted by Algeria,
Tunisia, and Morocco since gaining independence
have used the same language (minus the mention of
socialism), conferring political rights on women in
theory when in reality even men themselves are pre-
vented from exercising such rights because of the
authoritarianism of the state.
In all three countries, this affirmation in principle
of women’s political rights had a trade-off in the
form of a logic of confinement, which left women
with very limited opportunities to become mem-
bers of parliament, government, or party leader-
ships – positions to which they had access only
through a quota system. As a result, the sole politi-
cal outlets conceded to women were women’s
organizations, which were tightly controlled by the
state. In Algeria, the only women to be able to claim
some political legitimacy were those who were rec-
ognized as former mujàhidàt– and even they were
encouraged to go back home and “rest.” And when,
on several occasions between 1965 and 1984, women
opposed the passing of ever more reactionary fam-
ily codes, they had to resort to informal or even
clandestine means of mobilization and action –
petitions, demonstrations, and unauthorized associa-
tions – due to the extremely tight control the FLN
exercised over the Union nationale des femmes
algériennes. Those actions would not be enough to
prevent the implementation in 1984 of a particu-
larly retrograde law – “a dramatic regression,” to