women to that of mother and wife. Some endorse
women’s active presence in the public sphere but
are opposed to egalitarian gender relations and
women’s autonomy. In the aftermath of the Iran-
ian Revolution Ayatollah Khomeini encouraged
Islamist women’s activities in the public sphere and
criticized the traditionalist clergy, saying, “God is
satisfied with women’s great service. It is a sin to
sabotage this [women’s activity in the public
sphere].” In Afghanistan, some members of the
Northern Alliance, especially A™mad Shàh Mas≠ùd,
who fought against the Taliban from 1996 on-
wards, shared more or less the same view.
Reasons that lead to women’s participation in
Islamist movements are manifold. Some women
who valorize the centrality of women’s role in the
family, and disapprove of individualism, which,
they think, is provoked by Western sociocultural
influence, are attracted to Islamist discourse. For
these women Islamic values can and should be
preserved through maternity. Maryam Bihrùzì, a
member of the first to fourth Islamic Majlis (as-
sembly) who was a preacher prior to the revolution
and leads the conservative Zaynab Association, is
among this category. She declared that “according
to Islam men are protectors of women” and that
“the home is the most suitable place for women
because children need their mother’s presence”
(1983).
Some lower-class women who suffer from their
social condition and demand social justice are
drawn to Islamist organizations and associations
because of their charitable activities rather than
their Islamist political discourse. In the absence of
social institutions Islamists assist the needy through
their solidarity networks thereby winning the loy-
alty of poor or impoverished women. In Iran, prior
to the unfolding of the revolution, revolutionary
clergy and their bàzàri(merchant) allies gained the
support of poor urban women and women rural
migrants thanks to religious charitable activities
before mobilizing them to participate in the revolu-
tion. They became the main pillars of the Islamic
regime. The increasing gap between the rich and
the poor in post-revolutionary Iran and the persist-
ence of poverty, however, have led to the disillu-
sionment of these women. The wife of a man
wounded at war (jànbàz) who lives in a poor sub-
urb of Tehran declares: “We are even more disin-
herited than before the revolution. The Islamic
state did not keep its promise. My husband went to
the war as a volunteer (basìjì) and was severely
wounded. What did he obtain in return? Just
a wheelchair” (personal interview, Khak-i Sefid
1996).
iran and afghanistan 605Young and educated women from religious
lower- or middle-class backgrounds who are not
subordinated to traditional religious views and
aspire to social participation join Islamist move-
ments in order to enhance their active presence in
the public sphere. Their aspiration to autonomy,
their efforts to reappropriate modernity and to
provide new interpretations of religious laws and
traditions in order to promote women’s status,
however, are disapproved of by their male counter-
parts who consider moves toward women’s auton-
omy and emancipation to be a Western plot against
Islam. In post-revolutionary Iran, the implementa-
tion of the Sharì≠a (Islamic law) and the excessive
privileges granted to men gradually led to the disil-
lusionment of some young Islamist women, con-
tributing to the emergence of gender sensitivity
among them and ultimately to their mobilization
against sex discrimination. According to an Iranian
Islamist activist: “I realized that revolutionary so-
cial activity was meaningless when women were
losing their rights and started to defend women’s
rights” (personal interview, Tehran 1994).
Some radical religious women with a political
agenda join Islamist movements to promote their
political stands. A±Ωam ¢aliqànì, daughter of the
radical cleric Ayatollah Ma™mud ¢aliqànìand the
editor of the magazine Payàm-i Hàjaris an exam-
ple. Her work for the cause of the disinherited
brought her into contact with the plight of women,
especially the poor: “Poverty and polygamy are the
only things that poor women have obtained from
the revolution” (1990). Payàm-i Hàjarwas the first
women’s magazine to advocate the reinterpretation
of Qur±ànic verses, especially al-Nisà±(Women) and
to refute the legalization of polygamy.
The institutionalization of gender inequality in
the aftermath of the Iranian Revolution has pro-
voked general discontent among women, including
many former Islamists, and triggered their mobi-
lization against segregation laws and institutions.
These women reject divine justifications for gender
inequality through a new reading of Islam that
accommodates the equality of rights between men
and women. ShahlàShirkat (1996) the editor-in-
chief of the influential women’s magazine Zanàn
(Women) argues: “Radical legal changes are needed
to solve women’s problems. Because many articles
of the Civil Code are based on the Sharì≠a, its rein-
terpretation proves necessary and women should
be involved in this undertaking.” Likewise, Zeiba
Shorish-Shamley (2001), an Afghan activist, argues
that “men and women have equal status in
Islam. However, in practice these rights have been
violated.”