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Mana KiaIranWomen’s organizations in Iran have primarily
been concerned with educating women, bettering
their rights within the family and asserting their
rights to excel in the public sphere. Many organi-
zations have published newspapers and journals to
voice their views and raise awareness. Predomi-
nantly nationalist and secular in nature, their rhet-
oric, rather than directly attacking Islam, has
criticized elements of Iranian society seen to have
warped Islam, which in its “true” form supports
the women’s rights being sought. Institutionally
autonomous during times when the state has been
weak, women’s organizations have been subsumed
within the state during periods of centralization.
Following the 1979 revolution, national women’s
organizations have become overtly Islamist in
nature, though no less modernizing and feminist.
The Jàm≠iyat-i Nisvàn-i Va†ankhvàh (Society of
Patriotic Women, SPW) was formed in 1922 and
was led by strong activists, such as Mu™taram
Iskandarì, MastùrìAfshàr, and Sa∂ìqa Dawlatà
bàdì, who had differing priorities with regard to
women’s rights. SPW’s activities included rallies,
meetings, demonstrations and petition campaigns.
The SPW disbanded when deep divisions over veil-
ing and “how to relate to the increasingly auto-
cratic government of Riza Shah” came to a head at
the Second Congress of Women of the East in 1932.
In 1935 the state established the Kanùn-i Bànuvàn
(Women’s Center) to support its gender policies,
iran 789particularly unveiling, through education and aware-
ness raising activities. Many former members of the
SPW were amongst its leading activists (Najmabadi
2000, 36–9, Sanasarian 1982, 55).
With the weakening of the central state between
1941 and 1953, women’s organizations once again
multiplied. These included the Jàm≠iyat-i Zanàn-i
îràn (Iranian Women’s League); the Hizb-i Zanàn-i
îràn (Party of Iranian Women) led by Íaffiya Fìrùz
and Fà†ima Sayyà™, later the National Council
of Women; and the Tudeh affiliated Tashkìlàt-i
Zanàn-i îràn (Organization of Iranian Women),
later the Society of Democratic Women (Sanasarian
1982, 72–3, Amin 2002, 226–7, 234–8).
After the 1953 coup d’état, smaller women’s
organizations began to reappear. By 1959 14 of
these groups coalesced into the Federation of
Women’s Organizations, a loose body designed to
foster greater effectiveness and cooperation amongst
its component organizations.
The Shawrà-yi ≠âlì-yi Jàm≠iyàt-i Zanàn (High
Council of Women’s Societies) was created in 1961,
consisting of 18 women’s associations. Although
international activities were under government
control, member organizations enjoyed a fair degree
of autonomy to conduct their domestic work and
enjoyed the benefit of state resources (Sanasarian
1982, 80–1, Dolatshahi 1984, 14–16).
In 1966 the Sàzmàn-i Zanàn-i îràn (Women’s
Organization of Iran, WOI) was established under
the leadership of Ashraf Pahlavì. It was a central-
ized, nationwide women’s organization consisting
of 33 smaller organizations. Individual societies in
the provinces were replaced with WOI branches,
and Mahnàz Afkhamìserved as secretary-general
from 1970 to 1979 (Dolatshahi 1984, 22–3, Afkhami
1984, 337). The WOI was more integrated into the
state apparatus and less democratic than its previ-
ous forms – although officers were elected from
each branch, Pahlavìhad the power to appoint
the majority of the organization’s eleven-member
central council (Sanasarian 1982, 83–5). Activists
within the WOI had to realign their political de-
mands and socioeconomic projects to fit with those
of the state.
Since the 1990s, secular feminists have been in
dialogue with Muslim feminists, who challenge
clerical religious interpretations by drawing from
the Qur±àn and reinterpreting Islam to critique
the state and call for women’s rights. Some post-
revolutionary Islamist women’s organizations are:
Women’s Society of Islamic Revolution; the Iranian
Islamic Women’s Institute; the £aΩrat-i Khadìja
Association; the Women’s Solidarity Association;
and the Social-Cultural Council of Women. Secular