which most women activists operate (Abu-Laban
2002, 277). In Canada Muslim women have
focused most of their political energies in the area
of community activism. Muslim women are found
in all kinds of community groups, from social serv-
ice agencies to media watch groups. Some are
activists in mainstream groups, others in Muslim
groups with an Islamic focus. Two examples of
the latter are directly relevant here. In 1997–8, the
Afghan Women’s Organization worked with the
Federation of Muslim Women (FMW), the Cana-
dian Council of Muslim Women (CCMW), and
MediaWatch on a federally funded multi-phase
project about Muslim women and the media. The
project included focused group discussions with
Muslim women about the representation of
Muslim women in the Canadian media, with an
aim of increasing media literacy and advocacy
skills of Muslim women (Jafri and Bullock, 35–40).
At their 2003 annual conference, CCMW organized
a workshop with the Federation of Canadian
Municipalities designed to raise awareness among
Muslim women about the non-electoral aspects of
municipalities. The extent of Muslim women’s
involvement in these kinds of informal politics
emphasizes that Muslim women in Canada are not
politically passive.BibliographyPrimary Sources
2001 Canadian Census, <http://www12.statcan.ca/english/
census01/Products/Analytic/companion/rel/contentscf>.
IPU (Inter-Parliamentary Union), <http://www.ipu.org/
wmn-e/classif.htm>.
Natasha Fatah, interview, 10 September 2003.Secondary Sources
Y. Abu-Laban, Challenging the gendered vertical mosaic.
Immigrants, ethnic minorities, gender and political
participation, in J. Everitt and B. O’Neill (eds.),Citizen
politics. Research and theory in Canadian political
behaviour, Toronto 2002, 268–82.
J. H. Black, Representation in the parliament of Canada.
The case of ethnocracial minorities, in J. Everitt and
B. O’Neill (eds.),Citizen politics. Research and theory
in Canadian political behaviour, Toronto 2002, 355–72.
——, Differences that matter. Minority women MPs,
1993–2000, in M. Tremblay and L. Trimble (eds.),
Women and electoral politics in Canada, Toronto
2003, 59–74.
K. H. Bullock and G. J. Jafri, Media (mis)representations.
Muslim women in the Canadian nation, in Canadian
Woman Studies20:2 (2000), 35–40.
L. Fahlman, Lila, in S. Zaman (ed.), At my mother’s feet.
Stories of Muslim women, Kingston, Ont. 1999, 51–69.
M. A. M. Khan, American Muslims. Bridging faith and
freedom, Beltsville, Md. 2002.
J. Newman and L. White, Movement and public policy.
The political struggles of Canadian women, Oxford
University Press (forthcoming), chapter four.Katherine Bullock556 political parties and participation
IranIranian women participated in the events leading
to the Constitutional Revolution of 1905/6. Their
numbers were few but their involvement signaled a
break with the past when women, except occa-
sional women of the court, did not participate in
the public life of the country.
Women formed societies (anjumans) and women’s
discussion groups, some of which included men.
They founded schools for girls and published mag-
azines both in Tehran and the provinces. These con-
stituted spaces for women’s political participation
as well. They discussed women’s education and
health and the problem of veiling. In their writings
and their gatherings they drew comparisons
between Iranian women and women in more pro-
gressive countries. Among the leading women’s
organizations in the 1920s was the Patriotic Women’s
League. In the 1930s, a number of women’s organ-
izations affiliated themselves to political parties,
including the Communist Party and the Revival
Party.
Political parties began seriously to recruit and
organize women’s branches in the 1940s. For ex-
ample, the Democratic Party of Azerbaijan and the
Tudeh (Communist) Party had women’s sections.
The Tudeh Party even appointed women to its cen-
tral committee; the Democratic Party founded a
women’s organization and named one woman to
the party’s executive committee. A woman served
in the leadership of the rightwing SùmkàParty.
Women were active in the political agitation for
nationalization of the British-run Anglo-Iranian
Oil Company. They demanded changes in the elec-
toral law to allow women to vote and run for
elected office and the revision of sections of the civil
law regulating marriage, divorce, and child cus-
tody. The Jam≠ìyat-i Ràh-i Naw (Society for the new
way) and the Jam≠ìyat-i Zanàn-i £uqùqdàn (Soci-
ety for women lawyers) were at the forefront of
these efforts.
In 1963, women were among the founders of the
îràn-i Nuvìn Party, a state-sanctioned organization
that became highly influential in Iranian politics.
Two women sat on the politburo of the Rastàkhìz
Party, formed in 1975 when the Shah declared a sin-
gle party system, and women served on all the
party’s various committees.
Two underground anti-Shah guerrilla organiza-
tions, the Mujàhidìn-i Khalq and the Fidà±iyìn-i
Khalq included women among their rank and file.
These organizations acted openly for a brief period
after the Islamic Revolution, but were subsequently
declared illegal. The Mujàhidìn, who continued