Bargaining with fundamentalism: Women and the politics of population control in Iran

Reproductive Health Matters

Volumn 4, Issue 8, 1996, Pages 30-40

  Hoodfar, Homa ^a  

^a Gina Cody School of Engineering and Computer Science   (Canada)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

EID: 0011908479     PISSN: 09688080     EISSN: None     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1016/S0968-8080(96)90299-2     Document Type: Article

References (27)

1. Although 'fundamentalism' is a problematic analytical concept, I use the term here to refer to those kinds of movements that tend to legitimise their position by reference to scripture and share an emphatic gender ideology based on the control of women. See Imam A, 1993. Women and fundamentalism. Dossier (WLUML). 11/12/13; Marty ME and Appleby RS, 1991. Fundamentalisms Observed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago; Hawley JS, 1994. Fundamentalism and Gender. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
2. Although 'fundamentalism' is a problematic analytical concept, I use the term here to refer to those kinds of movements that tend to legitimise their position by reference to scripture and share an emphatic gender ideology based on the control of women. See Imam A, 1993. Women and fundamentalism. Dossier (WLUML). 11/12/13; Marty ME and Appleby RS, 1991. Fundamentalisms Observed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago; Hawley JS, 1994. Fundamentalism and Gender. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
3. Although 'fundamentalism' is a problematic analytical concept, I use the term here to refer to those kinds of movements that tend to legitimise their position by reference to scripture and share an emphatic gender ideology based on the control of women. See Imam A, 1993. Women and fundamentalism. Dossier (WLUML). 11/12/13; Marty ME and Appleby RS, 1991. Fundamentalisms Observed. University of Chicago Press, Chicago; Hawley JS, 1994. Fundamentalism and Gender. Oxford University Press, Oxford.
4. Paidar P, 1995. Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Tabari A and Yeganeh N, 1982. In the Shadow of Islam: The Women's Movement in Iran. Zed Books, London; Sanasarian E, 1982. The Women's Rights Movement in Iran. Praeger, New York.
5. Paidar P, 1995. Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Tabari A and Yeganeh N, 1982. In the Shadow of Islam: The Women's Movement in Iran. Zed Books, London; Sanasarian E, 1982. The Women's Rights Movement in Iran. Praeger, New York.
6. Paidar P, 1995. Women and the Political Process in Twentieth-Century Iran. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge; Tabari A and Yeganeh N, 1982. In the Shadow of Islam: The Women's Movement in Iran. Zed Books, London; Sanasarian E, 1982. The Women's Rights Movement in Iran. Praeger, New York.
7. Hoodfar H, 1995. Population policy and gender equity in post-revolutionary Iran. In Obermeyer CM (ed). Family, Gender and Population in the Middle East. American University in Cairo Press, Cairo.
8. Omid H, 1994. Islam and the Post-Revolutionary State in Iran. St Martin's Press, New York.
9. The primary data presented here derive from a larger research project on the effects on women of the codification of Islamic law in Iran. This sub-sample includes 140 rural women in 9 villages and 200 urban women (primarily from Tehran and Markazi provinces) and 100 urban men.
10. They claim that to attain the true, just Islamic society, one has to separate the divine text from 1400 years of patriarchal interpretation. See Hoodfar [3] above; Ramazani N, 1993. Women in Iran: the revolutionary ebb and flow. Middle East Journal. 47:409-28.
11. I am referring to the many Islamist women activists, progressive religious leaders, secular women, and other intellectuals and experts in the field of family planning.
12. The minimum age for marriage was initially reduced from 16 to 9; later reforms raised it back to 13, which is the culturally recognised age of puberty.
13. The programme was fairly successful and within ten years had managed to covered 11 per cent of women of reproductive age. Aghajanian A, 1991. Population change in tan 1966-88: a stalled demographic transition. Population and Development Review. 17:703-15.
14. Hoodfar H, 1994. Devices and desires: population policy and gender roles in the Islamic Republic. Middle East Report. Sept-Oct.
15. The issue of abortion is not discussed under family planning but rather in the context of women's health. The government's position is that abortion as a method of family planning is not ethically acceptable. There are a variety of religious opinions on the matter. However, in Iran abortion has remained illegal except when the mother's health is physically or psychologically endangered as certified by two doctors. See Hoodfar [3] above.
16. See Paidar [2] above and Mir-Hosseini Z, 1996. Women and politics in post-Khomeini Iran: divorce, veiling, and emerging feminist voices. Women and Politics in the Third World. Afshar H (ed). Routledge, London.
17. Mehran G, 1991. The creation of the new Muslim woman: female education in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Convergence. 23:42-52.
18. See Paidar [2] above, Omid [4] above, and Moghadam VM, 1993. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. Lynne Reinner, Boulder.
19. While some scholars believe that the government has not fully succeeded (Moghadam [14] above), others argue that they have. See Moghadam F, 1994. Commoditization of sexuality and female labour participation in Islam: implications for Iran, 1960-1990. Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran. Afkhami M and Friedl E (eds). IB Tauris, New York.
20. Ayatollah Sane'i, 1996. Payam-e-Zan, nos. 50 and 51.
21. For instance there are steady streams of articles in diverse women's magazines drawing attention to the inadequacy of government attempts to create and promote women's employment. Women deputies in their various capacities also raise these questions frequently.
22. For a detailed discussion of the changes in the personal status law and its consequences see: Mir-Hosseini Z, 1993. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law. IB Tauris, London. For a more detailed account of temporary marriages, see Haeri S, 1987. Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.
23. For a detailed discussion of the changes in the personal status law and its consequences see: Mir-Hosseini Z, 1993. Marriage on Trial: A Study of Islamic Family Law. IB Tauris, London. For a more detailed account of temporary marriages, see Haeri S, 1987. Law of Desire: Temporary Marriage in Shi'i Iran. Syracuse University Press, Syracuse.
24. See also Asefzadeh S and Nokiyani FA, 1996. Unwanted pregnancies among rural women of Ghazvine. Family Health. 1. Their studies of unwanted pregnancies showed that while women with three children thought two children were enough, women with two children thought three children were enough.
25. Kar M and Hoodfar H, 1996. Personal status law as defined by the Islamic Republic of Iran: an appraisal. Special Dossier (WLUML). 1:7-35.
26. It is important to note that Afzali estimates that 30 per cent of pregnancies for urban women and 25 per cent for rural women are unwanted. Afzali HM, 1996. Evaluation of family planning programmes in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Family Health. 1:3-18. In Asefzadeh and Nokiyani [19] above.
27. Hodgson D and Watkins SC 1996. Population controllers and feminists: strange bedmates at Cairo? Paper presented at annual meeting, Population Association of America, May.