Women in Iran are not allowed to do many things that other women can in developed countries. The history of women’s movements is a long one in Iran, and yet society is still struggling to reach equal rights for women. In this post, I will try to look at it from a sustainability standpoint and give one general solution if possible.
Women’s situation in Iran is very much different from that of Western societies, and you do not need to be an expert to recognize that. In Iran, they cannot choose what to wear in public places and they must wear hijab, they cannot ride a motorcycle, they can’t get a passport, or travel outside the country without the legal permission of their husband or male guardian, and the default situation is that they cannot file for divorce unless it is stated in the marriage contract (which is not a common thing!). The result of all these inequalities is that they cannot be empowered to reach success as men can, and their path is longer and harder.
We all know that gender equity is one of the major aspects of sustainability. In my personal experience, there are still many Iranian women who are not aware of their rights. I spent my Bachelor’s in Iran and worked at jobs where all my female colleagues had academic degrees, but I’ve heard a bunch of comments or arguments from them that was as sexist as someone’s who is completely unaware of such rights. Although the proportion of unawareness is less than before it is yet not sufficient. Moreover, half of the members of the society are men. Again I have to refer to my personal experience. What I have witnessed is that a significant part of Iranian men are also not aware of such matters. In fact, a common mindset between a lot of women and men is that women’s rights, gender equality and equity, feminism attitudes, and other related subjects are just luxurious words and are not as important as more serious problems like financial crises. It is still a norm to think that women are not as powerful or smart or reliable to do important tasks as men.
However, things are not completely hopeless. We have witnessed improvements in gender equity in recent decades. The number of working women has increased constantly. There are more female university students than males right now. Although hijab is still mandatory in public places, a growing number of women do not wear hijab in private places, and they can choose what to wear. But these improvements were not due to development policies or sustainable interventions. In the case of women’s employment rate growth, my interpretation is that it was due to financial matters! The economy has dealt with many crises over the past decades and above all inflation rate is growing every year. Therefore a lot of families decided that it is better to have woman work and bring income rather than not work. Even though in less developed areas of the country, the situation is not like that, in major cities women working outside the house is a norm.
I believe to change the game, the role of the enculturated actor must be taken into account. Consider women’s employment; as I said, it is a norm that women to find a job and work in big cities which leads them to be more independent. Other barriers such as not having to be able to get a passport without permission or mandatory hijab can also be removed if the current norm changes. We know from studies that some changes can happen even when they are counter-normative, and even when only a minority of people start to change if people get informed that it is a growing minority. However, how to start the change? Of course, it needs extensive research to find the answer, but I will use personal experience one last time to provide one possible answer.
In the summer of 2022, we witnessed a movement in Iran whose major slogan was “Women, Life, Freedom”. It was strictly related to women’s rights along with other social and political aspects, and it led to the rise of widespread awareness of those rights mostly by means of social media.
Obviously, changing the norms is not the only solution, and it may not be as effective as I suggested. It must be complemented with other aspects of sustainability such as Education and Skills Development, or Gender-Responsive Budgeting to empower women. I came to this conclusion because I have observed the situation closely, and have thought about it through the years. Development professionals are themselves subject to biases and mistakes so am I. My inference is that we can reach a more sustainable society by changing the norms, and one of the effective tools to intervene is social media.
References:
- Sparkman, G. (2021). Dynamic Norm Interventions: How to Enable the Spread of Positive Change. Handbook of Wise Interventions.
- Hoff, K., & Gauri, V. (Eds.). (2015). Mind, society, and behavior. World Bank
- Lectures on Behavioral Economics and Sustainability, Philipps University Marburg
Behavioral Development Economics 