The birthday of Fatimah al-Zahra, the youngest daughter of Prophet Mohammad, on January 4, is also marked in Iran as Women’s Day and Mother’s Day. This year Ayatollah Khamenei once again used the occasion to emphasize values that he believes Iranian and Muslim women should be true to. But the narrative of the life Fatimah al-Zahra he draws on focuses solely on male domination and the dependency of women on men 1,400 years ago.
This time, Khamenei also asked Shia eulogists — the “foot-soldiers of the Leader” who promote his ideology and that of the Islamic Republic — to promote these so-called values by encouraging women to have more and more children.
***
In his speech on January 4, Ayatollah Khamenei reiterated his previous statements about the role of women in Iran and in Islam so that the “vital needs of Iran’s today and tomorrow” will be met: in essence, marry on time and have children.
A consequence of this worldview can be seen in the latest data published by the Statistical Center of Iran which shows that each day, close to 100 girls under the age of 14 are married off in Iran. Just in the summer of 2020, some 9,058 girls between the ages of 10 and 14 were married – and these are just the weddings that were registered.
At the same time that Khamenei was making his speech, his official website and his accounts on social media were publishing posters, videos and quotations from his previous statements about women’s supposed role as wives and mothers. In his figuration of events, Fatimah al-Zahra is “a role model in managing the home and carrying out her duties toward her husband,” while Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam, “was always on the front lines of battle.”
Furthermore, one such Khamenei quotation declares, “how strong a person needs to be to be able to prepare this husband to empty his heart of the temptations of family and the troubles of life, to encourage him, and to raise their children as well as she did.” In every statement about Fatimah al-Zahra, Khamenei clearly states the she is the perfect role model for Iranian and Muslim women because of the invaluable services that she rendered to his father, her husband and his sons, the future second and third Shia Imams.
Under the title “The woman that Islam wants to build”, the weekly Hezbollah’s Line — a bulletin published by Khamenei’s office which is distributed in mosques, the offices of the paramilitary Basij organization and during Friday prayers— dedicated an entire page to previous statements by Khamenei about women’s role in Muslim and Iranian societies.
A Proper Woman “Does not Intermingle with Men”
Khamenei’s noteworthy statements on this subject go back to 1989, the same year he became the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic. In a speech that year, Khamenei defined the proper woman as a woman who “does not intermingle with men and does not consider herself a tool for attracting them, a woman who believes that her dignity is above going naked to capture the attention of passers-by and to fill them with lust using her face, her hair and her body.” In the same speech, he defined as the “role model” for Muslim women a woman who is “self-sacrificing” and “eloquent” in “attending to her husband” and in being a mother.
In 1992, when Iranian women’s voices rose in protest against systematic sexual discrimination and mandatory veiling, Khamenei again reiterated: “Don’t say one cannot get an education while preserving hijab and chastity and while nurturing children.” And, again, he included “attending to the husband” as a value that women must embody.
Five years later, in 1997, Khamenei yet again emphasized that women must not abandon taking care of their husbands and raising children for getting an education or finding employment. In the same speech, he said that because of their “physical makeup”, Islam does not allow women to be active in certain fields because of the “intermingling of men and women.”
Examples of such statements abound in the years since Khamenei became Supreme Leader. Of course, he has promoted his ideas about the role of women using every tool at his disposal, from Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) to sermons during Friday prayers, to the curricula of schools and universities.
In 1973, Khamenei approved a charter entitled “Woman of the Islamic Revolution”, which was issued by the Women’s Basij [Mobilization] Organization. Minoo Aslani, who was then the head of this organization, defined this woman as one that “brings comfort and peace to the family environment”, “encourages her husband in supporting the Islamic Revolution” and “brings tranquility to her spouse”.
Another tool Khamenei has used to promote his beliefs about is to either pass discriminatory laws or fight back against bills and laws that would grant more rights to women. In the more than four decades since the foundation of the Islamic Republic, very few laws can be said to have done anything for women’s rights – and even then with plenty of escape clauses.
For instance, marriageable age for girls was increased from nine to 13. But the legislators left the option of marrying off younger girls if the guardian or the sharia court allows it. For years, some MPs have tried to raise the age of marriage to 18 but, as of now, the Supreme Leader and the establishment have stood fast against it.
The Iranian parliament is supposed to be made up of representatives who are directly elected by and accountable to the people. But the candidates must be approved by the Guardian Council and the members of the Guardian Council are the puppets of the Supreme Leader. In other words, Khamenei has absolute power over laws and lawmakers that decide how Iranian women live.
Who Are the Culprits?
Is Khamenei the principal culprit in the constant violations of women’s rights in Iran? Sedigheh Vasmaghi, a lawyer, political activist and scholar of religion who was the first spokesperson of Tehran City Council from 1999 to 2003, tells IranWire that the Supreme Leader certainly plays a “major role” in this issue.
“If he were a supporter of democracy and equality,” she says, “he would have stood up to the traditional religious way of thinking that wants to marginalize women and keep them subordinate to men, housework and children.”
But, she says, Khamenei is part of the old guard, whose traditional religious views are “a far cry from the realities of today’s Iran”. Furthermore, she says, “This dominant ideology has the power, the money and the propaganda tools at its disposal but even though it enjoys all these facilities it has not been able to impose its values on society at large after four decades.
“Today even religious women and those who have been on the political scene since the Islamic Revolution are launching various campaigns for women’s participation in politics even at level of the presidency. Today, not even peasant women accept that women should be ruled by men.”
The issue of hijab clearly illustrates the widening gap between the government and the people when it comes to women’s rights. Iranian women “no longer have any belief in such ideas,” says Vasmaghi. “A look at the issue of hijab demonstrates this gap very well. After 40 years of propaganda, even religious women who wear hijab are against mandatory hijab. And hijab has been challenged even from a sharia point of view.”
Laws Cannot Change because They Cannot Change
“Adherents of this ruling ideology,” Vasmaghi says, “are either deceiving themselves or are simply expressing their wishes because they cannot change themselves. When the political leaders of a society do not understand the reality of that society and cannot adapt to its demands, the crisis can only deepen.”
Presenting Fatimah al-Zahra as the role model for women appears to have lost its appeal as well. According to well-known histories written by countless historians of Islam, the daughter of Prophet Mohammad married when she was 19 and died when she was 28.
Shia historians tell a different story. They say that she married when she was nine and died when she was 18. But regardless of which is true, Vasmaghi believes that the Islamic Republic and Khamenei are exploiting the story of Fatimah al-Zahra to advance their own ideological goals instead of presenting valid arguments.
“This exploitation is superficial and shallow and filled with ignorance,” she says. “What do demands by today’s women has anything to do with 1,400 years ago? This is an irrational interpretation of Islam and does not appeal to any woman. It’s impossible to take seriously.”
Traditional Islamic jurists, in sum, oppose changing modern-day Iranian law because their beliefs have not changed over 14 centuries. Meanwhile, the world has.
The Same but Different
Is harking back to Fatimah al-Zahra only an attempt to subdue women, or does it serve other goals as well? Parvaneh Hosseini, a women’s rights activist and academic, tells IranWire: “From the very first after the 1979 revolution, the Islamic Revolution defined women as primarily mothers, wives and sisters: women who are important only because of their relationships to men. Fatimah al-Zahra became a symbol of this. But Khamenei’s stance can be studied from two different angles. The other is in terms of his using women as tools against the ‘enemy’ and extending the Shia domain.”
According to Hosseini, what makes Khamenei distinctive is that he constantly juxtaposes the Iranian Islamic model and the Western model, emphasizing a “cultural invasion” by the Islamic Republic’s enemies. “Khamenei wants to portray women’s presence in various political, cultural and social spheres as resulting from ‘conspiracies by the enemy’,” Hosseini says. “By bestowing priority on the roles of being wives and mothers, he positions himself and the Iranian nation on one side and the rest of the world on the other side.”
In his recent statements Khamenei warmed again to this theme, claiming: “Islam and the Islamic Republic view women with respect and reverence whereas the West views them as commodities and tools.” But it seems that it is the Islamic Republic that is exploiting women as commodities and as tools to achieve its goals, be it in fighting against the “cultural invasion” or in extending the “Shia domain”.
As Parvaneh Hosseini puts it, “Not only does Khamenei want to present this model of woman as the ‘Islamic woman’ and export it to other Muslim societies, but by emphasizing procreation he wants to have a bigger Shia community and a bigger Shia army because he believes he can crush the enemies with a bigger army.”
Like Vasmaghi, Hosseini believes that Khamenei has no understanding of the reality of Iranian society and what the Iranian people want. “Khamenei’s delusion is that, as the leader of the Shiites and of Iran, he has the power to decide the destiny of the people. It is not important to him whether his ‘army’ thinks the way he does or not. In fact, it is not important to him whether the children that are born agree with him or not. What is important to him is making the community under his command bigger.”
In reality, it seems that the Islamic Republic, under Khamenei’s leadership, has reached a point whereby neither the religious faithful nor the secular opposition take his statements seriously. From where he is standing, he can see only his own entourage and therefore may not see the extent of the delusion. The drumbeat remains loud, but it is sounding more and more hollow.
Read other articles in this series:
Playing Poker With an Empty Hand
Who Will Succeed the Supreme Leader?
Suppression at Home, Compromises Abroad
A Job Description for the Next "Young Revolutionary" President
Against Freedom of Expression, For Holocaust Denial
visit the accountability section
In this section of Iran Wire, you can contact the officials and launch your campaign for various problems
comments