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Este artículo tiene como objetivo ubicar las luchas de resistencia civil no violenta llevadas a cabo por la población iraní dentro de lentes de género que enfocan el papel de las mujeres en Irán dentro de la geopolítica de la historia moderna de Irán. Lo hará proponiendo una lectura feminista de las luchas de acción no violenta desde la década de 1870 hasta 2021 que coloque en el centro de la discusión el papel de las mujeres en las luchas de resistencia civil y los vínculos entre estas y el movimiento de mujeres en Irán, así como en la diáspora iraní. Irán es un país que ha vivido un dramático conflicto sociopolítico donde la población iraní se ha enfrentado a regímenes autoritarios y dictatoriales de diversa índole. Particularmente interesado en los cambios gubernamentales nacionales, del dominio monárquico a una república teocrática; la presencia de Gran Bretaña y Rusia, y más tarde de Estados Unidos; las movilizaciones de masas de finales del siglo XIX y la Revolución Iraní; campañas de igualdad de género, así como actos de resistencia más individuales a través de campañas ciberfeministas, este artículo tiene como objetivo mostrar el papel de las mujeres en estas luchas interconectadas con el movimiento feminista iraní tanto en Irán como en la diáspora. Conectado al campo de las Relaciones Internacionales, el subcampo de la resistencia civil está pasando por importantes desarrollos en relación con el caso iraní, que este artículo sostiene, puede valer la pena abordar para capturar algunos de los matices presentados por las experiencias muy a menudo inexploradas de mujeres en los acontecimientos que han marcado la historia sociopolítica de la República Islámica de Irán. Este artículo adopta una posición epistemológica impulsada por el objetivo de colocar los actos de resistencia de las mujeres iraníes en el centro del debate para mostrar su papel activo en la historia moderna de Irán en oposición a la imagen más orientalista de las mujeres iraníes como pasivas y víctimas. El artículo se divide en siete secciones que incluyen la introducción y la conclusión. El marco teórico abarca la literatura de la resistencia civil y las perspectivas feministas. En consecuencia, el orden de las secciones sigue los períodos cronológicos de los gobiernos autoritarios iraníes y analiza las luchas de resistencia civil que han tenido lugar y sus conexiones con el papel de las mujeres en Irán.
This article’s objective is to place the modern history of Iran in relation to nonviolent struggles within the optic of the role of women within them, and to link these episodes with the feminist struggle in Iran. It will cover the years that span from the 1870s until 2021 by placing at the centre of the discussion the role of women in civil resistance struggles. Of particular interest will be national governmental changes, from the monarchic era to a theocratic republic; the presence of Britain and Russia, and later the United States; the mass mobilizations during the end of the nineteenth century and the Iranian Revolution; and gender equality campaigns, as well as more individual acts of resistance through cyber feminist campaigns. This paper aims to show the role of women in these struggles as interconnected with the Iranian feminist movement both inside Iran and in the diaspora.
Various episodes in Iranian modern history, such as the Tobacco Protests at the end of the nineteenth century, the Constitutional Revolution at the beginning of the twentieth century and the Iranian revolution of 1979, as well as uprisings that preceded it between 1977 and 1979, have been studied within the civil resistance literature. All of these events showed that ordinary people had the power to topple authoritarian rule in their country through the use of nonviolent strategies. One of the most important references in nonviolent action studies, Gene Sharp, has suggested that one hundred and ninety-eight methods exist to efficiently overthrow dictatorial regimes around the world, and that these methods and techniques had to be collectively put into practice in order for them to be successful (Sharp, 1973, 2005). Various studies, mostly based on quantitative analysis and historical documentation, have demonstrated that nonviolent strategies have been in many instances much more successful than violence in achieving freedom from authoritarian rule (Chenoweth and Stephan, 2011; Chenoweth, 2021). In the Iranian socio-political context, the three aforementioned civil resistance struggles managed to establish a constitution and the creation of a parliament at the beginning of the twentieth century, as well as the ousting of an autocratic leader in 1979. All of these episodes are considered to be examples of civil resistance techniques that have managed to topple the authoritarian regimes present at that time in Iran.
All of these struggles included the nonviolent participation of Iranian women, even though that participation has not sufficiently been brought to light in the Iranian history scholarship. The Tobacco Movement and the Constitutional Revolution represent the origins of a feminist conscience in Iran, and of women’s engagement with gender politics (Mahdi, 2004). Policies relating to women’s health, education, work and public life in general were present in both Pahlavi monarchies. However, whilst attempts were made to democratise the image of women, as well as their status, the Pahlavi regime did not achieved gender equality in Iran due to the strengthening of the class divide and its intensification by the persistent presence of British and American interests in the country.
With the installing of the Islamic regime in Iran in 1979, the advances in women’s rights that had been accomplished during the previous decades, thanks to the increased presence of women in public life, disappeared in the blink of an eye. The very many risks, nonetheless, have not prevented Iranian women from fighting for their rights through campaigns such as the One Million Signatures Campaign (1MSC) (2006-2009), or more recent internet gender campaigns such as My stealthy Freedom and White Wednesdays. Studies that have connected civil resistance struggles in Iran to women’s rights (see Beyerle, 2008; Davoudi Mohajer et al., 2009) have begun to pave the way for further developments and it is from this standpoint that the paper wants to make its contribution. The field of Resistance Studies where the subfield of civil resistance is located has been getting wider and deeper, incorporating different meanings and types of resistance acts, where collective as well as more individual stands have been taken into consideration. Poststructuralist, postcolonial and feminist outlooks have expanded the subfield of civil resistance, and the Iranian case clearly shows that the civil resistance scholarship can be applied to situations that involve the toppling of authoritarian regimes, internet gender equality campaigns, and also to those perspectives that take into consideration the transnational field. By placing attention on the links between nonviolent action and the Iranian feminist movement this article also shows the continuities and discontinuities of the participation of women in the civil resistance struggles in Iran, which in turn have to do with the different historical circumstances. As the paper will show, one key aspect has to do with the role of Iranian feminists in the diaspora who have supported and sometimes created civil resistance movements for gender equality in Iran. Sharp took the role of third parties into consideration (1973) within civil resistance movements, but it was not until Andrew Rigby’s study on the Palestinian diaspora and civil resistance (2009) that actors such as diasporas have been placed under increasing interest as supporters of civil resistance movements in their countries of origin (Dudouet, 2015; Stephan and Chenoweth, 2021).
Part one locates the arguments within a theoretical framework that links the subfield of nonviolent action with feminist perspectives from the fields of International Relations and Resistance Studies. Following this first section, the paper is divided into another five sections. Part two deals with the civil resistance struggles at the end of the nineteenth century and early twentieth century, as well as the role of women in them and the feminist movement. Next, part three of the article centres itself on the Pahlavi Monarchy that preceded the Islamic Revolution by looking at the position of women in Iran as well as the Iranian feminist movement. Part four looks at the nonviolent orientation of the Iranian revolution and the role of women therein, while part five locates the discussion on civil resistance within a more recent period and the conjunction with the Iranian diaspora. The article ends with a section dedicated to concluding remarks where future research lines will be suggested.
