Essay On Iranian Women

Many Islamic countries require women to wear clothes that do not flaunt or define their bodies in any form. In certain countries such as Iran, additional clothing is required especially when engaging in religious or outdoor activities. Iranian women are known to wear a chador or a loose black robe that covers the body from head to toe. Iranian women in specific have covered themselves for centuries due to religious and family traditions but after the revolutionary government of Iran enforced the wearing of the veil and began restricting women’s rights, the veil or covering of the body represented something very different and changed the meaning of the act all together.
Women of Iran and other Muslim countries do not oppose the acts that their religious traditions have installed upon them for generations however; they do have a problem when these “traditions” are manipulated and altered for strict regulations and repression against the female gender in their cultures.
Iranian women traditionally used the chador while in public or when males not related to them were in the house. In the traditional view, an ideal society was one in which women were confined to the home, where they performed the various domestic tasks associated with managing a household and raising
“Mixed gatherings, both public and private, were the norm. During the Pahlavi era the government was the main promoter of change in traditional attitudes toward sexual segregation. It sought to discourage veiling of women at official functions and encouraged mixed participation in a variety of public gatherings” (Farmaian and Munker 56-63). The result was to bring the government into social conflict with the Shia clergy, who sought to defend traditional values. Women’s civil rights began to flourish during this period in