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

References and Notes

• A. Imam. Women and fundamentalism. Se. Dossier (WLUML). 1993. 11/12/13 Although ‘fandamentalism’ 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. M.E. Marry, R.S. Appleby. Fundamentalisms Observed. 1991; University of Chicago Press: ChicagoJ.S. Hawley. Fundamentalism and Gender. 1994. Oxfor.
   Google Scholar
• P. Paidar. Women and the Political Process in TwentiethCentury Iran. 1995; Cambridge University Press: CambridgeA. Tabari, N. Yeganeh. In the Shadow ofIslam: The Women's Movement in Iran. 1982. Londo. E. Sanasarian. The Women's Rights Movement in Iran. 1982. New Yor.
   Google Scholar
• H. Hoodfar. Population policy and gender equity in postrevolutionary Iran. C.M. Obermeyer. Family, Gender and Population in the Middle East. 1995; American University in Cairo Press: Cairo.
   Google Scholar
• H. Omid. Islam and the Post-Revolutionary State in Iran. 1994; St Martin's Press: New York.
   Google Scholar
• 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 me.
   Google Scholar
• N. Ramazani. Women in Iran: the revolutionary ebb and flow. Middle East Journal. 47: 1993; 409–428. 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] abov.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• I am referring to the many Islamist women activists, progressive religious leaders, secular women, and other intellectuals and experts in the field of family plannin.
   Google Scholar
• 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 pubert.
   Google Scholar
• A. Aghajanian. Population change in Iran 196688: a stalled demographic transition. Population and Development Review. 17: 1991; 703–715. The programme was fairly successful and within ten years had managed to covered 11 per cent of women of reproductive ag.
   Web of Science ®Google Scholar
• H. Hoodfar. Devices and desires: population policy and gender roles in the Islamic Republic. Middle East Report. 1994 Sept–Oct
   Google Scholar
• 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] abov.
   Google Scholar
• See Paidar [2] abov. Z. Mir-Hosseini. Women and politics in post-Khomeini Iran: divorce, veiling, and emerging feminist voices. H. Afshar. Women and Politics in the Third World. 1996; Routledge: London.
   Google Scholar
• G. Mehran. The creation of the new Muslim woman: female education in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Convergence. 23: 1991; 42–52.
   Google Scholar
• See Paidar [2] above, Omid [4] abov. V.M. Moghadam. Modernizing Women: Gender and Social Change in the Middle East. 1993; Lynne Reinner: Boulder.
   Google Scholar
• F. Moghadam. Commoditization of sexuality and female labour participation in Islam: implications for Iran, 1960–1990. Se. M. Afkhami, E. Fried]. Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran. 1994; IB Tauris: New York.
   Google Scholar
• Ayatollah Sane'i. Payam-eZan. nos. 50 and 51: 1996
   Google Scholar
• 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 frequentl.
   Google Scholar
• 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, Syracus.
   Google Scholar
• 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 enoug.
   Google Scholar
• M. Kar, H. Hoodfar. Personal status law as defined by the Islamic Republic of Iran: an appraisal. Special Dossier (WLUML). 1: 1996; 7–35.
   Google Scholar
• 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. H.M. Afzali. Evaluation of family planning programmes in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Family Health. 1: 1996; 3–18. In Asefzadeh and Nokiyani [19] abov.
   Google Scholar
• D. Hodgson, Watkins S.C. Population controllers and feminists: strange bedmates at Cairo?. Paper presented at annual meeting, Population Association of America. May, 1996
   Google Scholar