There
is a popular notion that Iran is undergoing reform under the leadership
of President Mohammed Khatami and women are among the beneficiaries of a
more tolerant, less harsh society, where there are more personal
freedoms and freedom of expression.
Certainly,
women want change. Since the religious fundamentalist takeover, many
women have resisted oppression under the mullahs in many ways—small
and large. Now, twenty-one years after the revolution, 60 percent of the
population is under age 25 with no memory of pre-revolutionary times.
Women, and many others, are craving more freedom, opportunity and
dignity than the restrictive theocracy allows.
Khatami
has been President for almost three years. Have the rights of women and
their status in Iran improved, or on the verge of improving, under this
so called reformist leader? What does he and his reformist colleagues
say about women, their rights and their role in society? What might
women expect from Khatami in the future?
Women Under
Fundamentalist Rule
To
understand the status of women in Iran for the past twenty-one years and
the possibilities of reform today, it is necessary to understand the
fundamentalist’s view of women and the unique structure of government
in Iran.[i]
Iran is a theocracy based on Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s theory of
religious dictatorship called velayat-e faqih, which gives the
Supreme Leader the role of guardian over the nation with
responsibilities and power as an adult guardian has over children.[ii]
Khomeini wrote that this religious rule superseded all minor religious
laws and the ruling power could unilaterally cancel any agreement he had
made previously.[iii]
Under this system of rule, the Supreme Leader is more powerful than the
President and even determines how much decision making power the
President has.
The
fundamentalists’ theocracy is built on their beliefs about the nature
of women and men and their roles in society. In their view, women are
physically, intellectually and morally inferior to men. This assumption
meant that women could not participate equally in any area of social or
political activity. Ideas of biological determinism prescribe women’s
primary role and duties to child bearing and care taking, and to
providing comfort and satisfaction to husbands. Women are viewed as the
embodiment of sexual seduction and vice, thereby necessitating strict
control on women’s interactions with men and the visibility of their
bodies. After Khomeini got power, he abolished minimal social rights of
women in the family and public life. The fundamentalist mullahs
implemented their system of gender apartheid through segregation of the
sexes, suppression of women’s activities and visibility in public, and
increased control of women by men in the family.
The
woman-hating principles of Khomeini and his followers were turned into
laws and policies that are still in effect. To hide the purported
seductiveness of women’s bodies, the hejab, or dress code, must
be followed for all women in public places. Women must cover their hair
and body except for their face and hands and cosmetics are prohibited.
Smiling in the street is prohibited. Women are banned from pursuing
higher education in 91 of 169 fields of study and must be taught in
segregated classrooms.
A woman may work with her husband’s permission, although many
occupations are forbidden to women. To protect the sexual morality of
society, women have to be covered and are prohibited from engaging in
“immodest” activity. [iv]
Punishments range from a verbal reprimand to 74 lashes with a whip to
imprisonment for one month to a year. Stoning to death is a legal form
of punishment for sexual misconduct. This form of torturous killing was
initiated by fundamentalists when they came to power after the Islamic
Revolution. Law specifies the size of the stones and the method of
burying a person to be stoned. The purpose is to inflict great pain and
suffering before death occurs.
The
legal age at which girls can be married is 9 lunar years (8 years, 9
months on the solar calendar). Polygamy is legal, with men permitted to
have four wives and unlimited number of temporary wives. Men have the
power to make all family decisions, including the movement of women and
custody of the children. “Your wife, who is your possession, is in
fact, your slave,” is the mullah’s legal view of women’s status. [v]
Women
are not permitted to travel or acquire a passport without their father
or husband’s written permission. A woman is not permitted to be in the
company of a man who is not her husband or a male relative. Public
activities are segregated. Women are not allowed to engage in sports in
which they will be seen by men, or permitted to watch men’s sports in
which men’s legs are not fully covered.
Status of Women
in Iran
Draconian
laws and discrimination stifle the women of Iran. New laws strengthening
gender apartheid and repression of women are not a thing of the past. According
to Human Rights Watch’s 1999 Report “New laws were passed
discriminating against women and aimed at restricting debate about
women’s rights.”[vi] Since Khatami
became President in 1997, new restrictive laws and policies have been
implemented to segregate women and men in education and health care.
Parliament and other religious leaders continue to propose and enact a
number of laws or policies that will adversely effect the health,
education, and well being of women and girls in Iran.
Women’s
public clothing continues to obsess the mullahs. In 1997, the Martyr
Ghodusi Judicial Center, a main branch of the judiciary, issued a
stricter hejab, or dress code. The new guidelines call for prison
terms from three months to one year or fines and up to 74 lashes with a
whip for wearing “modish outfits, such as suits and skirt without a
long overcoat on top.” The regulations ban any mini or short-sleeved
overcoat, and the wearing of any “depraved, showy and glittery object
on hats, necklaces, earring, belts, bracelets, glasses, headbands,
rings, neckscarfs and ties.”[vii]
Women
continue to be arrested for improper veiling. Women who fail to conform
to the strict dress code are arrested, boarded on minibuses and taken to
a center for fighting “social corruption.”[viii]
In November 1997, an Agence France Presse correspondent in Tehran
witnessed ten young women being arrested and placed into a patrol car
for improper veiling or wearing clothing that did not conform to Islamic
regulations. The women were wearing colorful headscarves and light make-up.[ix]
In June 1998, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei told senior officials that it was
time “to crack down on wanton behavior by women.”[x]
By mid-August, 1,800 women and men had been arrested for “mal-veiling
and lewd conduct.” Most of the women were wearing makeup or in the
company of young men who were not related to them. In January 2000, Agence
France Presse reported that 10 young women were arrested in one
incident for wearing make-up and wearing veils that did not entirely
conceal their hair.[xi]
Gender
segregation in education continues to grow. In 1997, Parliamentary
deputies submitted a plan to make girls’ schools a “no-male zone,”
which will require all teachers and staff to be women.[xii]
This requirement will make education for girls even more inaccessible
and difficult. In September 1999, women teachers were forbidden to enter
the classrooms of 10 year-old boys and men teachers were banned from
entering girls’ classes.[xiii]
Many
girls do not have the opportunity to get an education. Official
statistics reveal that 90 percent of girls in rural districts drop out
of school.[xiv]
One cause of the drop out rate is the young age at which any girls can
be married under the laws of the fundamentalists. Fatemeh Tondgouyan, an
advisor on women’s issues to the Minister of Education confirmed that
one cause of illiteracy among young women was early marriage: In 1999,
there were 52,473 married girl students between the ages of 10 and 14,
and 617,920 between 15 and 19.”[xv]
Segregation
and discrimination against women and girls adversely effects the health
of women. In April 1997, Parliament approved a new law requiring
hospitals to segregate by sex all health care services. At this time,
there are not enough trained women physicians and health care
professionals to meet the needs of all the women and girls in Iran,
resulting in poorer quality health care.[xvi]
As part of the implementation plan of this apartheid system of health
care, the Fatemieh Medical School in Qom set up a pilot program for
segregated medical education. All of the male staff was fired in order
to comply with the new law and to limit contact between women and men.[xvii]
In January 2000, the women students went on strike, refusing to work in
a hospital affiliated with the university program, to protest the poor
education.[xviii]
There are other signs of the deteriorated life
circumstances of women in Iran. In 1999, government officials reported
that the suicide rate among young women is rising sharply. Shojaii Zand,
Head of the Office of Social Affairs in the Interior Ministry reported a
109 percent increase in the number of suicides.[xix]
Most were under age 31, with many between the ages of 15 and 19. No
interviews were carried out with survivors of suicide attempts or
friends and relatives of victims. Researchers speculated that the cause
was women’s feelings of powerlessness and the everyday environment
that tells women they are inferior. Forced marriages and harassment were
also cited as causes of tremendous stress in women’s lives.[xx]
Women
lobbied for increasead control of their lives within the family. In
1997, women made a small gain by getting Parliament to pass a law that
granted women some custody rights to children after a divorce, but only
if the father was determined to be a drug addict, an alcoholic or
“morally corrupt.”[xxi]
These were modest, but important improvements for women’s rights. As a
result of the slight improvement in custody and divorce rights, by 1999,
the number of divorces was rising. The exact number of petitions and
resulting divorces varied depending on the source, but seemed to be
about a 15 percent increase.[xxii] [xxiii]
Women’s campaign for equal inheritance rights was not so successful. Parliament
overwhelmingly rejected the bill saying the proposal for equal
inheritance was contrary to Islamic law, which stipulates that a
woman’s share may only be one half that of a man’s.[xxiv]
There
are few employment opportunities for women. According the Iranian
Education Minister Hossein Mozaffar, the employment rate for women was
nine percent and 72 percent of that was in the education sector.[xxv]
According to the President Khatami’s advisor on women’s issues,
there are only three women in every 10,000 senior managers—the rest
are men.[xxvi]
An international study comparing workforce conditions for women around
the world ranked Iran 108th out of 110.[xxvii]
In urban areas women make-up only 9.5 percent of the workforce, and in
rural areas the percent is 8.8 percent.[xxviii]
Even Khatami’s advisor on women’s affairs acknowledged that there is
discrimination in employment and promotion against women in government
offices: “Some officials are of the opinion that men have more of a
role in running the family, so they favor the men.”[xxix]
Under
fundamentalist’s interpretation of Islamic texts, women are banned
from being judges because they are not considered capable of making
important decisions. One of the purported signs of moderation in Iran is
the appointment of women as judges, but in actuality no women are
allowed this rank. Judiciary Chief Yazdi made the issue clear in his
Friday prayers sermon: “The women judges I mentioned hold positions in
the judiciary, they receive salaries, they attend trials, they provide
counsel, but they do not preside over trials and or issue verdicts.”[xxx]
Iran
continues to have one of the worst human rights records in the world. In
1999, Human Rights Watch opened their report on Iran by stating,
“Human rights failed to improve, and in some areas deteriorated…”[xxxi]
A representative of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights has
not been permitted to visit Iran since February 1996.[xxxii]
Concerning the human rights of women, the UN Representative concluded
that, “..there is virtually no progress towards the improvement of
[women’s] legal status. Government is not addressing the removal of
these discriminatory laws and practices which remain the cause of the
unequal treatment faced by women in Iran.”[xxxiii]
In response to criticisms on women’s rights in Iran, Jolodar Zadeh,
one of the few women Parliamentary deputies defended Iran’s policies
on women by saying that differences in rights for men and women did not
mean discrimination in their rights.[xxxiv]
One
of the worst human rights violations, stoning to death continues. In
October 1999, a woman was stoned to death—the thirteenth person killed
by stoning since Khatami took office.[xxxv] Iran also has one of the
highest execution rates of any nation in the world. In late January
2000, two women were hanged, bringing the number of executions under
Khatami to 545.[xxxvi]
According
to Human Rights Watch’s 1999 Report on Iran, “Executions after
unfair trials proliferated” and “torture was widespread during
interrogation.”[xxxvii]
Evidence of how common torture is came to light recently when Tehran
city officials who had been detained for questioning in the corruption
case against the mayor of Tehran, revealed that they had been tortured
by beatings, floggings with whips, sleep deprivation, exposure to loud
noises, lack of food and threats to relatives to produce confessions or
to incriminate others.[xxxviii]
One can imagine, if prison integrators are willing to torture government
employees how they treat political prisoners. In December 1999 a number
of Revolutionary Guards admitted for the first time to the existence of
the “cage”—a 70 by 80 by 80 cm (or smaller) cubicle—in which
political prisoners were kept for weeks or months to break them.[xxxix]
According to the testimony of one woman held in such a cage for almost
nine months, there was an entire ward of cages. “They were so small
that we could not sit in them cross legged. So we had to sit in
squatting position. We were blindfolded and…. had to sit in that
position from dawn to dusk. After some time, the physical strain on us
began to show. I could not walk myself. Every time I got up, I would get
dizzy and fall.”[xl]
Minors
continue to be executed in Iran. In reaction to protests, Senior Mullah
Hosseini Kooh-Kamarei ruled that “anyone who reaches the age of
puberty can be subjected to any penal sentence. There is no difference
between an adolescent who has reached the age of puberty and a
50-year-old individual as far as conviction and sentencing are
concerned.”[xli]
The official age of puberty for girls is 9 lunar years (8 years in the
solar calendar) and 15 for boys (14 in the solar calendar). So by law, 8
year old girls and 14 year old boys can be executed.
This
evidence shows that human rights and the status of women have not
improved markedly during Khatami’s three years as President. Some
people claim that Khatami does have reformist intentions, but
conservatives have thwarted him. We can look at Khatami’s own words
and the words of his appointees to determine if they really support
reform.
Khatami and the
Reformists—Words and Actions
There
is a widely held view that Khatami supports the rights of women, but his
statements and appointments speak differently. Prior to his election in
1997 Khatami said, “One of the West’s most serious mistakes was the
emancipation of women, which led to the disintegration of families.
Staying at home does not mean marginalization. Being a housewife does
not prevent a woman from having a role in the destiny of her people. We
should not think that social activity means working outside the home.
Housekeeping is among one of the most important jobs.”[xlii]
Almost three years later, Khatami’s view is unchanged. In October
1999, he commented on the status of women and their participation in
society and noted problems in other parts of the world: “We should not
go through the same bitter experience of today’s world regarding the
society and woman which has led to the disintegration of all bonds”
and “undermined the foundations of the family.” He added, “The
family forms the main pillar and nucleus of society, and if this is
undermined, the society will be undermined—this is one of the major
problems of Western society.”[xliii]
In
even the most extreme form of inhumane treatment—death by
stoning—Khatami has been silent. One of his “reformist” colleagues
suggested that if this form of execution was disturbing to the world
community, they should conduct the stoning out of public view.[xliv]
Under
Khatami’s leadership the Supreme Council of the Cultural Revolution
decided not to sign the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of
All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), the most important
international agreement on the rights of women.[xlv]
Even
the women Khatami has appointed support the fundamentalist attitude and
policies towards women. Khatami’s advisor on women’s affairs, Zahra
Shoja’l, says she is an advocate of women’s rights, but within an
Islamic fundamentalist context. She calls the restrictive and
symbolically oppressive hejab, the chador “the superior
national dress of the women of Iran.”[xlvi]
In October 1999, she stated, “The state and government does not want
the women’s participation in social affairs at the price of the
family’s disintegration. Women should play their role in the family to
bring comfort and warmth to the family and be the first and main
educator of children. This is of greatest importance.”[xlvii]
When questioned about a law that does not permit women to leave the
country on their own to study abroad, Ms. Shoja’l replied that the
woman would then have to take up her studies at a university at home.[xlviii]
Khatami’s
highly publicized woman appointment is Massoumeh Ebtekar, Vice-President
for Environmental Protection. She has a long association with the
fundamentalists: after the Islamic Revolution in 1979 she was
spokesperson for the hostage takers who captured the U.S. embassy in
Tehran. She does not favor loosening restrictions on women that would
give them more personal freedom or stop the most barbaric
institutionalized violence against women. She supports the law that
requires women to get their husband’s permission to travel. She
justifies this law by saying, “Man is responsible for the financial
affairs and safety of the family. Thus, a woman needs her husband’s
permission to make a trip. Otherwise problems will arise and lead to
quarrels between them.”[xlix]
She also defends stoning women to death by saying, “One should take
psychological and legal affairs of the society into consideration as
well. If the regular rules of family are broken, it would result in many
complicated and grave consequences for all of the society.”[l]
Khatami
and his appointees maintain the same theoretical view of women as set
out by Khomeini decades ago. They sometimes use the words of women’s
rights, but hold the same fundamentalist views on veiling, women’s
participation in society, and their role in the family. Even sadistic
stoning to death is defended.
One
of the areas in which Khatami has been praised as a reformist is in
freedom of expression. Khatami is credited with giving new freedoms to
the press. After Khatami’s election as President, there was an
increase in the number of publications. A closer look revealed that the
only newspapers or magazines that received permits were Khatami
supporters. Also, an investigation of the backgrounds of the editors of
the new publications found that many were Revolutionary Guards
commanders, religious judges, members of secret police and some had even
been involved in the torture and execution of political prisoners.[li]
Not the kind of activities usually associated with “reformists.”
The
new publications became the site of a power struggle between Khamenei,
the Supreme Leader, and Khatami, the President, as publications were
closed down and editors arrested. In February 1998, the newspaper Jameah
started to publish articles somewhat critical of the government, color
photographs of smiling women harvesting wheat, and an interview with a
former prisoner. By June a court revoked their license.[lii]
Also, police filed charges against Zanan, a monthly women’s
magazine, for "insulting" the police force by publishing an
article on the problems women face with the authorities on Iranian
beaches, which are segregated by sex.[liii]
In 1998, a new law approved by Parliament imposes more restrictions on
the photographs of women that can be published in newspapers and
magazines.[liv]
The Iranian state television announced in August 1998 a decision by the
Justice Department in Tehran to shut down a newspaper and put its
proprietor on trial. One of the charges leveled against the publication,
Khaneh, was that it had published "obscene" photographs
of women playing football.[lv]
As
women inside Iran pressed for more rights, their freedom of expression
was completely curtailed. The Parliament approved a law prohibiting the
discussion of women’s issues or rights outside the interpretation of
Shari’a (Islamic law) established by the ruling mullahs.[lvi]
In a further effort to repress all discussion of women’s rights, in
August 1998, the Parliament passed a bill prohibiting the publication of
material in the media that defended women’s rights in a way that would
create conflict between the genders. Advocates of women’s rights are
subject to imprisonment and lashing for violations.[lvii]
As Parliamentary elections approached in February
2000, there were more and more words of reform. Interviews with
“reformists” revealed the emptiness of their words. When questioned
about women’s rights, Mohmoud Shams, Editor of the “reformist”
paper Asr-E-Azadegan (Era of the Free) commented, “In what
country in the world does a woman get half of everything in a divorce?
Women have had their fair share of rights given to them in the past 20
years.”
These
views are consistent with Khatami’s current position and with his
previous political career. Khatami first entered politics after the
1979 Revolution. He was a member of the Line of Imam, the dominant
group aligned with Ayatollah Khomeini, which opposed individual and
social freedoms. From the earliest days he was an active support of the velayat-e
faqih structure of government. Under Khomeini’s rule he was
appointed the Minister of Culture and Islamic Guidance. From 1982 to
1992, he was the fundamentalist’s chief censor of the media, the arts
and culture. He shut down all independent publications and approved the
new restrictions on women actors and the requirement that girls wear the
hejab in films. [lviii] After Khomeini’s death in 1989, the Line
of Imam faction weakened and eventually lost power to Rafsanjani’s
faction. Khatami was moved to the job of Librarian of the National
Library. At that time the shift in power to Rafsanjani’s faction was
widely thought to be a sign of moderation in Iran. In 1997, Khatami
asked to be allowed to run for President. His candidacy was one of only
four approved by the Guardians Council, which evaluates the suitability
and loyalty of each candidate to the regime; 234 candidates were
rejected. Khatami belongs to a different faction than the so-called
conservatives, but he is an insider and considered loyal to the
principle of velayat-e faqih. Khatami continues to voice his
loyalty to the Supreme Leader and the system of velayat-e faqih.
The Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei’s opinion of women and their
place in society is the same as his predecessor Ayatollah Khomeini’s—women
should be wives and mothers. He has stated: "The real value of a
woman is measured by how much she makes the family environment for her
husband and children like a paradise."[lix] In July 1997 Ayatollah
Khamenei said that the idea of women’s equal participation in society
was “negative, primitive and childish.”[lx]
Khatami
says all the right words of reform, such as “civil society,”
“freedom of expression,” and “rule of law.” But when pressed, he
explains that these ideas would be implemented within the structure of velayat-e
faqih. After becoming President, he said, “In the Islamic
Republic, defending the law means defending the velayat-e faqih.”[lxi]
As Khatami continues to use the words of reform, the word Islamic
becomes inserted before each reformist principle, creating “Islamic
civil society,” “Islamic human rights,” “Islamic women’s
rights,” and the “rule of law under velayat-e faqih.” What
these fundamentalist concepts mean in practice have nothing to do with
universal standards by which other nations and international bodies use
those terms and it means little or no change at all in Iran. In the
United Nations Human Rights Report, Maurice Copithornce reported that
Iran had made no movement towards rule of law. He said, “…certainly,
little to this end has been achieved to date.”[lxii]
Women Deserve
Real Change
The women of Iran deserve real change. Women in Iran deserve
equality, respect and the right to participate in all social, political
and economic activities. They are entitled to live their lives
productively and with dignity.
Throughout
the 20th Century Iranian women have organized and fought for human and
political rights, from the Constitutional Revolution at the turn of the
century to the democratic movement that overthrew the Shah of Iran.[lxiii]
Following the overthrow of the monarchy, the fundamentalists, led by
Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, seized control of the revolution and
betrayed the women who assisted with the revolution. After 1979, the
measure of the success of the Islamic Revolution was the depth of the
suppression of women’s rights and activities.
From
the time the mullahs moved to take power, women as supporters of
democracy have opposed fundamentalism and theocracy in Iran. When
democratic protest became impossible in Iran, they joined the Resistance
and became incomparable leaders.
Inside
Iran, in July 1999, women were active participants in the demonstrations
in Tehran and Tabriz that started as student demonstrations against the
violent crackdown by police and vigilantes on students and quickly
spread to the general public. A number of women were reported arrested,
wounded or killed, although the exact number varied depending on the
reports.[lxiv]
[lxv]
[lxvi]
Women are fighting for change at every opportunity.
Women
need to beware of the “reformists,” as they offer little or no more
than the “conservatives” do, and are as likely to betray the women
who support them. There is no evidence that “reformists” are truly
interested in improving the rights and lives of women in Iran.
The
true route to change for women in Iran is the overthrow of the system of
velayat-e faqih and oust the mullahs from power.
Endnotes
[i] Not all mullahs supported
this structure of government and protested that the Quran did not
support many of the claims of the fundamentalists, especially those
concerning women.
[ii] “Women under mullah’s
rule‑Two decades of suppression, discrimination and
resistance,” Unpublished paper.
[iv] The Subjection of Women,
Parliamentary Human Rights Group, United Kingdom, November 1994.
[v] Judiciary Chief Mohammad
Yazdi, Ressalat, 15 December 1986.
[vi] Human Rights Watch, Iran,
1999, http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/mideast/iran.htm.
[vii] Agence France Presse,
20 February 1998
[viii] Agence France Presse,
26 July 1998.
[ix] Agence France Presse,
30 November 1997
[x] U.S. News and World
Report, 17 August 1998
[xi] Agence France Presse,
22 January 2000.
[xii] Iran Daily, 6
October 1997
[xiii] Zanan Magazine,
September 1999.
[xiv] Jomhouri Islami,
Tehran, 14 August 1998
[xv] Ettela’at Daily,
27 May 1999.
[xvi] Laila al-Marayati,
“Discourse needed on Islam interpretation of rights,” Los
Angeles Times, 16 May 1998.
[xvii] “Women medical
students protest poor education,” Reuters, 13 January 2000.
[xviii] Washington Post,
14 January 2000.
[xix] State television, 27
December 1999, Unpublished written source.
[xx] Khordad, 8
September 1999.
[xxi] Associated Press,
2 November 1997.
[xxii] Jomhouri Islami,
31 October 1999.
[xxiv] BBC World Service,
5 January 1998.
[xxv] Jomhouri-Islami,
12 May 1999.
[xxvi] Salam Daily, 26
May 1999.
[xxvii] Internatinal Labor
Organization, quoted in Bergens Tidende, 12 July 1997.
[xxx] Tehran radio, 31 July
1998.
[xxxi] Human Rights Watch,
Iran, 1999, http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/mideast/iran.htm.
[xxxii] Maurice Copithorne,
Special Representative of the Commission on Human Rights,
“Situation of human rights in the Islamic Republic of Iran, 21
September 1999, p. 4.
[xxxiv] Jomhuri Eslami Daily,
12 May 1999.
[xxxv] Reuters, 17
October 1999.
[xxxvii] Human Rights Watch,
Iran, 1999, http://www.hrw.org/hrw/worldreport99/mideast/iran.htm.
[xxxviii] Amnesty International
Report, Iran 1999.
[xxxix] Payam-Azadi, 29
December 1999.
[xl] Unpublished testimony of
woman imprisoned for five years of political activities.
[xli] “Mullahs’ regime
declares execution ‘legal’ for girls over 8 and boys over 14,”
Press Release, National Council of Resistance of Iran, 24 December
1999.
[xlii] The Daily Salaam,
11 May 1997
[xliv] Mohammed Mohaddessin,
“Iran election, 2000,” Washington Times, 17 February
2000.
[xlv] Iran Zamin News, 7
February 1998
[xlviii] Jaam-e Jam State
Television, 8 October 1998, cited in unpublished source.
[xlix] Die Tageszeitung,
18 October 1997
[li] Farzin Hashemi,
Khatami’s Political Allies in The Myth of Moderation—Iran
Under Khatami, Foreign Affairs Committee, National Council of
Resistance of Iran, 1998, p. 29.
[lii] Elaine Sciolino, “New
Iran’s Alternative Voices Demand to Be Heard,” New York Times,
20 July 1998.
[liii] “Hardliners Step Up
Pressure on Press,” Agence France Presse, 26 May 1998.
[liv] “Iran law sets tough
rules on press photos of women,” Reuters, 13 April 1998.
[lv].
Iranian state television, 1 August 1998.
[lvi] Laila al-Marayati,
“Discourse needed on Islam interpretation of rights,” Los
Angeles Times, 16 May 1998.
[lvii] Iran Zamin News
Agency, 13 August 1998.
[lviii] Ali Safavi, Who is
Mohammed Khatami? In The Myth of Moderation‑Iran under
Khatami, Foreign Affairs, Committee, National Council of
Resistance of Iran, 1998, p.12.
[lix] Iranian state television,
18 February 1998.
[lx] Tehran radio, 21 July
1997.
[lxi] State television, 18
November 1997, as cited in Who is Mohammed Khatami? p. 18.
[lxii] Maurice Copithorne, p.
8.
[lxiii] Associations of Iranian
Women, Iranian Women: A Century of Struggle for Equality,
February 1996.
[lxiv] Radio France
International, 11 July 1999.
[lxv] Agence France Presse,
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