“Reading Lolita in Tehran” is the book I use for every summer reading project, with no exceptions. I found the book in Goodwill when I was in middle school, and I’ve never actually finished it. I’ve only read the first two portions, but I still think about the book often.
The book follows the author, Azar Nafisi, as she returns to Iran during the revolution. She teaches at a university, resigns, and creates a book club. The book club sticks in my mind made up of Nafisi and seven students. They don’t just read “Lolita,” they read all sorts of books as a way to describe their own lives.
Even a book about women criticizing Iran as the struggle through the oppressive government can’t properly describe the state of Iran today. Which is pretty fair, considering the book was published in 2003. Things change, but Nafisi and the women in her book club still show the unique struggle of being a woman in such an oppressive regime.
Iran's constitution, written in 1906 by the country’s first parliament, explicitly promised “equal rights before the law” for all Iranian citizens. Over the course of the 20th century, women in the country began to slowly gain more rights. They received the right to vote, run for office, and initiate divorce.
However, Iran’s second constitution (passed in 1979) chose to specify that women would be “equally protected.” This specification allowed Iran to lower the legal marriage age (from 18 to 13 and take away a women’s right to initiate divorce.
These discriminatory laws written into Iran’s second constitution prevent women from doing essentially anything on their own. Though the legal marriage age is 13, children even younger than that can marry with parental consent. In what world is it acceptable for a 10-year-old to marry?
Iranian women can’t escape their situations and are treated as second-class citizens. In court, their testimony is worth half of that of a man. They also have to follow a compulsory dress code, being forced to wear a hijab.
It’s essential to note that the hijab itself isn’t just a headscarf, and that, on its own, hijab isn’t discriminatory. Countless women choose to wear a hijab. Hijab, though viewed as only a headscarf, is much more than that. It’s complete modesty for women.
In Iran, the Morality Police survey the public to make sure women are wearing their hijab. If a woman wasn’t, or if her hijab wasn’t complete (ie: neck or hair strands showing), she was subject to fines or imprisonment.
A somewhat positive change in Iran was the punishment for being caught without a hijab. At the end of 2017, the Iranian government changed the consequence to instead be mandatory Islamic education classes.
Though this change seems to be a step in the right direction, it seems as though the Iranian government doesn’t obey its own law changes. Activists who take off their hijab are still subject to imprisonment. In 2019, activist Sada Kord Afshari was sentenced to 24 years in prison. Over half of that term was due to her taking off her hijab in public.
Women also have no place in politics and are unable to speak up for their own rights. They are excluded from professions like being a judge or president. Though women can be elected into some official positions, their representation is extremely limited.
Even in the workplace, women find themselves limited. With fewer employment opportunities and a lower wage, women can seldom escape if they find themselves in abusive situations. With such a low marriage age, ten-year-old girls can be forced into marriage. They may be unable to find work (or not allowed to by a guardian) and they would also be unable to initiate divorce, trapping them in a marriage they may not want.
Domestic violence is also extremely common. Some women who report abuse may even face legal consequences for reporting their assault. Honor crimes are frequent, in which a male family member or husband will murder a woman because they believe she is being “dishonorable.” They may murder a woman simply for dressing in a way they don’t approve of, or just for cutting vegetables wrong at dinner.
It’s hard to conceptualize extreme human rights violations. It’s hard to imagine women living like this, but it is so clearly horrific. In a smaller sense, the Molality Police can be worldwide. It’s ridiculous to police women’s morality, judging a woman based on her supposed purity and modesty.
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