Women's Organization of Iran

The WOI grew to include 120 Women's Centers, which were centers providing services to women. Local women were included in deciding what those services would be – typically classes, childcare, consciousness-raising, legal counseling and health care. The centers were essential in connecting with the grassroots, but were viewed by the WOI as a means rather than a goal in and of itself.[17] When the centers came under attack for drawing women outside of the home, the name of the centers was changed from Women's Centers to Family Welfare Centers.[18]

Trial and error showed that the most effective centers were those that were small, centrally-located, unassuming and an integral part of the community.

WOI's School of Social Work, which trained employees selected from across the nation for work in the centers, was located in Naziabad, south of Tehran, one of the country's poorest communities. Young women chosen for this course were given two years of training before returning to their towns and villages. Schooling was kept at a minimum so that ties between the young women and their home network and lifestyle would not be permanently altered by long stays in Tehran.[19]

In the area of women's legal rights within the family, the Iran's Family Protection Law, as revised in 1975, gave women the right to ask for divorce on the same grounds and conditions as men, left decisions regarding child custody and alimony up to a special family court, recognized the mother as the legal guardian of her child in case of the father's death, practically eliminated polygyny by stipulating exceptional conditions and, limited legal marriages to a second wife only with the permission of the first, and increased the minimum age of marriage to eighteen for women and twenty-one for men. Abortion was made legal with the consent of the husband. Unmarried women could have abortions on demand up to the eighth week of pregnancy.

The WOI created a Center for Research on Women which conducted research on women in various socioeconomic and geographic sectors, and identified potential solutions to their problems. Various studies showed that improving women's status would result in general societal improvement, but that the reverse was not true (such as the mechanization of agriculture resulting in decreased financial and material standing for farm women because access to new methods was restricted to men).

Some of the more influential studies of the research center include :

• A Comparative Study of the Socio-Economic Situation of Working Women in Tehran Qazvin and Kashan (1974-5); this study showed the importance of using radio to reach women in these cities, and of providing childcare as a necessity for women's participation in the work force.
• Status of Women in Tribal Society (1974) showed that these tribal women aspired to urban non-nomadic futures for their children, and that women's rights in these tribes were based on tribal customs rather than Islamic or state law.
• Images of Women in Elementary School Textbooks showed that women's roles in society as portrayed in schoolbooks were rigid, limited and without variety. The study led to the creation of a committee to review and revise elementary school textbooks.
• Urban Design and Women’s Lives outlined suggestions for community services to help working mothers.
• A set of legal research projects focused on a comparative study of the laws of Iran and the Declaration on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW).
• The Saveh Functional Literacy Project, cosponsored by UNESCO in 1973-1975, whose goal was to increase the literacy rate of rural Iranian women. The project was then turned over to the National Committee for World Literacy Program, which used it as a blueprint for launching similar programs in more than 7,000 villages throughout Iran.[20]

The WOI worked upstream of the UN's First World Conference on Women in Mexico City in 1975. To achieve a consensus on the National Plan for Action, more than seven hundred panels, organized and financed locally by the WOI chapters between 1976 and 1977, debated relevant issues. The panels were followed by statewide seminars in each province.[21]

The General Assembly of the United Nations then adopted the World Plan for Action. Subsequently, the WOI took it back to Iran as a basis for preparing a National Plan of Action to improve the status of women in the country, and as a way of pressuring the government for resources.[22] The final document of the National Plan for Action included not only the goals of improving the status of women, but also the mechanisms for implementing and monitoring this national agenda. The cabinet approved the National Plan of Action in May 1978. Putting women's rights issues on the national agenda was considered to be a major victory for the WOI; but the National Plan of Action was never implemented as the Revolution toppled the government.

The Iranian women's movement was very decentralized at the end of the 1950s, and fighting for the right to vote, when Princess Ashraf Pahlavi was asked to lend her support to the movement. She then commissioned a committee to federate the organizations into the umbrella High Council of Women's Organization of Iran.[23] She became a valuable ally and an effective lobbyist in high-level government meetings.[24] As honorary president, she was able to appoint half of the members of the central council of the WOI; it was remarked she had made sure to appoint women from diverse backgrounds and religions.

The queen Farah Pahlavi became a feminist in the early 1970s, and her support was sought on certain issues, such as eliminating sexist images from elementary-school textbooks. But her feminist views often clashed with the public motherly persona she felt she needed to convey to the country.[25]

The King Mohammad Reza Pahlavi is partly remembered for his legacy for women's rights, however, the demands of the WOI were more radical than the reforms that the state was willing to make.[26] The WOI became more influential as it grew, as it was able to successfully implement projects, and as it became able to offer the infrastructure of a network of active women throughout the country. The Ministry of Labor agreed to supply equipment and teachers as they determined it was preferable for Iranian women to take on jobs that would otherwise fall to foreign workers. And the Ministry of Health agreed to provide medical staff and supplies in women's centers.[27]

Though WOI members were prohibited from political activities, the WOI closely cooperated with women Majles deputies and senators and the New Iran Party on women's issues.[28] It was accused of acting for the government when no other independent women's organization was allowed to exist,[29] and when branches of theWOI around the country encouraged women to participate in Rastakhiz Party activities.[30]

The relationship between the WOI and the religious establishment was never an easy one. Religious fundamentalists opposed the WOI because it went against their interpretation of Islam, and because the WOI supported moving family jurisdiction out of religious purview and into the hands of special family courts.[31] Many women at all levels in the WOI also did not want to have to choose between growth and progress, and their religion. While leaders of the WOI believed in the possibility of being concurrently a Muslim and a feminist, it did not believe full human rights could be obtained within “Islamic feminism”[32] The WOI tried to gather support from liberal mullahs or the participation of their female relatives at local women's centers. For instance, in Qom, the participation of Ayatollah Shariatmadari's daughters was essential to the viability of the local women's center.[33] Some centers also included religious instruction and the reading of the Qur'an to appease the local clergy.[34]

In general, the WOI tried to avoid confrontation with religious figures. Among its strategies were:

• quotations from the Qur'an in support of women's rights, such as “Whoso doeth good works, whether male or female, and he (or she) is a believer, such will enter paradise and they will not be wronged the dint of a date stone.” (from Sura Nisa’)
• female role models among the prophet's family as heroines for women's rights, such as Zainab bint Ali and Khadijah bint Khuwaylid
• consultations with liberal religious leaders to word proposals. For instance, the Iran's Family Protection Law of 1975 was worded such that divorce (a man's right) was given by him to his wife as part of the marriage contract.

Two main political forces were behind the Islamic Revolution that overturned the Shah; both were opposed to the WOI. For the leftists, the liberation of the masses took precedence over women's liberation.[35] For the religious fundamentalists, the work of the WOI was contrary to their interpretation of Islam.

Women massively participated in the demonstrations leading up to the revolution. Ironically, the WOI's activities in the late 1960s and 1970s contributed much to women's sense of agency, their awareness of their collective political power, and their belief that they should mobilize and assert their demands.[36] Women were marching for a freer government; what came about was the Islamic Revolution, the dismemberment of the WOI and a massive step back in women's rights.[37]