Encyclopedia of Women & Islamic Cultures

Women's organizations in Afghanistan have been profoundly affected by power struggles surrounding government-sponsored modernization projects expressed through liberal or leftist discourses, and resistance to such social upheaval expressed through Islamist discourses, both resulting in coercively undemocratic practices. Women's organizations have moved toward and away from state institutional affiliation according to regime changes and the changing orientations of leading activists.

The Anjuman-i Ḥimāyat-i Niswān (Association for the Protection of Women) was established in 1928 by Sirāj al-Banāt and Queen Ṣurayyā to encourage women to demand the rights provided by King Amān Allāh's reforms of marriage customs and restrictive social practices, and advocacy of women's education (Moghadam 1993, 218–20).

The Muʾassasa-i Khayriyya-i Zanān (Women's Welfare Association, WWA), established by the monarchial state in 1946, was founded by Zaynab ʿInāyat Sirāj and Bibī Jān, both members of the royal family. Its members consisted of liberal upper- and middle-class activists. Although it tried to encourage unveiling, the emphasis of WWA was to encourage income-generating activities and to modernize women by providing literacy, family planning, and vocational classes. In 1953 it established the journal Mirman . In 1975 WWA became institutionally independent and changed its name to the Women's Institute (WI). The WI had branch offices in ten provincial cities and grew to 8,000 members. Kubra Noorzai, the institute's director, was elected to the National Assembly under President Dāwūd, and the organization began to promote gender equality through the state's modernization policies (Emadi 2002, 91–2, 97, Ellis 2000, 164–6).

The Sāzmān-i Demokratik-i Zanān-i Afghanistān (Women's Democratic Organization of Afghanistan, WDOA) was created by the Parcham faction of the socialist People's Democratic Party of Afghanistan (PDPA). The leading activists of the WDOA, such as Anahita Ratibzad and Ṣurayyā, fought for women's rights in marriage, education, and suffrage (Moghadam 1993, 225, Emadi 2002, 95). After the PDPA came to power, WDOA (temporarily renamed Khalq Organization of Afghan Women), led an aggressive, coercive, and unpopular national literacy and marriage reform campaign and was staunchly pro-Soviet. In 1987 WDOA, now claiming almost 95,000 mostly urban members, was renamed the Afghan Women's Council under the non-PDPA leadership of Masuma Asmati Wardak, who adopted a less confrontational approach (Emadi 2002, 107, Moghadam 1993, 228– 36, Dupree 1984).

The Jāmʿiyat-i Inqilābi-i Zanān-i Afghanistān (Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan, RAWA) was founded in 1977 by Meena. RAWA opposed the repressive tactics of the PDPA and organized women and girls in factories and schools to fight against the Soviet invasion through armed struggle, strikes, demonstrations and distribution of night communiqués ( shabnāmas ). RAWA's goal of women's equality within a socialist democratic Islamic republic was framed as inseparable from their goal of national liberation and overrode criticisms of the Mujāhdīn in importance (Emadi 2002, 108–11). The Mujāhidīn regime and later the Taliban caused RAWA to denounce Islamism and armed struggle and call for a secular state. RAWA clandestinely provides basic healthcare, education, and income-generating activities in Afghanistan and refugee camps in Pakistan and strives to draw international attention to the situation of Afghan women (RAWA 2002).

Limited reforms have been hampered by a of lack public security resulting from the transitional government's weakness, local unrest, and resistance to continued American occupation and the deleterious local rule of former Mujāhidīn leaders. The Afghan Women's Network, a coalition of 24 non-governmental organizations founded in 1996, has taken a conciliatory approach toward the transitional government, framing suggestions to expand women's rights in the constitution within an Islamist framework. RAWA is critical, viewing the constitution as an unacceptable concession to the detriment of Afghan women (Human Rights Watch 2002, Afghan Women's Network, RAWA).

Mana Kia

Women's organizations in Iran have primarily been concerned with educating women, bettering their rights within the family and asserting their rights to excel in the public sphere. Many organizations have published newspapers and journals to voice their views and raise awareness. Predominantly nationalist and secular in nature, their rhetoric, rather than directly attacking Islam, has criticized elements of Iranian society seen to have warped Islam, which in its “true” form supports the women's rights being sought. Institutionally autonomous during times when the state has been weak, women's organizations have been subsumed within the state during periods of centralization. Following the 1979 revolution, national women's organizations have become overtly Islamist in nature, though no less modernizing and feminist.

The Jāmʿiyat-i Nisvān-i Vaṭankhvāh (Society of Patriotic Women, SPW) was formed in 1922 and was led by strong activists, such as Muḥtaram Iskandarī, Mastūrī Afshār, and Saḍīqa Dawlatābādī, who had differing priorities with regard to women's rights. SPW's activities included rallies, meetings, demonstrations and petition campaigns. The SPW disbanded when deep divisions over veiling and “how to relate to the increasingly autocratic government of Riza Shah” came to a head at the Second Congress of Women of the East in 1932. In 1935 the state established the Kanūn-i Bānuvān (Women's Center) to support its gender policies, particularly unveiling, through education and awareness raising activities. Many former members of the SPW were amongst its leading activists (Najmabadi 2000, 36–9, Sanasarian 1982, 55).

With the weakening of the central state between 1941 and 1953, women's organizations once again multiplied. These included the Jāmʿiyat-i Zanān-i Īrān (Iranian Women's League); the Hizb-i Zanān-i Īrān (Party of Iranian Women) led by Ṣaffiya Fīrūz and Fāṭima Sayyāḥ, later the National Council of Women; and the Tudeh affiliated Tashkīlāt-i Zanān-i Īrān (Organization of Iranian Women), later the Society of Democratic Women (Sanasarian 1982, 72–3, Amin 2002, 226–7, 234–8).

After the 1953 coup d'état, smaller women's organizations began to reappear. By 1959 14 of these groups coalesced into the Federation of Women's Organizations, a loose body designed to foster greater effectiveness and cooperation amongst its component organizations.

The Shawrā-yi ʿĀlī-yi Jāmʿiyāt-i Zanān (High Council of Women's Societies) was created in 1961, consisting of 18 women's associations. Although international activities were under government control, member organizations enjoyed a fair degree of autonomy to conduct their domestic work and enjoyed the benefit of state resources (Sanasarian 1982, 80–1, Dolatshahi 1984, 14–16).

In 1966 the Sāzmān-i Zanān-i Īrān (Women's Organization of Iran, WOI) was established under the leadership of Ashraf Pahlavī. It was a centralized, nationwide women's organization consisting of 33 smaller organizations. Individual societies in the provinces were replaced with WOI branches, and Mahnāz Afkhamī served as secretary-general from 1970 to 1979 (Dolatshahi 1984, 22–3, Afkhami 1984, 337). The WOI was more integrated into the state apparatus and less democratic than its previous forms – although officers were elected from each branch, Pahlavī had the power to appoint the majority of the organization's eleven-member central council (Sanasarian 1982, 83–5). Activists within the WOI had to realign their political demands and socioeconomic projects to fit with those of the state.

Since the 1990s, secular feminists have been in dialogue with Muslim feminists, who challenge clerical religious interpretations by drawing from the Qurʾān and reinterpreting Islam to critique the state and call for women's rights. Some post-revolutionary Islamist women's organizations are: Women's Society of Islamic Revolution; the Iranian Islamic Women's Institute; the Ḥaẓrat-i Khadīja Association; the Women's Solidarity Association; and the Social-Cultural Council of Women. Secular feminists, such as Mehrangiz Kar, are active in the women's periodical press, as legal advocates, and in promoting feminist education and awareness. Roshangaran, the first independent publisher of mostly women writers, was founded by Shahla Lahiji, who also established a research institute devoted to women's studies.

Mana Kia

The history of women's issues in Turkey goes back to the nineteenth-century Ottoman period, but more organized women's movements emerged in the context of the atmosphere of relative freedom created by the revolution of 1908. Following this revolution women were permitted to found associations pertaining to their own interests. The most outstanding of these was the Ottoman Association for Defense of Women's Rights, established in 1913. It sought to reform existing family law with the aim of creating an egalitarian family and to encourage women to take part in public life (Çakır 1996).

At the beginning of the republican regime (1923), those women who joined the feminist movement defined enfranchisement as their basic demand. Serving this aim, they established the first political party in republican Turkey, the Kadınlar Halk Fırkası (Women's People Party) in 1923 as soon as the republican regime was declared. Since the party was officially not allowed, members of the party established the Türk Kadınlar Birliǧi (Union of Turkish Women) in 1924, which struggled for voting rights until 1935.

The founder of the Turkish Republic, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, and his associates advocated that women should have equal rights with men in every respect. They made substantial reforms toward promoting women's status. Women were given rights in three main areas: new rights that came with the adoption of the Swiss Civil Code in 1926; education for females alongside males; and enfranchisement in 1934. Polygamy was forbidden and women gained equal status in legal and political areas. In the election of 1934, the first election in which women participated, 18 women (4.5 percent) were elected to the parliament.

Having gained these rights, the leaders of the women's movement decided that there was no longer any need for a women's movement. In 1935, some leaders of the Union of Turkish Women, particularly those who were in sympathy with the regime, abolished the union. Thus from 1935 onward, women came to serve as the vanguard of the Kemalist regime rather than to seek to improve their status (Göle 1992). This continued at least until the 1980s.

From 1980, the women's movement was revived in Turkey as a direct consequence of the liberal policies pursued by civilian governments. Women who sought prestige under the banner of official ideology started to shift their attention to struggle for self-realization in the public sphere. Feminist women started to raise their voice first in Somut (Concrete), a weekly magazine, in 1983 and then in many other feminist journals through the 1990s and 2000s. Different women's groups have brought to light local problems by means of these journals and have taken many actions. They have mainly concentrated on such issues as the right to abortion, divorce on demand, equality in family life, elimination of legal norms detrimental to women, and elimination of assault on women in the public sphere (Tekeli 1990).

Under the influence of the women's movement women's issues are among the hottest topics discussed in the media, in cinema, and in politics since the 1980s. Women's issues have continued to occupy the agenda of different social groups ranging from ethnic to traditional and modern (Çaha 1995). Some of the prominent nationwide voluntary associations established by these groups are Ayrımcılıǧa Karşı Kadın Derneǧi (Women's association for struggling against discrimination), Çagdaş Yaşamı Destekleme Derneǧi (Association for the support of contemporary life), and Kadın Adayları Destekleme ve Eǧitme Derneǧi (KADER, Association for the support and training of female candidates for parliament).

In addition to these voluntary organizations there are two important official national associations. The first one is Başbakanlık Aile Araştırma Kurumu (Prime ministry family research institution), established in 1989. The basic aim of this organization is to protect the family and any value associated with the family. The integration of different generations in the family, the protection of family as an institution, and the protection of the rights of family members figures prominently in the work of this organization. It sees women as members of the family and deals with their problems within that perspective. Beyond women's problems, the organization addresses the issue of how the Turkish family can be strengthened. This is the reason why this association has been strongly criticized by feminist groups.

The second official national women's organization is Başbakanlık Kadının Statüsü ve Sorunları Genel Müdürlüǧü (Prime ministry directorate for women's problems and status), established in 1990. Its aim is substantially different from the previous one; it has cooperated with other women's organizations to solve women's problems. It mainly searches for grounds to obtain equality of opportunity for women and many feminist women have participated in its projects. It has struggled particularly against Turkish laws which discriminate against women, and demands that women and politicians work to eliminate such norms.

Ömer Çaha