Women and the Politics of Resistance in the Iranian Constitutional Revolution

Description

Most scholarship on the nineteenth and early twentieth century Constitutional Revolution in Iran has focused on the role of two groups, intellectuals and the clergy. The role of women has largely been ignored, despite their widespread participation in the Revolution, and existing research on women has mainly focused on their achievements in the realm of women’s rights, which means that other aspects of women’s activism remain un-investigated. The aim of this book is twofold: first, it presents one of the very first studies of women’s resistance strategies and their resistance to consumerism in Iran; second, and in relation to the first objective, it attempts to demonstrate the biased nature of knowledge production in the studies of women in past societies, particularly the role of women in economics. This book therefore explores the public role of women and their efforts to revive Iran’s economy during and after the Constitutional Revolution. Foreword Acknowledgment Contents Chapter 1: Introduction References Chapter 2: Why Women Are Absent from Political and Economic Histories? Methodological Traps: West/East, Man/Woman, Public/Private References Chapter 3: The Pre-Revolution Struggles and the Emergence of New Classes The Court, Government, and Roaya in the Late Nineteenth Century Foreign Trade and the Pervasive Economic Crisis The Pre-Revolution Struggles and the Emergence of Modern Classes References Sources Chapter 4: Women, Daily Life, and Street: Women’s Participation in the Nineteenth-Century Demonstrations Women and Daily Life: Discussing the Body of Evidence Women and Street Protests Writing as Resistance: The Formation of a New Class of Women Intellectuals Summing Up: Women’s Situation on the Eve of Constitutional Revolution References Chapter 5: Economic Crisis, the Coloniality of Consumption, and Women’s Resistance The Constitutional Revolution (1906–1911) Women’s Agency in the Constitutional Revolution West Economic Encroachment and Farangi Ma’abi: 1909–1925 The Coloniality of Consumption and Everyday Forms of Resistance References Chapter 6: From Resistance to Repression: Modernization and Transformations of Women’s Movement Systematic Suppression of the Press and Women’s Independent Organizations in Post-Constitutional Era II (1921–1941) The Emergence of State-Sponsored Women’s Organizations and Depoliticized Domesticity Class Interest and Transformations of Women’s Resistance References Chapter 7: Epilogue References Index