Author: Yarashev, Xabib Muxiddinovich

Annotation: This article examines the historical formation of a gender equality culture in Iran as an integrated cause-and-effect chain. It conceptualizes gender equality not only as formal legal equality, but as the outcome of interactions among family institutions and family values, the distribution of resources through education policy, and mechanisms of legitimacy and social resistance in public consciousness. In Iran’s history, two opposing forms of “top-down norm-setting”—the 1936 policy of compulsory “unveiling” (Kashf-e hijab) and the legal entrenchment of compulsory hijab from 1983—shifted gender issues from the sphere of personal choice into the arena of state–society conflict. Against this background, the modernization reforms of 1963 sought to expand women’s civic agency, while the 1967/1975 Family Protection Law aimed to mitigate gender imbalances through the legal reconstruction of the family institution. Subsequently, the expansion of educational coverage strengthened women’s social resources and legal consciousness, accelerating transformations in public consciousness that became visible in the 2006 “One Million Signatures to Repeal Discriminatory Laws” campaign and the 2022 “Woman, Life, Freedom” protests.

Keywords: Iran, gender equality culture, family law, Family Protection Law, White Revolution, education policy, compulsory hijab, legal consciousness, women’s movement.

Pages in journal: 62 - 67