The perspectives of Iranian feminists and women’s activists on the process of democratisation

Proceedings of The 3rd International Conference on Social Sciences, Humanities and Arts

Year: 2022

DOI: https://www.doi.org/10.33422/3rd.icsha.2022.07.200

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The perspectives of Iranian feminists and women’s activists on the process of democratisation

Pardis Asadi Zeidabadi

 

ABSTRACT: 

This paper explores women’s views about the possibility of democracy in the context of Iran. Although Iran is now an electoral democracy in terms of political process, it may not be considered a fully democratic country. While research has been carried out on democracy in Iran, there is very little research on concepts of democracy for Iranian feminists and women activists, and the possibilities they advocate for democratisation. This paper explores these issues, drawing upon forty-seven semi-structured interviews with Iranian feminists and women activists. This study identifies women’s views on different factors that enable democracy in Iran. It concludes that cultural transformation and cultural change among politicians play an important role in the process of democratisation.

keywords: Iranian feminists, Iranian women activists, feminists, democracy, Islam.