Teaching Comparative

Cultural Change and Political Change

There's no denying that social and cultural change affect politics and governing. However, journalistic accounts of trends are very dependent upon reporters' contacts and perspectives.

This BBC report on women's roles in Iranian society is similar to other reports about change (and political alienation) among the educated elite -- often in northern Tehran. Besides the fact that "...over half of university students in Iran are now women..." the rest of the report is anecdotal. What credence does "social commentator Sayed Laylaz" deserve? How many working mothers are there? How many women are reluctant to get married? Do people with these new atttitudes have any hope of gaining enough power and influence to bring about change?

Our students probably need to be reminded that when studying comparative politics, some generalizations seem to have obvious validity (e.g. change in one area is likely to lead to change in others). But without better data than this and other journalistic reports offer, it's risky to predict what change will result. Will greater education for women in Iran lead to what we might label progressive change or to a reaction by the state to supress the effects of women being more educated than men?

Women graduates challenge Iran

"The number of women graduating from Iran's universities is overtaking the number of men, promising a change in the job market and, with it, profound social change...

"Well over half of university students in Iran are now women. In the applied physics department of Azad University 70% of the graduates are women - a statistic which would make many universities in the West proud.

"It is a huge social shift since the 1979 Revolution: Iran's Islamic government has managed to convince even traditional rural families that it is safe to send their daughters away from home to study.

"But in some areas the larger number of women than men is beginning to alarm the authorities...

"'We women want to show we are here and we have a lot to say,' says Massoumeh Pahshahie Umidvar.

"'For years we have lived under the heavy shadow of men, our fathers and brothers, and now we want to come out of that.'
Massoumeh holds down a job in a factory, has a child and is doing a postgraduate degree. Her life is completely different from that of her mother who stayed at home, cooking and looking after children...

"[Social commentator Sayed Laylaz] hopes this new generation of educated Iranian women will force social change in the decades ahead.

"It will not be long, he argues, before women are in charge of recruitment in offices. Already he sees signs that Iran's politicians recognise the importance of women's votes in elections.

"Massoumeh tells her husband that it will not be long before Iranian men will be forced to sit at home while their wives run the country.

"...young women who do have careers are now beginning to think twice about getting married. Especially as under Iranian law a woman needs her husband's permission to go to work...

"This is a sentiment that is increasingly being heard in a society where a single woman even has trouble hiring an apartment to live alone...

"Working mothers are a relatively new phenomenon in Iran but attitudes are changing among the younger generation of working women, many of whom will no longer accept a husband who does not share the workload at home..."

posted by Ken Wedding @ 7:39 AM