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There is rising awareness here in the U.S. and abroad of severe restrictions on women's rights and on the harm they inflict. In the U.S., these policies have led to deep right-left divisions. What do the data reveal? A much more nuanced picture.
Take for instance, what happened in the April 2023 election of a candidate for the State Supreme Court in Wisconsin, a swing state. Politico notes, “Judge Janet Protasiewicz, a liberal Milwaukee County judge, overwhelmingly defeated Daniel Kelly, a conservative former Wisconsin Supreme Court justice. She won with 55.5% of the votes, a huge margin in a narrowly divided state. During the campaign, voters of all political stripes, and of all ages and races, propelled her to victory." In her campaign, “she was especially open about her politics. On the issue of abortion, she said she believed women have a right to choose.” With her win, she gave liberals a majority on the court for the first time in 15 years, according to Wisconsin Public Radio. The court is now likely to “reverse the state’s abortion ban.” Clearly, the policy of severe restrictions backfired.
While attention in the U.S. is rightly being paid to the rash of increasingly strict abortion restrictions, especially in states governed by Republicans, we have collectively turned our attention away from the limitations imposed on women in such theocracies as Iran and Afghanistan.
“Unrest has rattled Iran since last summer in response to declining living standards, wage arrears, and a lack of insurance support," notes Politico. Adding to the dissent, the September death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini while in police custody for allegedly wearing a head scarf improperly breathed new life into demonstrations, which officials across the country have since tried to quell with harsh measures. “Two female journalists broke the story. They are now in prison. The country erupted in widespread protests … demanding justice for Mahsa and freedom and civil rights for all women.”
The activist HRANA news agency said that more than 500 people have been killed during the unrest, including 71 minors, as security forces try to stifle widespread dissent.
“Thousands have been arrested in the clampdown, with the judiciary handing down harsh sentences — including the death penalty — to protesters.” Moreover, women are burning their hijabs and cutting their hair short in protests over the actions of the morality police. Numerous photographs of large mobs in the streets show crowds of women and men of all ages marching together to support women’s rights. Indeed, those who thought that harsh anti-women policies would divide people were sorely misguided.
According to the Associated Press, “Iran’s Islamic Republic requires women to cover up in public, including wearing a ‘hijab’ or headscarf that is supposed to completely hide the hair. Many Iranian women, especially in major cities, have long played a game of cat-and-mouse with authorities, with younger generations wearing loose scarves and outfits that push the boundaries of conservative dress."
In Afghanistan, the takeover by the Taliban in 2021 has worsened the situation for women. “Laws have been tightened … In May, a Taliban directive said women should be covered from head-to-toe with only the eyes showing.” (The hijab has been compulsory in Iran since the Islamic Revolution in 1979.)
In spite of the dangers, the movement to liberalize restrictive anti-women policies is spreading. As reported in the New York Times, “You want to see courage: Women in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan hold a protest in support of Iran. One sign says: “Iran has risen, now it’s our turn.”
Ironically, despite deep cultural and religious differences, misogynistic policies rather than dividing people are bringing together people — of all ages, races, or nationalities.
In Afghanistan, the Taliban has imposed a new dress code and gender segregation for women at private universities and colleges, in line with a decree issued to educational institutions and obtained by Radio Free Europe. All female students, teachers, and staff must wear an Islamic abaya robe and niqab that covers the hair, body, and most of the face, according to the extensive document, and women must also wear gloves to ensure their hands are covered.
Further, classes must also be segregated by gender — or at least divided by a curtain — according to the order, which added that female students must be taught only by other women. But it added that "elderly men" of good character could fill in if there were no female teachers.
The militants have attempted to project a more moderate image and reassure Afghans and the world that it has changed. During its brutal regime from 1996-2001, the Taliban oppressed women and severely restricted girls’ education.
But the Taliban’s new rules — which came into effect on September 6 as private universities reopened — highlight how women's lives are set to dramatically change under the rule of the hard-line Islamist group after the gains of the past 20 years. According to the Taliban-run Education Ministry, womens’ garments now must be black.
A UN special mission to the country found that “we have documented how women and girls’ lives in Afghanistan are being devastated by the crackdown on their human rights. “We are alive, but not living”, said one of our woman interlocutors. Since they took control of the country, the de facto authorities have taken numerous arbitrary measures violating girls’ and women’s rights to education, work, freedom of movement, health, bodily autonomy and decision-making, freedom of peaceful assembly and association, and access to justice... They have decimated the system of protection and support for those fleeing domestic violence, leaving women and girls with absolutely no recourse. They have imposed extreme modesty rules and detained women and girls for alleged “moral crimes”.
What is the lesson to be learned from these examples? Extremist anti-women policies, wherever they emerge, are highly likely to backfire, resulting in the reverse of their intended consequences. Rather than dividing people, they are uniting people in support of more liberalization and equal justice.
