Non-State Violent Actors and Social Movement Organizations by Unknown

Author:Unknown
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Social Science, Demography, Political Science, Political Process, Political Advocacy
ISBN: 9781787141902
Google: zvi0DgAAQBAJ
Publisher: Emerald Group Publishing
Published: 2017-04-26T03:19:24+00:00

Fig. 4. Women’s Movement One Million Signatures Campaign (Eigenvalue Perspective). Notes: The network structure of the women’s movement: Big diamonds in the center are Eigen members; the triangle represents the campaign in Tehran.

The Guidelines for Joining the Campaign as listed on the webpage provided instructions on how to collect signatures, defining five steps beginning with immediate family members and expanding the circle through relatives, friends, private gatherings, weddings, neighborhoods, workplaces, and finally various social arenas including: hair salons, sport clubs, hospitals, and other settings. This procedure shows how the women’s movement expanded its ties throughout society, creating “a live and dynamic though unfixed network of participants is moving forward ceaselessly” (Ahmadi Khorasani, 2009, p. 7).

Campaigners also travelled to different regions of the country. According to the Campaign’s internal reports, about 400 trained volunteers travelled across the country, recruiting new individuals, training them and helping them to set up their own campaigns (Ahmadi Khorasani, 2009). These “Equality” evangelists targeted regions where they had common ties, such as ethnicity. Through all these travels, the women’s movement bridged cells, and built informational routes. Ziba observed that, when women, especially in rural areas, became aware of Campaign representatives and their programs, they asked: “Are you here to help us?”

In 2005, more than 100 women defied the regime and entered into Azadi Stadium to watch the soccer game. Sometimes, women disguised as boys crashed into sport stadiums (Nixon, 2015, p. 125). Girls applied for admission into programs that were traditionally populated by men. According to Tohidi (2008), women “also reclaimed a number of national and religious rituals and festivals, giving them new feminist interpretations” (cited in Afary, 2009, p. 373); thus, creating new spaces to spread their message. The women’s movement has organized a variety of gatherings and programs to raise awareness. Activists, who were barred from holding gatherings by the regime’s security forces, turned their living rooms into “cultural salons” (Ahmadi Khorasani, 2009, p. 45).

The women’s movement has always struggled with whether to forge ties with political parties and interest groups. Vala said that even prior to the revolution of 1979, women doubted if it was right for them to enter politics. But there was a shared belief that the Campaign should “spread its message of equality and fair treatment among the political class” (Ahmadi Khorasani, 2009, p. 75). Ziba said the Campaign’s diversity has been the key to doing so. She explained, “We have spread our words within political class through our participants who are either sympathizers of, or have ties with different factions of the political structure.”

The women’s movement during this period had ties to numerous sectors of Iranian society, including the student movement, the labor movement, other women’s groups, male feminists, political parties, clerics, and other social actors (Fig. 2). In addition, the Campaign in Iran was linked to the global West through the Iranian Diaspora, especially women’s groups in exile. Dense reticulation in the women’s movement during this period facilitated diffusion of ideas, coordination of activity, and support of allies.

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