The Idea of an Essay, Volume 2

66 tendencies or unrealistic expectations about the revolution within the ranks of the most active, gender-conscious sections of the female population—urban, educated, middle- class women—prevented us from seeing through the revolutionary promises and the Islamists’ medieval agenda…(Moghissi 20) Despite the Shah’s efforts to silence Khomeini, even banishing him from Iran, Khomeini returned in 1979 and successfully overthrew the Shah. Khomeini was immediately recognized as the new leader of Iran, writing an Islamic constitution and being heralded the first “Supreme Leader.” In his years as leader, he established the Islamic Republic of Iran. As leader, he reversed almost all progress from the White Revolution. “The new theocracy systematically rolled back five decades of progress in women’s rights. Women were purged from government positions. All females, including girls in first grade, were forced to observe the hijab, or Islamic dress code” (Wright). Furthermore, “After the victory of the revolution, women discovered that the revolution they thought they loved did not love them back, or value the advances women had made. Equality between men and women was not on the agenda of the Islamic Republic” (Esfandiari). Today, in the circumstances movie character Simin alludes to, women still battle the damage that Khomeini’s rule caused, despite many setbacks. “33 years after the revolution, Iranian women still have not regained their pre-revolutionary rights” (Esfandiari). Most the female activists were raised with the freedoms of the Pahlavi era. Francesco Bongioni, a journalist for the New Yorker interviewed activist , a 40-year-old artist in Tehran, and published an article about the circumstances through the eyes of an . Today, the Islamic Republic’s gender laws are among the harshest in the world. They penalize women in the areas of marriage, divorce, child custody, and inheritance. Polygamy is legal for men, and the legal testimony of one man carries the same weight as that of two women, an imbalance that helps explain why there are so few convicted rapists in Iran. Against this background, women like —educated, cosmopolitan, and old enough to have come of age before the Islamic Revolution— occupy an