Janet Afary

Women’s Rights in Iran – Part II of the Dialogue with Nawal el Saadawi

Dear Nawal:

Thanks for your response. I am not sure the problem is either the sexual revolution or Western morality per se. I think it is a matter of demographics, education, greater longevity, the breakdown of the extended family as a result of the capitalist economy, and the changing definitions of feminism and women’s rights at the turn of the 21st century.

The Sexual Economy of the Islamic Republic

This article examines the gender and sexual policies of the Islamic Republic and their ramifications. It argues that the policies if the Islamist government cannot easily be categorized as “puritanical” or “moralistic.” Rather we can argue that various functions within the state actively deployed a new s”sexual economy” for the population. Sometimes, the Islamist state privileged patriarchal interpretations of the gender norms over modern ones. At other times, it adopted modern projects such as family planing alongside a discourse that presented them as practices rooted in traditional Islam. In all cases, the state used modern institutions to disseminate and enforce these practices.