Women’s Political Activism in Iran: an Agency-Structure Theory Analysis
Women’s Political Activism in Iran: an Agency-Structure Theory Analysis

Summary/Abstract: This study examines the challenges of women’s activism in Iran using an explanatory-analytical method and the agency-structure theory. The article looks at the variables affecting the mobilization of women activists and political organizations in Iran from 1990 to 2011, and the challenges they had been facing. The hypothesis advanced by this article is that the most important factors influencing the activism of women activists were the different waves of feminism and democratization at the global level, as well as the generational gap, the developments in attitude and cultural aspects, an increase in the level of education, women’s access to the Internet, and the relative openness of the political system. The findings of this research are that women’s activism in Iran had achievements such as an amplified awareness and identification of rights, an increase of demands, the opposition to sociopolitical discrimination, the relative rise of the presence of women in Parliament, city councils, and executive bodies, and the realization of significant dimensions of social rights; in what concerns the dimension of political rights, the achievements have been much less important. The study also showed that sovereignty obstacles were among the most common challenges faced by women activists, among which we can mention ideological rigidity, pessimism about women’s organizations, and the patriarchal-conservative view of governance, weak relationships, strategic and tactical incoherence, and political-intellectual gaps among activists.

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