ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the concept of globalization and shows where Iran stands in regard to this phenomenon. It demonstrates how Islamicization has limited and localized women's involvement in education, employment, health services, and family planning, and then goes on to deal with the growing participation of women in non-governmental organizations, public activities aimed at increasing women's consciousness, and social groups established in order to protect women's rights. The discussion of women's demands for participation in the global processes of democratic development and autonomous civil society are also focused on. This chapter also discusses the developments that have empowered women to demand a more meaningful share of decision-making in society and a curb on state's everexpanding interest in controlling women's lives. It will demonstrate that despite the repressive and restrictive environment of the IRI, Iranian women have been able to gather enough energy to express their dissatisfaction with state policies toward women and to show their desire for inclusion in civil society. They have begun to articulate an interest in developing voluntary non-governmental organizations and social movements responsive to and reflective of their own interests and concerns – interests and concerns for adapting to the global changes taking place in the modern world. Finally, the chapter will show how the struggle for a civil society in Iran is a necessary step in enabling Iranian women to join and benefit from the forces of Iran in the past two decades that has experienced two contradictory phenomena: Islamicization and globalization.
