ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with a discussion of the issue of "choice" as it is being argued in the US abortion debate between the "Pro-Choice" and "Pro-Life" factions, particularly in some of the law cases that embody much of the dispute. It examines how an ideal identity for women was imposed by two of this century's most authoritarian regimes—Adolf Hitler's Germany and Imam Khomeini's Iran—that used the ideal of womanhood not only as one of the symbols of their ideal state but also as a tool to control and manipulate individual conformity to state policy. Under the circumstances, women probably need to work harder than men to sustain a sense of individual identity in the midst of change. Women are central actors in Identity Politics because they are not only thought to embody and transmit culture and tradition in a special way but also to demonstrate modernization through visible changes in their public behavior.
