Iranian Women & Gender in the Iran-Iraq War. By Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh. Syracuse: Syracuse University Press, 2021. Pp. xix, 457. ISBN: 9780815637103 (paperback).
Mateo Mohammad Farzaneh is an Iranian-native immigrant to the United States. He has a Ph.D. from the University of California at Santa Barbara, and he is currently a member of the history faculty at Northeastern Illinois University. He is a recipient of several awards and fellowships, such as the 2016 National History Honor Society’s Best First Book Award. In 1982, when he was only fourteen, he was a volunteer, among so many others like him, to defend his nation, Iran, in the Iran-Iraq war as he was able. Twenty-six years after his own activity in the Iran-Iraq war, visiting his home country, he started his research toward writing this book, with very limited access to the historical primary sources about women’s roles and their participation in that war.
This book has two objectives, as the author puts it: “to examine the role of Iranian women in the Iran-Iraq War, and to demonstrate how gender in Iran was affected by their participation in the war.” It consists of multiple chapters, starting first with a chronology of several dynasties from the Qajars to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi, and presenting a detailed layout of the chronological events in their reigns. The following chapters deal with the status of women in Iran from 1925 to 1980 and their involvement in wartime.
The author discusses the changes in the roles played by Iranian women because of the Iran-Iraq War between 1980 and 1988, such as social, political, economic, and cultural changes. These all carried significant influence in the roles they had to take during wartime. Some examples include but are not limited to economic and social stabilization, supporting the front lines in different ways, taking care of families in the absence of their men, getting involved in economic issues due to war and international sanctions, and participation in front lines in the war and in the military.
The author examines the reasons behind the involvement of women in wartime through narrated stories and some direct interviews with women who expressed their reasons for their participation and for their gender roles in the context of war. Without exception, the author claims that all the women whose stories contributed to the content of this book emphasized their sense of patriotic duty in protecting their country and culture. They describe active participation in various fields of war such as being in the combat zone, providing intelligence services, working as war scouts, or delivering medical care to the front lines. They were always ready to work voluntarily and even contributed to the war by donating their jewelry.
Farzaneh analyzes the importance of women’s involvement in this war. He says the significance of women’s participation in this war is that it was the first time in the modern history of Iran that women stood side by side with men and filled the various roles that they were not allowed to fill prior to the 1980 war. Women dedicated themselves to defending Iran as volunteers either for sake of the nation or for religious reasons, but none of them expected any material rewards. Another noteworthy fact regarding this war is that women’s participation happened during a time that was unfriendly to women from social and cultural points of view, but they ignored it and participated anyway. Although the Islamic Revolution had created a cultural acceptance of women’s participation in the uprisings, after the revolution the theocratic government tried to legally force women to stay at home and not become involved in public affairs, especially in large cities in Iran. This war, however, created an opportunity and an ease in mobility for women to demonstrate their patriotism in an Islamic society, within the Shiite ideology, and to play a role directly or indirectly. Their direct roles and activities in the war were especially prominent in the southern and western parts of the war zone alongside men, while in more distant areas their roles were more indirect.
Women’s experiences during the eight-year war affected their social and gender roles to a remarkable degree. They had to face complicated situations and carry on in front lines directly, or to adapt themselves to demanding situations in the absence of men. Women took part in managing various aspects of their lives socially and economically, which took a heavy toll on them; however, it shone a spotlight on their abilities to confront barriers in their socio-political lives.
This book mainly concentrates on the hardship of war for women in Iran who have limited roles in making decisions in public affairs and warfare. It documents the changes in their social, political, and military roles in wartime. It is an excellent scholarly work that could fit in any library setting, but primarily academic libraries with collections on cultural studies, Middle East studies, social and political studies, and humanities. It is also an appropriate source for any academic or literary reading with a focus on women and their representations in wartime.
Shahrzad Khosrowpour
Chapman University