Accommodating Subversion and Social Transformation: Afghan Refugee Women’s Clandestine Educational Movement in Iran

Abstract

Since the 1980s, the Islamic Republic of Iran has managed one of the largest populations of long-term refugees, primarily Afghans and Iraqis, in the world.¹ Initially, the refugees were welcomed as members of the umma (global community of Muslims) and as mohajireen (displaced Muslims in need of protection) and, therefore, Iran did not develop a consistent refugee policy to regulate and oversee the influx of the refugees. Indeed, the Iranian state refugee policies have been fragmented and often contradictory, split in its paradoxical position of claiming to pioneer a new Islamic perspective, promoting solidarity among Muslims and leadership of the Muslim umma, on one hand, and the difficulty in national terms to incorporate nonnational Muslims into the national polity and economy, on the other. Added to this paradox is the predicament of trying to influence the regional and international political development over which they do not exercise much control. However, this ambivalent position has allowed Muslim refugees to carve out spaces and engage in fulfilling some of their needs that the Iranian state has failed to provide.

This chapter is derived in part from an article published in Journal of Development Studies, 2007, © Taylor & Francis, available online:.com/10.1080/00220380601125115. It is based on data collected between 1997 and 2010 as a part of three different but interconnected research projects. The first phase (1997–2001) was conducted on the impact of militarization on Afghan refugee women in Iran (Tehran, Mashhad, Zaboul), and Pakistan (Peshawar, Quetta) conducted under the auspices of Women Living Under Muslim Laws. The second (2002–2005) was conducted in collaboration with Dawn Chatty and under the auspices of the Refugee Study Centre, Oxford University. This study (Tehran and Mashhad) focused on youth, particularly girls between the ages of 8–18. The third research project (2006–2010) was conducted as part of a multi-country study entitled, “Women’s Empowerment in Muslim Contexts: Gender, Poverty and Democratization from the Inside Out” (WEMC) and coordinated by Women Living Under Muslim Laws and the Southeast Asia Research Centre, at City University of Hong Kong. WEMC research encompasses Iran, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Muslim China as well as Afghan refugees in Iran and Indonesian migrant workers in Hong Kong.