Kvinnor,makt och politik i Iran

Sammanfattning: Using Steven Luke’s famous Three-Dimensional Power theory this thesis aims to explain how much political power the Iranian women had during the secular Pahlavi era compared to the Islamic Republic of today. I will outline the reasons for change of formal and informal power structures from 1942-2010.I find that Iranian political system has a complex structure with a multitude of loosely connected power centres. There are very few women in the formal political sphere and women are excluded from law-makers. Women are generally highly educated but there is a high unemployment rate among them. There are an increasing number of autonomous women organisations today compared to the Pahlavi era calling for peaceful reforms and liberation of the Islamic system (within limits set by the constitution). They are together with the semi-opposition and cooperation with the parliament able to bring up issues on the national agenda (dimension 2). Beside the legal barriers there are old cultural and historical attitudes to overcome. Among the post-revolutionary generation the attitudes are changing due to e.g. higher education. Iranian women today are more and more accepted in the public sphere which is necessary for achieving more political power.