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November 6, 2024

Men’s Footsteps on the Lives of Marivan Women/ Farzaneh Jalali

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Farzaneh Jalali

Discriminatory encounters and common dichotomies of good/bad, beautiful/ugly, acceptable/unacceptable, and conformist/non-conformist can be criticized from various perspectives. As patriarchal societies view the world through a male-centered lens, they use masculine tools and mechanisms to pass on their male-dominated ideologies, and will never allow for the presence of others, namely women. In this historical process, there is a crucial need for cultural transformation and the creation of social infrastructures, which must begin with the reformation of the male gaze towards women. The production of such structures involves injecting cultural concepts and promoting individual growth and democratic values within the traditions and social environment of such societies. Therefore, broken perspectives on the meaningful social environment are only advocated and constructed by a male-dominated society, which ultimately molds the female perspective.

Women make up half of the marginalized members of male-dominated society. In such a society, the presence of women in various fields, including sports, is undoubtedly hindered. The approach that has been observed in recent years in the extremely male-dominated society of Iran towards women’s sports is a discriminatory approach. From a Foucauldian perspective, “discrimination” leads to categorization and marginalization of various social concepts, as well as the imposition of discrimination and dualism on these concepts. Therefore, it seems that an unspoken agreement has been reached to completely or relatively exclude women from sports fields – and in parallel in other fields. Based on this, engaging in sports is defined more in the masculine realm and with characteristics such as power and competition, which ultimately leads to unconscious and, in most cases, conscious and systemic discrimination in the direction of social-masculine management. In addition to the structural thinking and negative attitude towards women’s sports, the lack of infrastructure and sports facilities,

In general, women’s sports in Kurdistan province are not exempt from this general rule of women’s sports in the country (policies of exclusion and categorization); superstitions and cultural and legal restrictions have always tried to resist and oppose the presence of women in sports. Kurdish provinces have always been a challenge for authority due to religious and ethnic reasons, but wherever there has been a will to break the glass ceilings and traditions by women, these challenges have become less significant and obstacles have been removed for women to shine.

Legal support for honor killings, which annually claim hundreds of victims, is one of the links that imposes double discrimination on Kurdish women due to the culture of honor worship. Lack of economic infrastructure, widespread unemployment among women, and ultimately dependence on male family members are among the issues that create special conditions for women in this region. Despite this, Kurdish women have been suffering from customary and legal discrimination for years, and have tried to give meaning to their right to life amidst unequal attacks. Among them are women who, despite obstacles, pursue sports professionally and have been successful in various fields and categories, which can change and diminish the traditional and general view of women in sports.

Mariwan is one of the cities that carries a lot of historical experiences of women’s struggle and resistance against patriarchal ideologies and legal barriers. Protests against the murder of “Farshad Najati” by her father and several other honor killings, as well as marches in response to the dressing of criminals in women’s clothing, are examples that have been organized under the leadership of active women in this city.

This is a picture of a beautiful garden.Marivan1
No-Car Wednesdays in Marivan – Photo from Herana

In recent days, we have witnessed another obstacle to women’s activities in Mariwan, which worsens the space for weakening women’s rights and psychological violence. The popular campaign of “Car-Free Wednesdays”, which started from the last days of February last year, has turned into a regular event where women on bicycles are confronted on this day. Women on bicycles in Mariwan joined this campaign from the first day, but it wasn’t long before an illegal ban on women’s cycling was imposed. This action was met with protests from civil activists, but it resulted in nothing but the detention and confiscation of bicycles. In this regard, one thousand and four hundred citizens and civil activists signed and published an open letter to the relevant authorities, protesting against the ban on women’s cycling in public spaces in the city of Mariwan. They demanded the cancellation of such a ban and equal consideration for women’s rights.

The topic that Mansour Moradi, representative of Marivan in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, confirms in an interview with “Vaghaye Iran” in a different way: “It is better for me not to talk about it until the matter is resolved. I have also heard that there have been incidents with women in Marivan, but it has not been as big as the media portrays it. In the latest news I have about this issue, the Marivan City Council has allocated a section of the women’s park as a cycling track to facilitate women’s cycling.” Allocating specific places for women cyclists is another form of gendering public spaces and systematically excluding women from these spaces.

This new ban on women’s activities comes at a time when the Rouhani government has defined achieving gender equality as one of its serious objectives. However, what we are witnessing in Marivan is the banning of women’s cycling under the pretext of “customs and hijab”. These efforts to further deprive women of active presence in the public sphere and restrict them to specific spaces are based on gender ideologies.

Women’s sports problems in Marivan are not limited to cycling in public spaces. Lack of sports facilities such as equipped clubs, not allocating budget for the development and empowerment of female athletes, not inviting athletes to higher levels, and ultimately marginalizing women in urban development processes are indicative of structural violence against women in urban spaces and a tool to exclude them from the public sphere. Therefore, in order to fight against this structural violence, it is necessary to advocate for the right of women to freely participate and engage in the city.

Admin
November 26, 2016

Bicycling is prohibited in the park. Bicycling or cycling Car-free Wednesdays Farzaneh Jalali Hirana Islamic Consultative Assembly Mariwan Universal sports Women athletes Women do. Women's cycling پیمان صلح ماهنامه خط صلح ماهنامه خط صلح