WOMEN AND THE IRANIAN REVOLUTION: A VILLAGE CASE STUDY Mary Elaine Hegland The participation of the women of the village of Aliabad 1 in the Iranian Revolution of 1978/1979 was a continuation of their earlier activities and concerns at the local political level. In local level political competition and conflict, women had played significant and central roles in communicating, connecting, and persuading, through their networks and groups, in order to protect the interests and well-being of their families and relatives, to promote justice, and to maintain community harmony. When the women realized that their traditional concerns were now no longer contained within the arena of local level village politics but were subject to forces at the national level of political activity, they joined their menfolk in revolutionary demonstrations with the intent of influencing the course of national level politics. In early December, 1978, the national level conflict between the Shah's forces and Khomeini supporters descended to the village level in two incidents of violence. In consequence, the two main village factions lined up with the two sides of the national level revolutionary struggle and community level factionalism, in which women had traditionally played a part, merged with national level politics. It thereby became apparent to these women that their traditional concerns of family, justice, and community harmony were in the grip of national level politics. Women first reacted to the two incidents of violence in the traditional fashion of wailing and weeping, screaming, tearing their hair, beating their chests, gathering in the homes and courtyards of the afflicted and, in some cases, directly criticizing those responsible. Such responses were typical for women in connection with local level factional violence. Eventually, however, their protest took the form of initiating regular nightly demonstrations in the village. These demonstrations were a new form of activity for the village women. Imitating the political forms of protest which they knew women in the nearby city of Shiraz were performing, the group of Aliabad women were initiating these forms in their own area of activity, beginning in their own little alleyway, just outside of their courtyard doors. Finally, the women took their protest beyond the village and participated in the revolutionary marches in the nearby city of Shiraz. Their marches in Aliabad and their joining in the Shiraz demonstrations were, as far as I am aware, unprecedented activities for the village women. Because of their outrage and consequent action upon seeing the forces of the Shah violate the interests of their family and kin, justice, and village harmony, women played a significant part in two major village shifts in the revolutionary process. First, the outrage of women at the injuring of pro-Khomeini people by pro-Shah forces on December 7 and 8, 1978, within the village and without good reason, was instrumental in bringing about the immediate shift in majority village opinion from pro-Shah, or at least acquiescence to the Shah's rule, to pro- revolutiordpro-Khomeini. Second, women were the ones who initiated the regular, nightly demonstrations in Aliabad, beginning January 5, 1979. Women felt themselves primarily responsible for the welfare and safety of their family members. Villagers expected women to be fully occupied with taking care of their children, husband, and household. Women evaluated each other on how dutifully and effectively they carried out these responsibilities. Those who excelled gained in respect and status, and those who fell short suffered negative social pressure. Under the terms of the accepted division of labor between the sexes, women cleaned house, washed dishes, clothes, cared for the children, were in charge of procuring, preparing, and serving food, and managed other household tasks. Every DialecticalAnthropology, 15: 183-192, 1990. 9 1990 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.