Sadeghi, Fatemeh; (2009) Foot Soldiers of the Islamic Republic’s “Culture of Modesty”. Middle East Research and Information Project , 250 pp. 50-55.

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Abstract

“Simplicity has disappeared,” laments Minoo Shahbazi, energetic at 50, and animated in the cheap manteau and black scarf she wears beneath her chador. Look at her 16-year old son, she says: “He likes to wear famous brand-name clothes. Obviously, I do not agree. He is very different from me.” Shahbazi belongs to the first generation of women to join the Basij-e Mostazafin (Mobilization of the Oppressed), the volunteer militia created in November 1979 by decree of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini to protect the new Islamic Republic of Iran against counter-revolutionary uprisings as well as external threats. In 1985, worried by news from the war front, Khomeini issued an edict to the effect that women should also receive military training, so as to assist men in defending the nation. The Sisters’ Basij (Basij-e Khaharan) was established shortly thereafter. Today, according to an Iranian government website, more than 4 million of the 10 to 14 million Basijis are women. Like thousands of her peers, male and female, Shahbazi was sent to the front when the Iran-Iraq war began. Her six months up, she returned to her studies and graduated to teach religion in high school. Increasingly alienated from her family and society, she still finds happiness in her job.

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