Document Type : Research Paper
Author
Associate Professor of Sociology, Faculty of Social Sciences, Institute of Humanities and Cultural Studies, Tehran, Iran
Abstract
Women's activism in the light of the discourse of constitutionalism made them a committed and demanding group that entered the field of action for the ideals of constitutionalism and challenged the dominant gender order. Methodologically, this research explains the aspects of women's mobilization in fundraising based on document analysis. The research problem is to clarify the agency of women in contemporary social history. The findings are presented and analyzed in five categories: practical goals, motivations, mechanisms, socio-economic base of participants, and strategies. Collecting donations to provide resources for the struggle of the constitutionalists in the era of Minor Tyranny, helping the families of the deceased fighters in Tabriz and Ardabil, as well as accumulating initial capital for the establishment of the National Bank, have all been based on patriotic motives of women in the struggle to achieve independence and support the citizens. In addition, it is indicative of the formulation of agency and identity politics of female activists who got fed up with discriminatory gender relations and sought an opportunity for social participation in women’s mobilization. In the absence of jobs and independent income, women used tactics to obtain resources for mobilization. Furthermore, the participation of women from different social origins has given a cross-class dimension to the mobilization.
Keywords: Nationalism, Women's Movement, Agency, Strategy, Social Movement.
Introduction
The issue of women's activism in the constitutional movement has been pointed out straggly. In fact, before that and in the pre-modern world, gender relations were defined in terms of the private/public sphere. The model of the breadwinner with the indescribable historical dominance of men and women belonging to the private sector and without independent income to achieve maximum subordination to the male head of the household had public legitimacy. In this model, women were considered as the margin of power and were weak. Therefore, the changes in constitutionalism were not only in the form of the form and creation of a parliament and democratic mechanism countering the ancient tradition of the kingdom, but more than that, the thought of Iranian people of their time, both men and women, uplifted.
The birth of women's press, associations, and schools is one of the most famous results of this progress, which was achieved through the efforts of patriotic women and men in the mid-term. And it was in such a way that the flow of women's demands continued as one of the consequences of the evolution of the discourse of power.
In this regard, the issue of women's participation in collecting donations has generally been raised in the form of a few general quotes in some cases, and its dimensions, their strategies to achieve the goal, how to act collectively, and the characteristics of activists have never been considered. This research tries to answer these questions.
Literature Review
A review of the background of the research shows that although the subject of the women's movement in the studies of Chamani, Hosni and Salim (1399), Chamani, Hosni and Salim (1400), Attarzadeh and Musfa (2004), Lorestani (2008) and the topic of the discourse evolution of women in the constitution in the studies Torabi (1395), Bastani et al. (1392), Omidi et al. (1392) and the issue of women in the constitutional movement have been discussed in the study of Mir (1372), none of them have considered the issue of women's participation in collecting national donations. Even the famous books passed over this issue.
Methodology
In terms of methodology, the current research is based on documentary analysis. To do so, all accessible texts and letters written by women, as the self-expression report of women, have been reviewed.
Results
Women's participation in fundraising has been done to achieve at least three goals: collecting donations with the aim of providing resources for the struggle of the constitutionalists, helping the families of the deceased fighters in Tabriz and Ardabil, as well as accumulating initial capital for the establishment of the National Bank.
Patriotism has been the most important motivation of women for this collective action. Furthermore, attention should be paid to the formulation and expression of identity politics through social activism as another main motivation. Regarding the mechanisms of women in collecting resources, it should be mentioned the cash and non-cash gifts for the national contribution as reflected in the press, in the form of cash and valuable items such as gold, jewelry, and watches. It should be mentioned that women from different socio-economic bases, including rich and poor, courtiers and deprived widows participated in this collective action.
Conclusion
Despite the importance of the issue of women's collective participation in fundraising, this issue is introduced in the male reading of history, small-scale, partial, and cross-sectional. It can be concluded that Men's historiography, by reducing, neglecting, and trivializing the scope of this action, neglects the importance of this vast social group and as a result, fails to pay attention to the power of these forces in the collective actions of later stages. This participation has a cross-class aspect. Women from the upper class (belonging to the court and families of statesmen), the modern middle class (school principals, teachers, and students), and the lower class (workers and widows of destitute women) were present in this movement. The deepening of the discussion shows that the tactics of women's collective action in itself have had important functions both as a part of a wider popular movement, as a movement in the direction of the historical movement of women, and as a movement to mobilize men for patriotic purposes. While women were historically limited to the private sphere, women's activism in mobilizing donations and their participation for this purpose in the public sphere was a challenge to the dominant gender order. Showcasing and highlighting women's potential to mobilize resources has been one of the most important functions of women's participation in the collective action of fundraising.
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