These days the “Me too” hashtag is being promoted in my country, which encourages people -especially women- to narrate their stories and break the silence. The stories are mostly about discrimination, harassment, and violence against women in workplaces and academia, and the narrators are mostly ones who had to abandon their professional positions. As a woman from the Middle East, facing these kinds of problems is not weird but also pretty normal. Indeed, I could claim that some entities try to normalize these challenges intentionally. They seek to preserve the masculine archetypes and persuade women to accept the problems as business game rules, or otherwise stay at home.

What could be the advantages of preserving the masculine archetypes for developing countries? On one hand, some entities in society that have specific beliefs and ideologies, especially ones with the opposition, try to show the world that all their actions conform to the ideology. Therefore, they block the entry of women to the labor market who do not follow the ideology, in countenance or manner, because the women’s demands can disrupt this false appearance. On the other hand, controlling a patriarchal society is easier and has fewer costs. For instance, due to fewer worries about different forms of sexual harassment for men in the patriarchal society, the government will not have to expend much money to establish security. Moreover, if males have to avoid being in a relationship with females in their workplaces or other communities, they will not know them deeply to recognize their real values. Gradually, the men will turn to rigid, heartless people who have some misunderstanding about women. The heartless men will be suitable fighters for likely future wars and desired actors to bring women into the business play, forcing them to accept the business game rules.

What is referred to as “business game rules”? It is a familiar refrain in business and education in my country -which has different meanings among different types of women. As a veiled woman, you will get a job promotion or get better scores in your courses, or even your professors will recommend you for a job or other universities if you work overtime or let your supervisors steal credit for your work. Conversely, if you want to live on your own terms or try to preserve the credit of your work, you will not be as successful as you should be. You have to satisfy your professors’ or your supervisors’ sexual demands and keep quiet when they want to steal your work because there is no legislation to respect your rights.

In closing, when I look around, I see a volume of unfinished research projects have been left because I have not cooperated with these kinds of men. I remember that I had to tolerate compulsory negotiations with my professors to keep my research article credit for myself, I had to quit my job because of the sexual demands of my boss’s son, I had to forget to take my professor’s letter of recommendation when I was a volunteer TA at university and I had to neglect most of my efforts and ideas without any outcomes. And now, because of all these constraints and several withdrawals from the game, I feel a huge burden on my shoulders. I can claim that “Being a woman in Iran is the toughest role in the World” so the women are feeling overwhelmed and stressed. What will the world be like when women (potential mothers) are not feeling well?

So now is the time for each one of us to accept these kinds of violence and bad strategies in some communities to conquer them instead of denying them. We should try to change social norms regarding violence against women and practice not blaming the victims and not condemn them for being in conditions in which there is the risk of rape- a researcher by doing research, an author by writing stories, an artist by her/his artworks, a mother by storytelling to her children, and all individuals by their various fields of expertise.

 

Published on: Sep 10, 2020, at 19:43