The Politics of Veiling in Iran and the Nonreligious Left in the Early 1980s

Scholarly works and public narratives dealing with the mandating of the veil in Iran in the aftermath of the 1979 revolution often focus on the coercive aspects of the process and emphasize the role of religious groups consolidating power. This article takes a closer look at how nonreligious leftist groups perceived and participated in the process. By revisiting the publications of seven prominent secular left-wing groups, this article discusses nuances in the Iranian left's historic approaches to veiling and how these groups' ideologies and political alliances shaped their responses to the quickly shifting gender politics of the post-revolutionary period.