Buying modernization : Western NGOs and gender politics in Pahlavi Iran

Abstract: This article discusses the entanglement of an international women's NGO, the International Council of Women (ICW), the Pahlavi state and Iranian female elite activists. Beginning in the late 1960s, the Iranian court started financially supporting this western NGO and subsequently its discourse regarding 'modern women'. By doing so, the Shah strengthened his own image as a modern ruler. The ICW was financially unstable and accepted money from the autocratic regime without any reluctance. The discourse the Shah invested in, ICW's discourse, was adopted by Iranian elite activists, whose activities were supported and controlled by the state. This study shows that this three-sided collaboration enforced a notion of modernity that failed to take class inequalities into consideration, thereby ignoring subaltern women