Document Type : Research Paper
Authors
1 Imam Khomeini International University
2 Imam Khomeini International University of Qazvin
Abstract
Introduction:
The income index is insufficient for examining poverty, especially for marginalized groups who have less access to resources. Access to welfare, educational, and health facilities and the inability to participate in formal political activism are considered multidimensional poverty indicators. Women, especially rural women, have less participation in formal political activism, which is influenced by gender stereotypes and multidimensional poverty.
Multidimensional poverty, along with institutional and structural shortcomings in political activism for women, particularly in rural and marginalized communities, necessitates informal political activism strategies. Informal political activism takes place in marginalized communities and by marginalized groups based on the realities and necessities of life. Depending on the background and opportunities available, it is sometimes used innovatively by marginalized groups to demand, influence, and change policies.
The phenomenon of migration from rural to urban areas is also a consequence of multidimensional poverty and has sometimes exacerbated it in rural areas. This has resulted in changes in the demographic structure of rural areas, aging of the workforce, and seasonal residency in rural areas. Multiplication of women's work and the necessity of independent living, class gaps in rural areas, population growth in rural areas in spring and summer, water tensions, and unequal use of water resources are consequences of migration from rural to urban areas.
Deprivation in the surrounding villages of Mashhad has also led to widespread migration to large cities, especially Tehran. Some villages are uninhabited, while others have become devoid of young labor force and have turned into seasonal settlements. The women of Naghdi Aliya village who protested against water problems in Ordibehesht 1400 were in such a social context as water carriers.
In addition to the lack of access to water resources due to inadequate storage in the Sefidab Dam and inadequate use by villagers, the lack of proper transfer of water problems through rural institutions such as the Village Council and the Village Headman has led to women's weariness from carrying water and their subsequent protest by closing the road. The filming and broadcasting of the protest on the eve of the elections in opposition media also turned it into a political protest, which was met with a quick response from officials.
The aim of this research is to investigate the impact of multidimensional poverty on the limitations of formal political activism for rural women and to drive them towards informal political activism strategies and their consequences through a case study of the protest of Naghdi Aliya village women against drinking water problems in 1400.
Quantitative research has been conducted in the field of multidimensional poverty and its relationship with political participation, especially in Iran, but in general, several articles can be mentioned.
Hasani Mahoozi (2015) in an article entitled "Gender and Spatial Inequality of Multidimensional Poverty in Iran" examines the frequency, severity, and inequality of poverty among different gender and spatial subgroups in Iranian society and estimates multidimensional poverty in Iran using the statistical approach of Sen's capability. It shows that female-headed households and rural households are severely deprived compared to male-headed and urban households.
Ali Akbar Barati et al. (1400) also examined multidimensional poverty at the level of counties, provinces, and the country in an article entitled "Analysis of Multidimensional Poverty in Iranian Rural Communities" using the concept of multidimensional poverty. They showed that multidimensional poverty had the largest share in education, welfare, and health in rural communities in Iran and was influenced by climatic factors as well as economic and social factors.
Atena Vatan-Khah and Maryam Ghasemi (1398) also demonstrated the positive and negative effects of young men's migration from villages on remaining women in rural areas in an article entitled "Investigating the Consequences of Men's Migration on the Status of Remaining Women in Rural Areas," with a focus on a case study in Mashhad. They emphasized that migration had a gendered trend and showed the positive and negative effects of young men's migration from villages on remaining women in economic and social areas, concluding that daily migration of men has more positive effects.
Research Method:
The data collection method was through rural observation, semi-structured individual interviews with 20 women protesting against the water problem, and group interviews with 15 women who continued to protest. The research method was based on institutional ethnography, and institutional texts, including executive guidelines, government news, protest footage, and texts produced in virtual space were also examined. The interview data was analyzed using thematic analysis and an emic approach to understand the internal experience of rural women's lives.
Research Findings:
The multidimensional poverty in terms of access to safe drinking water, young men's migration from rural areas to cities, seasonal population growth, feminization, and aging of rural settlements, as well as the lack of institutional mechanisms for transferring protests in the lived experience of rural women in Naghdi Aliya, shows that the film of women's protest against the water problem as a textual institution has emerged from the local reality and context of rural women.
However, on a larger scale, it has turned into a political issue and has been represented as a conscious political action with group coherence. In this regard, local officials have also understood it as a reservoir against enemies, so that although the water problem in the village was quickly addressed, incomplete and unplanned water supply has still caused the sustainability of the water problem and exacerbated the conflict between the upstream and downstream of the village.
Traditional institutional relationships in the village and family also stigmatized women's actions, but women expressed their rights as a matter of religious value by resorting to religious texts and organized themselves. Furthermore, awareness of the power of collective action has deepened and continued in women.
Conclusion:
Social groups resort to various strategies and methods to express their demands and meet their needs from the power institutions and engage in political activism. If they have access to official and legal channels, they use them for political participation and officially manifest their political activism. Otherwise, in cases where the establishment and utilization of official institutions for participation are not possible, they turn to informal activism. Engaging* in informal activism is mainly protest-oriented and usually accompanied by innovative and creative aspects. These two characteristics challenge the power institutions when facing them. Because being protest-oriented leads to violence, and being innovative makes any action context-dependent and restricts official institutions from using past experiences to confront them. This can lead to the use of inappropriate methods in dealing with informal activism and also push them towards violence. Therefore, it is essential to strengthen official institutions to respond to demands and needs and provide the necessary mechanisms for formal activism for social groups, including women affected by multidimensional poverty, so that social group activism can be directed towards official channels and not turn into a pattern of informal activism. In this way, non-formal activism will be less challenging for governments.
Keywords
- Keywords: Multidimensional poverty
- Informal political activism
- Women'
- s activism
- Rural women
- Institutional ethnography
Main Subjects
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