Baroness Professor Haleh Afshar, OBE.

Posted on 24 May 2022

A tribute to Baroness Professor Haleh Afshar, OBE.

The Department of Politics is deeply saddened to record the death of Professor Haleh Afshar at the age of 77. Haleh, as she was simply known to colleagues and students alike, was one of the first undergraduates to study at the newly opened University of York in 1963 where she graduated in social sciences in 1967. In 1968 Haleh began work on her PhD in Land Economy at the University of Cambridge as a member of New Hall (now Murray Edwards College) on the subject of land reform in Ireland and Iran. In 1972 she took the Diplôme de Droit Comparé Communauté Européen at the University of Strasbourg and in 1974 she received her doctorate from Cambridge. In the same year, she married Maurice Dodson, a young lecturer in Mathematics from New Zealand who Haleh had previously met while studying at the University of York. Haleh then returned to her native Iran to work on land reform policy for the Ministry of Co-operatives and Rural Development. Haleh and Maurice’s daughter Molly was born in 1977 and the following year their son Ali was born. While working at the Ministry, Haleh devoted her time to really understanding the lives of rural dwellers in Iran and the problems and challenges faced by women in particular. As Janet Veitch writes

She became aware that, in an authoritarian regime, there was widespread ignorance about women's Islamic rights. This formative experience set a pattern for her life: to challenge power. Soon she fell out with the land reform minister. That proved to be just the start – she fell further out of favour with the entire regime with the publication of an article exposing gossip around the Iranian royals. She fled the country as persona non grata, only returning briefly with her husband and daughter. The fall of the Shah and his secret police was followed by the Ayatollahs and theirs. After criticising Khomeni's PhD thesis, she never returned to her homeland for fear of arrest.

The experience of being a political exile from her country of birth shaped Haleh’s lifelong commitment to supporting and speaking out on behalf of refugees and asylum seekers including as patron of Refugee Action York. After a lectureship at Bradford University from 1976 to 1985, Haleh joined the University of York as a lecturer in health economics before joining the Department of Politics and the Centre for Women’s Studies in 1987. She was appointed Professor of Politics and Women’s Studies in 1999 and Emeritus Professor in 2011. Haleh’s career as an academic and activist subsequently focused on the study of Islamic feminism as well as contributing to its development as a leading theorist. Among the important books that Haleh Afshar authored and edited are Iran, A Revolution In Turmoil (1985); Women in the Middle East. Perceptions, Realities and Struggles for Liberation (1993), Women and Politics in the Third World (1996), Women the State and Ideology (1987), Women and Empowerment (1998) and Islam and Feminism (1998). The courses she taught, especially Politics of the Middle East, reflected Haleh’s vast knowledge of the region, helping to establish the development studies cluster at York as one of the most influential and highly regarded in Britain and around the world.

Haleh saw no contradiction in being a feminist scholar and an educated Muslim woman with a deep knowledge of Koranic teachings and texts. When the Khomeini government attempted to prevent women’s access to education she declared: ‘They’re scared of educated women. Because educated women can actually read classical Arabic, access the Koranic teachings, and demand their rights, contextualised in the Koranic teachings….taking on the Iranian government on its own terms…’. As a founder member of the Centre for Women’s Studies, Haleh firmly believed that only by addressing the needs of women, who because of their faith, ethnic identity, socio-economic or immigration status were often the most marginalised in society, would it be possible to tackle gender inequality. Along with Centre for Women’s Studies colleagues Mary Maynard, Delia Smith and Nicole Ward, Haleh attracted and supervised brilliant postgraduates from around the world, many of whom have gone on to become leading academics in their own right. Haleh also worked with Mary Maynard as series editor of the University of York’s Women’s Studies Book Series.

Janet Veitch adds

Haleh’s activism was indistinguishable from her theoretical work. She was a scholar and a fighter too; she fought, usually successfully, for women threatened with deportation. After the 7/7 bombings in London she was invited to chair a new independent advisory committee to advise government on the views of women in the British Muslim community. This was the brainchild of the Labour government’s then minister for women and equality, Patricia Hewitt, and under Haleh's leadership they made the case for listening to Muslim women's voices. Haleh led a roadshow round the country to hear what British Muslim women were saying and she fought hard to make sure their report was published exactly as it stood, resisting pressure to water it down, dealing openly with difficult issues like child sexual abuse. The members of that committee went on to form the new independent Muslim Women’s Network, of which Haleh was a founding member and finally honorary president, its mission of empowering Muslim women through Islamic feminism being close to her heart. The MWN exists today because of her initiative, the group has said.

Alongside her long career at the University of York, where she became one of its first female Professors of Politics, Haleh was also Visiting Professor of Islamic law at the Robert Schuman University in Strasbourg, France. She served as Chair of the British Association for Middle East Studies, Deputy Chair of the British Council’s Gender and Development Task Force and as Chair of the United Nations Association International Service, as well as numerous public commissions, committees and parliamentary bodies. Haleh Afshar was appointed an OBE in 2005 for services to equal opportunities and made a life peer in 2007. She was an academician of the Academy of Social Sciences and held honorary doctorates from the University of Essex, University of Kent, York St. John University and the University of Bradford.

Haleh is survived by her devoted family, her husband Professor Maurice Dodson and their two children, Ali Afshar Dodson, Molly Newton and grandchildren Kate and Hattie. Haleh always described her children as ‘her greatest achievement’ and she and the family shared the warmth and hospitality of their beautiful Heslington home with generations of students and visitors for whom there was always a bowl of delicious soup ladled out to the accompaniment of Haleh’s peeling laughter around their crowded kitchen table.

Among the music chosen when she appeared as a guest on Desert Island Discs was Edith Piaf’s ‘Non, Je ne regrette rien’. All who knew her would say that this was a fitting description of Haleh’s attitude to life.

The memorial for Professor Haleh Afshar, Baroness of Heslington will be held on the 6th August 2022 at the University of York from 11.00 am. There will be a light lunch and drinks from 12.30 pm. Please visit www.halehafshar.com if you would like to register in order to attend.

The website also contains some photos and a recording of the funeral service held on 8th June 2022 at St Paul's Church, Heslington.

Simon Parker

Baroness Afshar of Heslington, Emeritus Professor of Politics and Women’s Studies, May 21, 1944 to May 12, 2022.

A tribute to Baroness Haleh Afshar was broadcast by BBC Radio 4's Last Word on 27 May 2022 and can be found on BBC Sounds here.