There is a large disparity when comparing women’s rights in Iran and
in the West: Iranian women are still denied their basic fundamental
rights. Iranian women are treated as second-class citizens, but
authorities choose to ignore that women cannot enter stadiums and that
there are gender barriers in the market. They choose to ignore that
women have no control over their bodies and that they cannot leave the
country without permission.
Ban on traveling abroad and entering stadiums
Women are banned from leaving the country without first receiving permission from their husbands; single Iranian women (up to age 40) may need their father’s permission to travel abroad. Husbands can ban their wives from leaving the country at any time.
Women are banned from leaving the country without first receiving permission from their husbands; single Iranian women (up to age 40) may need their father’s permission to travel abroad. Husbands can ban their wives from leaving the country at any time.
Female athletes
in Iran face huge difficulties in attending matches. Niloufar Ardalan,
the captain of the Iranian soccer team and the best female player
equipped with her “magic” left foot, was deprived of playing in the
Women’s Futsal Championship of Malaysia in 2015 due to Sharia law.
Niloufar was banned from attending the matches after her husband, TV
showman Mehdi Toutounchi, did not allow her to attend the tournament
based on Iran’s Islamic rules. Today, Iranian women are still banned
from stadiums. The ban originated after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in
Iran which Iranian hard-liners approved and implemented.
Gender Discrimination
Iranian parliament opposed granting citizenship to children born of Iranian women and foreign men. Hossein-Ali Amiri, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Interior, said the adoption of this law would create “security, political, and social” problems for the country and increase immigration, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran’s Islamic rules, however, do not extend to children born to Iranian women outside Iran.
Iranian parliament opposed granting citizenship to children born of Iranian women and foreign men. Hossein-Ali Amiri, the Iranian Deputy Minister of Interior, said the adoption of this law would create “security, political, and social” problems for the country and increase immigration, according to the official Islamic Republic News Agency. Iran’s Islamic rules, however, do not extend to children born to Iranian women outside Iran.
Gender inequality and discrimination pervade Iranian society under
Islamic laws. According to Article 157 of Iran’s new penal code, which
was approved in January 2012, the criterion for criminal responsibility
for girls is the age of eight years, nine months. In addition, the
testimony of a man is often given twice the weight of a woman’s.
Moreover, the testimony of a woman is not accepted for certain types of
offenses.
Women undergo
various forms of harassment, abuse, and discrimination by the Iranian
regime on a daily basis for not observing “proper” hijab. Hijab refers
to the head covering traditionally worn by some Muslim women as well as
modest Islamic styles of dress. Article 63 of the penal code: “Those
women that appear in the streets and public places without the Islamic
hijab shall be sentenced to prison or fined as a punishment to pay some
money to superior authorities.”
According to
Article 1168 of the previous civil code, the guardianship of children is
granted to the father and/or the paternal grandfather. Further, the
husband can end his marriage without any grounds in accordance with the
law. Article 1133 of the previous civil code (1928) stated “a man can
divorce his wife whenever he wishes to do so.” At the core of the
marriage contract is tamkin, or the wife’s submission, defined as an
unhampered sexual availability that is regarded as a man’s right and as a
woman’s duty.
Without an
acceptable excuse, the wife’s failure to comply with the lawful wishes
of her husband constitutes nushuz, or disobedience, which means she may
lose her rights, according to the Iran Human Rights Documentation Center
(IHRDC). While women may contract only one marriage at a time, under
Iranian Islamic law it is a man’s religious and legal right to marry
more than one woman.
Men may enter into as many as four permanent marriages at a time. Although the right is not stipulated in the civil code, the IHRDC said that it could be deduced from several articles. The courts can also approve a minimum age to marry—13 years for girls. Authorities turn a blind eye to underage marriage, where immature girls have not even reached the legal age to vote. Meanwhile, marriage laws in developed societies have age limits of at least 16 to 18 years.
Men may enter into as many as four permanent marriages at a time. Although the right is not stipulated in the civil code, the IHRDC said that it could be deduced from several articles. The courts can also approve a minimum age to marry—13 years for girls. Authorities turn a blind eye to underage marriage, where immature girls have not even reached the legal age to vote. Meanwhile, marriage laws in developed societies have age limits of at least 16 to 18 years.
Under Iran’s
Islamic rules, it is the duty of the husband to work for a living and
provide nafaqah, or maintenance, for his family; wives have no such
duty. However, if women decide to work, whether on account of their
personal desire or due to insufficient income of the family, they do
have the right to work.
Despite the
2013 election of President Hassan Rouhani in the Islamic Republic of
Iran, women continue to face new challenges in exercising their civil
rights. It is a great challenge for women to reach equality as well as
accessing education and workforce resources, according to the Women News
Network.
In Iran, the
president is elected for a four-year term by the direct vote of the
citizens, but it is not as simple as that. The president must be elected
from among religious and political men, according to Article 114 and
115 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Thus, the
constitution rules out half of Iran’s population and systematically bars
women from running for president.
Equal rights to
inheritance is also not established under Iran’s Islamic Sharia
law—when a father dies, his son is entitled to twice as much as his
daughter, according to Article 907 of the civil code.
Iranian women deserve the same basic rights as men. Discrimination against them must end.
This article was written by Kaveh Taheri & Laleh Moazen.
Do you want to support women rights in Iran? See here or here. Crowdsourcing the struggle for human rights. Be part of the solution at Movements.org.
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