The hidden reality of violence against women in Iran
Hillary Rodham Clinton: “Human rights are women’s rights, and women’s rights are human rights, once and for all. It’s our time to have wage equality once and for all, and equal rights for women in the United States of America. This is no simple reform. It really is a revolution.”
Iranian women endure systematic gender discrimination as second class
citizens in Iran, they are deprived of fundamental rights. Of course,
the situation of Iranian women is slightly better than their peers in
Middle-East, but, they undergo many hardships under both Sharia Laws and
backward traditions. Women suffer social inequalities such as lack of
an appropriate job, not allowing to choose desired clothes, forced
marriage in traditional cities, verbal and physical sexual harassment,
and insecurity during hours of the day. Only about three million and 500
thousand women are among the 22 million employed in Iran, according to
Iran Statistics Center reports in 2017. Most of the people who commit
suicide are women. More than 10% of the students deprived of education
are girls between 6 and 17 years old, ISNA declared on October 2014. At
least 50% of girls in marginalized area across Iran are deprived of
education, deputy minister of education said in 2017.
In 2017, Iranian news agencies revealed details of a domestic violence
case in which a man tortured his wife and two daughters for 21 days. He
jailed his wife and daughters at house and brutally tortured them. She
was frequently thrown in a metal box and her addicted husband fired a
gun under the box, the victim told the state-run news agency ISNA. She
also added that her naked body was often burnt by an ignited cloths. Her
attorney Ms. Mohebi said that there are no punishments for gender
violence against women under the laws in Iran.
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Arezou also noted forced marriage in which women and young girls are
being forced by their families to get married because the families will
benefit from this marriage while these women become the victims of
abuse. Many forced marriages occur to stop the bloodshed and retribution
and ending sectarian strife, although these marriages rarely occur in
Iran and usually happen in far-flung village.
Sima considered wrong traditions of old attitudes in methods of
household, marriage, raising children as other problems of women and
said: following wrong ancestral traditions is something very wrong and
senseless, because society is going forward and we cannot confront
today’s standards with the old standards.
Looking at women around the world has become very annoying to women, but this is the reality in backward and Muslim countries.
Maryam pointed out harassment by some tutors or doctors and said “some
male doctors when they are examining touch our organs in an unusual way
and out of medical methods.” She talked about her own personal
experience when she had an injection in the buttock, and was harassed by
the personnel of the injection section. She also mentioned her
experience and those of peers with verbal and physical harassment while
visiting internal medicine and women’s physicians. She continued and
said that many teenage or toddler girls were abused by male relatives,
by acts such as kissing the lips or licking their genitals. And after
revealing the incident, the families have remained silent to save their
face, this issue is continuing to seriously threaten women. She also
explained her bitter experience at the airport gate during a physical
inspection and acknowledged that many of her friends had the same
experience being abused at the gate inspections.
Many women are at risk of exposure to sexual harassment by co-workers
or their employers in the workplace. Many women speak about being asked
for closer or sexual relationships by their employers and they have to
accept these suggestions or they will be fired. Many employers misuse
their positions to achieve their goals and put their female employees
under pressure to have relationships with them.
Iranian women are often abused in public transport such as buses,
subways and taxis. Most of the women considered lack of codified rules
for sexual violence against women as the major reason of sexual
harassment. There is no significant law against sexual violence to
support women against harassment.
Several young women felt senselessly victimized by acid throwing (Honor
Related Violence). A series of acid attacks on women in the city of
Isfahan happened around October 2014, raised fears and prompted rumors
that the victims were targeted for not being properly veiled (Islamic
dress). The Islamic vigilantes riding on motorbikes threw acid in at
least four women’s faces in Isfahan, but the Media put the number as
high as eight.
Maryam Ayubi, an alleged adulteress, was stoned to death while strapped to a stretcher in 2001.
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Official laws against women in Iran
According to Iran’s Civil Code, girls should have their father’s
consent, if they want to marry, it means that there is no marriage if
the father withholds his consent. Further, Father can force her
13-year-old daughter into marriage if he wishes. It leads girl’s
marriage to reach a critical point.
Women are not considered as the head of family.
According to the current laws in Iran, men can divorce their wives more
easily. But, women have difficulties to divorce and they should file a
long list of evidences to prove that the man is not qualified to
continue wedlock.
Women have no rights for guardianship of their children. Mothers can
take care of their children or being the custodian, but, they are not
allowed to have the rights for guardianship of their children. Mothers
cannot take guardianship of their children even in the case of
death/absence of the father, and the rights of guardianship of children
will be given to the grandfather.
Women have the rights to keep their children (until the children are
under 7 years old) after divorce, but, they will lose the custody if
they remarry before children reach seven.
Based on Iran’s Islamic law, men can have four permanent wives and
unbounded number of temporary wives. Married women would be sentenced to
death penalty if they were in partnership with another man.
Based on the laws in Iran, children’s citizenship is under her/his
father’s nationality, not mother. So, the Iranian women cannot
get Iranian ID card for their children if they marry with foreigners.
Women lose their rights for education after marriage expect with the
consent of the spouse. Husband has the rights to ban his wife from work
if he wishes. Husband has the rights to seek court order on grounds of
conjugal disobedience while his wife works in different city and ask to
end employment or get permission to remarry. No women have the rights to
become president in Iran, according to the laws that allow only men
(Rejal) to chair the high-ranked official seats.
Women’s blood money (compensation, Diyyah in Persian and Arabic) is as
half of the men’s. In a car accident, the cost of blood money that women
receive as compensation is half of the compensation for male embryo, if
women were pregnant.
Women receive 50% less than their brothers from the inheritance, if
father/mother pass away. Based on this rule, if husband pass away, the
women receive 50% less than their male-children or husband’s father.
Women’s credibility of witnessing at court is considered as half of
men. And, no women can become a judge in Iran under Islamic laws, which
exist in the country. They can only play a role as advisor of a male
judge even if they have law degree, or they can work as investigation
judge, but, without the rights to issue verdict.
Women have no rights to obtain a passport to travel without
husband/father permission, and, the husband/father can confiscate
women’s passport to ban from travelling abroad. The law allows all
husbands to prevent their wives from travelling abroad.
The report was wrriten for The Boroujerdi Civil Rights Group on Monday, May 9, 2016, updated in November, 2018.
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