UN Committee - Iran - Gender

Continuing Violence, Discrimination against Women in Law and Practice

The sixtieth session of the UN General Assembly Third Committee passed a resolution on November 18, condemning the brutal and continued violations of human rights in Iran. The assembly's social and humanitarian committee voted 77 to 51, with 46 abstentions, to condemn the continuing use of torture and cruel or degrading treatment, continued carrying out of executions, and in particular, the execution of persons who were minors at the time of their offence, and also continued violations of freedom of assembly, opinion and expression, and the rights of religious and ethnic minorities.

Among other things, it expressed its serious concern at the "continuing violence and discrimination against women and girls in law and in practice, despite some minor legislative improvements, and the refusal of the Guardian Council to take steps to address this systemic discrimination, noting in this context its rejection, in August 2003, of the proposal of the elected parliament to accede to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women."

The resolution called upon Tehran to "eliminate, in law or in practice, all forms of discrimination and violence against women and girls and, as proposed by the elected Iranian Parliament, to accede to the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women."

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'Street Women'

The vicious cycle of oppression, unemployment, unbearable poverty, addiction and finally prostitution and sexual slavery has been a reality for Iranian women.

"Street women" is one of the most painful byproducts of society. According to the regime's own  figures, 1.7 million women live in the streets. About 300 to 600,000 of them have resorted to prostitution to be able to provide for themselves and their children. The sources have also acknowledged that there are 8,000 prostitution rings in Tehran. Over the past seven years, the average age of prostitution has dropped from 28 to 13.

Reportedly, 60% of these women have entered this business when they were between 13 and 20 years old. The number of runaway girls in Tehran alone jumped from 1,200 to 5,000 in the year 2000 as compared to the previous year, and hiked by another thousand before 2001. Of this number, 7.27% live on the streets, while the rest sleep in the city parks and a fraction are staying with friends. Also, having no place to live, many pregnant street women choose the Iranian regime's prisons as a place to give birth. They deliberately commit misdemeanors to be jailed at the time of their delivery. 

Sociologists consider prostitution a very clear consequence of poverty and unemployment, but the medieval mentality of the clerical regime in Iran tries to portray it as resulting from the equality movement. Iran's Majlis [Parliament] recently issued a report on its evaluation of "the fourth five-year plan for economic, social and cultural development plan".

Reflecting on women's issues, the Majlis' research center wrote, "The dominant outlook in recent decades, focusing on the need for equality of men and women and ignoring gender-related characteristics, has resulted in women not being satisfied at being a woman, not considering themselves different from men, and not accepting different expectations from the two genders. As a result, such women consider the different laws and procedures for men and women 'discrimination' and eventually demand similar roles as men. Another consequence is the breakdown of boundaries between womanhood and manhood, as a result of which futile rivalry with the other sex and taking part in manly arenas, leads to an increase in the women's social insecurity." (Khane-ye Mellat website, Nov. 4)

Although poverty and unemployment has engulfed all sectors of the Iranian people, it comes down hardest on women. The former president of the Women's Participation Center, Zahra Shoja'ii, recently said 88% of women are among the "economically inactive" population. Despite the fact that girls make up 60% of university students, only 13 to 15% are drawn into the market after graduation. Furthermore, 87% of educated women are unemployed, and of the 1.2 million single mothers in Iran, only 300,000 are covered by welfare.

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Homeless women make way into prison to give birth

Dr. Marzieh Farina, deputy for education and health in the Prisons Organization, said, "It seems that a number of pregnant women who have no particular place to stay, commit petty crimes in order to go to prison. In general, they are released a few days after their delivery." (ILNA, Nov. 6)

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Women get involved in prostitution to provide for needy family

In [a] movie, Massoud Dehnamaki (former member of paramilitary vigilantes Ansar-e Hezbollah) interviews more than a dozen prostitutes and many of their customers. All the women tell the same story of poverty and the need to provide for their families.

"We are two sisters working, and we can hardly earn enough to buy food and pay our rent," says a sobbing woman, whose face was covered to hide her identity. "I sometimes dream of having chicken, or good food, at least once a week," she goes on, wiping away tears. "I have worked at homes where they had so much money that they threw food in the garbage. I always envy people who can eat well."