WUNRN
IRAN - CALL OF WOMEN TO
STOP RATIFICATION OF ANTI-FAMILY BILL
17 February 2010
Change for
Equality: Over 1200 women’s rights activists and equal rights
defenders have signed a statement objecting to the draft "Family
Protection" bill currently in Parliament, which they claim will erode
women’s rights within the family even further. The statement issued by a
coalition of women’s rights activists working to prevent the ratification of
this draft bill, which they have dubbed the "Anti-Family Bill"
appears below.
The Legal and Judicial Commission of the Islamic Consultative
Assembly of the Parliament, has recently re-introduced the so-called
“Protection of Family Bill” to the parliament with changes to articles 23 and
25 and rushed it through parliament for ratification among the political chaos
in the country. This bill is ineffective to support the institution of family
and is far behind the bill that was ratified some 35 years ago in 1974.
According to the new bill, polygamy is legalized and men are given
further powers to re-marry without the consent or even the knowledge of the
first wife. According to the new amendments if a woman contracts a terminal
disease or is away from home for 6 months or is imprisoned for a bounced check,
her husband can take a new wife. On the other hand, women’s right to divorce is
very limited.
In July 2007, a draft of this bill was introduced to the
parliament for the first time but was faced with widespread objections by women
activists and other civil rights groups. The objections focused on articles 23
and 25, where the first was given further rights to men and the second
introduced tax on women’s Mehrieh [a some of money agreed upon
in the marriage contract payable to the wife on demand, which is often forgone
by women in their efforts to seek a divorce, especially given their limited
legal ability in obtaining a divorce.] The Mehrieh is
allocated to a woman at marriage and serves often as a woman’s only guarantee
and safeguard in case of divorce and maltreatment. The new bill has omitted the
tax but has divided the Gift Money into ‘conventional’ and ‘unconventional’
amounts without setting a standard for this, thus restricting the only legal
mechanism women had within the institution of family.
In the first instance in 2008, an alliance was formed with the
participation of women activists and equal rights advocates who organized mass
protests against the introduction of the bill which they called the “Anti-Family
Bill”. They distributed brochures, leaflets, released statements and wrote
widely about the dire implications of the amendments to the already
discriminatory family law. The formation of the “No to the Anti-Family Bill
coalition” attracted the biggest number of women from among women activists
inside and outside the country. They campaigned vigorously; collected
signatures, sent text messages on mobiles, sent postcards “no to the bill”,
assembled at the parliament corridors en-masse until articles 23 and 25 were
removed from the bill.
Recently, in the atmosphere of chaos and tensions created after
the 10th Presidential elections, once again a group of parliamentarians have
taken the opportunity to re-introduce this bill. In the political situation
where the smallest protest on the part of women, students, teachers,
journalists or any Iranian citizen is met by intimidation, arbitrary arrest,
unfair trial and long prison sentences, the ratification of this bill will be
another blow to the peace and harmony of the institution of family.
We believe that on the sidelines of the current political crisis,
patriarchal and totalitarian tendencies have seized the opportunity to hammer
the nail on the coffin of relative peace and harmony which exists within Iranian
families.
To look back, the 1979 revolution was in many ways a setback for
Iranian women. Women were forced into veil and a universal dress code was
imposed on them. The family law which protected women to some degree was
annulled and women judges were removed from their posts. Although the country
was declared a republic, women were not allowed to run for president. The
archaic law of stoning people to death was re-introduced and many women were
stoned to death for adultery. Honor killing was facilitated under the same
archaic laws. The 8 year Iran-Iraq war provided an ample opportunity for the
state to use women and their labor in various areas when needed but on the
other hand seal their lips to any objection when deprived of their rights and
driven out of the workforce and into the kitchen.
Strangely enough none of the informed or unconscious efforts and
policies of the Islamic state to corner women and keep them as second class
citizens has worked as expected. Gradually, and over the years a new generation
of women has emerged from the rubbles of the old generation with higher
expectations and aspirations. Thousands of women, daughters of the revolution
who saw the world moving ahead leaving them behind, entered universities and
higher education, pushed their way into society and opened debates and
challenged the very foundations that tried so hard to keep them silent.
The state has done all it can to keep women in their ‘place’ and
the re-introduction of the omitted articles 23 and 25 regarding unconditional
polygamy and clouding the issue of the Mehrieh indicates the
spitefulness and vindication of a group of men against the women of Iran. These
two issues; the right of men to re-marry without the first wife’s knowledge and
consent and the creation of ambiguities in the case ofMehrieh give
men a free hand to abuse the system and deprive women from any right within the
institution of family.
We wish to once again reiterate that women have played a great
role in the current political situation created after the June presidential
elections. They are one of the distinctive agents of the Movement for Democracy
as well as independent agents with their own identity and their own demands.
Women universally follow the path of non-violent struggle against the
wide-spread inequalities embedded in the patriarchal social, political and
legal systems of
It is with these considerations that we call on those who in the
name of the people have occupied seats in the parliament and who are expected
to safe-guard the rights of all citizens to prevent the ratification of the
bill which will be another stain in the record of the state against the women
of
We, a group of women’s rights activists, human rights advocates
and civil society activists declare our strong objection to the ratification of
the “Family Destruction” draft bill; particularly articles 23 and 25 and demand
the recognition of women’s human rights through gender equal laws in the
parliament which charged with the primary responsibility of protecting men and
women on the same equal grounds.
We also call on men and women who seek justice to show their
objection and opposition towards the ratification of the bill by signing this
statement and prevent yet another blow to the institution of family and women
within that institution.
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