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http://www.hrw.org/news/2015/03/25/challenging-irans-womens-rights-narrative
Iran – Challenging Iran’s Women’s Rights Narrative
Faraz Sanei & Rothna Begum* - Published in: CNN
March 25, 2014 - Earlier this month,
Shahindokht Molaverdi, Iran's Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, led
an official delegation to the United Nations in New York to attend the 59th
session of the Commission on the Status of Women.
In her March 11 speech to the
commission, Molaverdi said that "the Islamic Republic of Iran has always
had the empowerment of women and improving their status...on its agenda."
Molaverdi described the significant
progress Iranian women have made in education and science, citing unilateral
economic sanctions and violence against women as factors that have impeded the
full realization of women's rights. There was little in her speech to suggest
that domestic factors -- including Iran's laws and policies -- play a
significant role in depriving Iranian women of real gender equality and
empowerment.
Unfortunately, Molaverdi's comments stood
in sharp contrast to reality. On the day she delivered her speech, Amnesty
International released a report raising concerns
about the possible passage of two bills before Iran's parliament that would
further restrict women's rights. One would prohibit voluntary sterilization as
part of the country's efforts to boost population growth and strengthen the place
of what are deemed "traditional" families in society. The other would
"further entrench gender-based discrimination, particularly against women
who choose not to or are unable to marry or have children," Amnesty said.
A day later, the U.N. special rapporteur on
the situation of human rights in Iran, Ahmed Shaheed, released his fourth report to the
U.N. Human Rights Council describing the dire state of human rights in the
country. His report cited the concerns about gender discrimination that Human
Rights Watch and others had raised during Iran's 2014 Universal Periodic Review,
a review of every U.N. state's human rights record every four years by the
Human Rights Council.
The sobering reality, all too familiar to
Molaverdi, is that Iranian women face discrimination in many aspects of their
lives, ranging from issues related to marriage, divorce, inheritance and child
custody, to restrictions on dress and even access to sports
stadiums as spectators. The proposed passage of more restrictive legislation in
the name of protecting the family is just the latest step in the rollback on women's
rights in recent years.
To many, the discrepancy between what
Molaverdi said in her speech, and what women face in Iran, smacked of
diplomatic subterfuge. Activists and journalists rightly responded by
highlighting the many violations of women's rights in Iran, and called out
Molaverdi for failing to present an accurate and complete picture of the
challenges that Iranian women face. Yet there was little acknowledgment by
critics of the behind-the-scenes struggle that Molaverdi, who is often an outspoken critic of
regressive measures restricting women's rights at home, and many others are waging every day as they
try to carve out much-needed space for Iran's beleaguered rights activists.
Just two days before the U.N. session,
Iran's conservative Kayhan daily, thought to be close to the Office of Supreme
Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, published an article
that showed just what Iran's women's rights activists are up against. The
author questioned the wisdom of allowing an official delegation to attend
events such as the U.N. commission, describing its notion of "gender
equality" as "unacceptable to the Islamic Republic." The article
accused Molaverdi of "negligence" for participating in events that
could damage Iran's reputation and interests, and accused the 150 or so people
who attended the session as representatives of Iranian groups of doing so without
full and proper vetting by Iran's security and intelligence agencies.
What's striking about Kayhan's attack is
that Iran's powerful security and intelligence apparatus has for years acted to
repress independent
groups, including women's rights activists. Groups like the One Million Signatures Campaign,
a grassroots effort designed to operate within the law to collect signatures
supporting the repeal of laws that discriminate against women, were targeted as
security officials detained their members on spurious "national
security" grounds. But those hostile to women's rights in Iran remain
unrelenting. Anyone who fails, willingly or unknowingly, to heed their threats
may face reprisals, as several activists
who attempted to attend similar U.N. events in previous years found out.
Yet Kayhan's attack also reflects the
resilience and adaptability of women's groups in Iran as they continue to
challenge the state's monopoly on the women's rights narrative. While Iranian
women lost some important legal rights after the 1979 revolution, their social
and economic stature increased on average as they gained wider access to
education, health care, and birth control. The image of the compromised and
submissive woman engendered by Iran's discriminatory legal system bears little
resemblance to the private and public lives of many Iranian women today.
So while we rightfully condemn the
disconnect between what Molaverdi said at the United Nations, and what Iranian
women face, let us not lose sight of another reality: the paradox that exists
in Iran between the state's regressive laws and policies against women, and the
tireless and undaunted drive for change and equality by those who will not be
denied. That effort, at the very least, deserves our respect.
*Faraz Sanei is the Iran Researcher and Rothna Begum is
the Middle East Women's Rights Researcher at Human Rights Watch.