The black day of Women’s Rights

After the tragic event of February 1979, Iran fell into the hands of the Left and Islamic Alliance, and this led to the loss of much of the progress that had been made about half a century earlier and during the Pahlavi era. The revolt was sparked when a revolution called the White Revolution or the King and Nation Revolution, recognizing rights such as the right to vote, the right to run for parliament and even the ministry, the right to divorce for women, and the implicit prohibition of polygamy for men. The religious leadership, led by the mullahs, considered these laws contrary to the “religion of Islam” and the “eternal, sacred and unchangeable laws of Allah”. The leftists in Iran at the time, who received orders from the Soviet Union, also seized the opportunity to strike at the body of the Iranian political system. The fight against the current anti-women laws in the Islamic Republic in Iran arose and they paid heavy penalties by their lives.

Forty-two years later, on April 22, 2021, news broke that angered all civil and human rights and women’s rights activists: The Islamic Republic, with 43 out of 54 votes, became a member of the UN Commission on the Status of Women. This is not a joke, it is like a cow who loves eating steak presides over a vegetarian group, or a drug addict being appointed to head the Anti-Narcotics Organization.

The question that arises here in a curious mind is why the Islamic Republic should not be able to play a role at the international level? The answer is: in a theocratic regime, everything is measured by the meter and standard of the sharia. How can a regime that ignores the most obvious rights of half of its citizens claim the promotion of women in society? To clarify the issue, it is necessary to look at the laws of the Islamic Republic:

– In the preamble of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, it is stated that women have “a serious and honorable maternal duty in the upbringing of pioneering human beings” and in simple words, the role of women in society is limited to give birth to children and raising them.

– The various principles of the constitution speak of women’s rights, all of which are bound by “observance of the Sharia,” which translates into the fact that women can never have equal rights with men.

– From the perspective of civil and family rights, women always need to obtain permission from their father or paternal grandfather at the time of celibacy and the husband at the time of marriage. This permit includes, for instance, the right to study, the right to work, the right to marry, the right to have a passport, and the right to leave Iran. In the matter of inheritance, women always inherit half of the men of the same class, and while the wife owns one-eighth of the total matrix if the deceased man has children, and otherwise one-fourth, in the same circumstances the husband inherits one fourth if the deceased woman has children and otherwise half of it.

– In criminal law, women do not have equal rights, and for example, in the case of blood money[1], men and women are equal only as long as the amount is equal to one-third of the full amount, and more than one third, women will receive half of the whole amount. At the time of writing, the full ransom is about 21 thousand US dollars, now suppose there are two cases being heard in court, one killing a woman and the other destroying a man’s left testicle. The ransom for the murdered woman will be about 10 thousand US dollars, while the ransom for the man’s left testicle will be about 14 thousand US dollars! Or in the discussion of retribution – regardless of the fact that the author strongly opposes execution and retribution – if a man murders a woman, the man cannot be retaliated against or executed, unless the guardians pay half of the blood money to the killer! In the case of rape, the situation is not better whatsoever, and if a woman goes to court to file a claim of being raped, she will be punished for admitting the occurrence of adultery, while an adulteress can escape punishment by denying it.

Finally, it is necessary to recall the high number of women prisoners who have not committed any crime other than seeking rights and have only protested against the violation of their rights, and have faced accusations such as acting against national security or promoting corruption and prostitution through propaganda against hijab; Or even mothers who have been sent to prison just because of following up on the situation of their imprisoned or killed children, such as Monireh Arabshahi, Nahid Shirbisheh, and Shahnaz Akmali. Considering all the above, the Islamic Republic’s membership in the UN Commission on Top Women has been subject of the objection and has rightly provoked protests from Human Rights Watch. Officials in 43 countries who have voted in favor, have clearly turned a blind eye to the position of women in the Islamic Republic and affirmed this systematic discrimination.

[1] As a compensation and punishment measurement adopted from Sharia

Houshmand Rahimi – 27/04-2021