On November 25, it is the International Day for the Elimination of Violence Against Women, but violence against women and other forms of misogyny is still systemic in many places.
There is no country in the world where we have achieved total gender equality. In many countries, women are treated as second-class citizens, unable to work, vote, marry, dress, or live freely.
Iran is one of the worst places in the world to be a woman.
To the rest of the world, the Iranian Regime pretends that they are committed to women’s rights but this could not be further from the truth. In reality, misogyny runs rampant, women are considered the property of their closest male relative and have no legal rights.
Indeed, Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has even called gender equality a ‘Zionist plot’ which would corrupt women.
Sexist Laws
So, let’s take a look at just some of the ways that Iran denies women equality with men.
• Travel: Women are not allowed to leave the country without the consent of their husband/father.
• Clothing: Women are forced to wear the hijab in public and the so-called ‘morality police’ even roam the streets to arrest women not abiding by the strict dress code. There are even some sickening videos online, which show how women are treated when they are found to be violating the code, such as the 14-year-old girl who was beaten and detained by the Iranian Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) for wearing ripped jeans.
• Inheritance: Women only receive half the inheritance that men do
• Sports: Women are banned from entering sports stadiums while male teams play. In 2016, a woman called Mina tried to watch a volleyball match from the roof of a nearby café but she and her fellow female fans were caught and evicted by the IRGC, according to Human Rights Watch (HRW).
• Politics: Women have never been appointed to the Cabinet and very few have even been allowed to run for local offices.
Fighting Back
Of course, women are not taking this lying down. A large number of them are actively defying the Regime’s sexist laws and have been doing so since the Regime seized power in 1979.
In 2016, Khamenei issued a laughable fatwa that banned women from riding a bike in public.
He said: “Riding a bicycle often attracts the attention of men and exposes the society to corruption, and as contravenes women’s chastity so it must be abandoned”.
In response, Iranian women hopped on their bikes and took to social media to mock the laws, but many were arrested.
Of course, some women go farther than others – to the point where they actually lead the resistance movement designed to oust the misogynist mullahs and their patriarchal system altogether.
Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), is fighting for freedom for all Iranians and uniting citizens for this cause.
Her 10-point plan for a free Iran includes total gender equality and she strives to achieve that in her leadership of the resistance, but it is clear that in order to achieve this, there must be regime change in Iran.
Reza Shafiee, a member of the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), wrote on Al Arabiya: “Violence against women in Iran is institutionalized simply because half of the society is treated as crippled and in need of guidance from men; be it the male head of the family or males in the state itself. Thus, the status of women will never change in Iran as long as the present regime is in power.”
Source » ncr-iran