International Women’s Day Reminds World Of Discrimination Women Face In Iran

(New York, N.Y.) — Today, on International Women’s Day, the international community celebrates the cultural, political, and socioeconomic strides women have made around the world. The occasion is also a reminder, however, that for women born into or living in oppressive societies there are still enormous barriers to overcome. United Against Nuclear Iran (UANI)’s resource Iran’s War on Women highlights the discrimination and second-class citizen status that Iranian women continue to bravely fight against.

Last month, Sajjad Heydari felt safe and comfortable parading through the streets of Ahvaz, a southwest city in Iran, with the decapitated head of his 17-year-old wife Mona Heydari. She was murdered by him in an “honor killing,” an abhorrent practice in which women are killed for allegedly dishonoring their family. The death was the latest example of the brutality and discrimination that women face every day in a nation dominated by the hardline Iranian regime. 

The Iranian regime enables violence against women and sexual exploitation of girls; harasses, jails, fines, and flogs women for crimes like appearing in public without covering their hair and bodies; forcibly segregates women from men; disproportionately punishes women in the judicial system; cracks down on activists for women’s rights; denies women political and economic opportunities; and favors men over women in family and inheritance law. 

Domestic violence is not a crime under Iranian law and criminal penalties for murder as a result of domestic violence or “honor killings” like Mona’s are lighter than the penalties for other acts of murder. For example, men convicted of murdering their daughters are imprisoned for only three to 10 years, instead of receiving the standard sentence of capital punishment. Domestic violence is generally viewed as a private family matter. 

This makes Iran’s recent election to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women all the more worrisome. The commission’s mission is “the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.” But Tehran’s spot on the commission undermines that very goal with its deplorable record. 

To read UANI’s resource Iran’s War on Women, please click here. 

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