Impakter
  • News
    • Culture
      • Art
      • Cinema
      • Entertainment
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Photography
    • Style
      • Architecture
      • Design
      • Fashion
      • Foodscape
      • Lifestyle
    • Society
      • Business
      • Foreign Affairs & Politics
      • Health
      • Tech
      • Science
      • Start-up
    • Impact
      • Environment
      • Eco Life
      • Circular Economy
      • COP26
      • CityLife
        • Copenhagen
        • San Francisco
        • Seattle
        • Sydney
      • Sustainability Series
        • SDGs Series
        • Shape Your Future
        • 2030: Dream or Reality
      • Philanthropy
        • United Nations
        • NGO & Charities
        • Essays
  • Sustainability Index
  • Partners
  • About
    • Team
    • Contributors
    • Global Leaders
    • Write for Impakter
      • Republishing Content
      • Permissions and Copyright
      • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Culture
      • Art
      • Cinema
      • Entertainment
      • Literature
      • Music
      • Photography
    • Style
      • Architecture
      • Design
      • Fashion
      • Foodscape
      • Lifestyle
    • Society
      • Business
      • Foreign Affairs & Politics
      • Health
      • Tech
      • Science
      • Start-up
    • Impact
      • Environment
      • Eco Life
      • Circular Economy
      • COP26
      • CityLife
        • Copenhagen
        • San Francisco
        • Seattle
        • Sydney
      • Sustainability Series
        • SDGs Series
        • Shape Your Future
        • 2030: Dream or Reality
      • Philanthropy
        • United Nations
        • NGO & Charities
        • Essays
  • Sustainability Index
  • Partners
  • About
    • Team
    • Contributors
    • Global Leaders
    • Write for Impakter
      • Republishing Content
      • Permissions and Copyright
      • Privacy Policy
    • Contact
No Result
View All Result
Impakter
No Result
View All Result
Home Equal Rights

Iran Feels the Wrath of a Movement Held Down for Too Long

The death of Mahsa Amini unleashed outrage at the government's treatment of women that had long been simmering beneath the surface

byLadan Rahbari - Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam & Senior Researcher at the International Migration Institute (IMI)
November 22, 2022
in Equal Rights, Society
Women protests Iran
Share on FacebookShare on Twitter

When Mahsa Zhina Amini — a young Kurdish-Iranian woman — was arrested by the police of Iran for not wearing a hijab her brother was told she’d be detained for a few hours and released. Three days later she was dead.

Iran’s notorious ‘morality police’ — whose job it is to make sure women wear veils in public — have been accused of beating Amini, 22, so badly she went into a coma within hours of her arrest and had to be taken to hospital, where she died.

Amini’s death sparked the largest protests seen in Iran since the foundation of the Islamic Republic of Iran. Hundreds were killed as thousands marched through the streets telling Iran’s supreme leader and the regime itself to ‘get lost’.

The Iranian government has long been accused of perpetuating gender-based violence. The compulsory veiling mandate, suppression of gender and sexual minority groups, patriarchal family laws, legalisation of child marriage and the lack of laws against domestic violence are only a few examples of the authorities’ general attitude toward women. These countries’ laws have also contributed to vigilante and police violence against women. 

As protests about Amini’s death and the treatment of women raged through Iran, a petition to expel Iran from the United Nations Women’s Commission was posted on Change.org, receiving more than 143,000 signatures. It continues to grow. Advocacy bodies have also called on the UN Economic and Social Council to expel Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

Iran is one of six UN member states that have not signed the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination against Women. Following arduous years of debate and campaigning by Iranian women’s rights activists, the Iranian parliament passed a bill to join the Convention in May 2003, but conservatives in the government blocked it.

The regime’s strict interpretation of Islamic law has been blamed for the lack of action on violence against women. Iran’s laws have enshrined discrimination against women in employment, marriage and citizenship. Still, the fight to recognise violence against women has continued.

In 2021, a new bill on the elimination of violence against women was proposed but has yet to be passed. The bill would make it legally possible to prosecute men who commit violence against women and children, specifically in domestic situations. But conservatives are actively blocking the bill because they interpret it as Western and incompatible with the country’s patriarchal views on gender and family.


Related Articles: Types of Violence Against Women and Girls | Women on the Front Lines of Violence Against Women During COVID-19 | Connections That Matter: Climate Change and Gender Equality | 5 Lessons for Securing Women’s Collective Land Rights | Gender Equality: The Foundation for Achieving the Global Goals

While violence against women has no specific legal status, it doesn’t mean that it goes unpunished. It does, however, make it difficult to charge a perpetrator in an Iranian court. This lack of recognition means reporting violence against women, including domestic violence, is rare and official support for victimised women is scarce. The situation is made more difficult by the lack of official statistics. The numbers that are reported by government officials are widely believed to be inaccurate.

The lack of legal and formal recognition also does not mean violence against women is not discussed. It has, in fact, attracted a lot of scholarship, activism and public attention. While organised activism against violence against women in Iran has remained risky, it does exist.

Organised and publicly visible activism to end violence against women has been part of the Iranian women’s movement’s agenda but has largely remained unorganised. By remaining scattered and disorganised, the women’s movement is less vulnerable to attack and suppression. The atmosphere of risk and fear has given rise to different forms of implicit and grassroots activism. Social media and #MeToo activism have specifically been grassroots initiatives and reliant mostly on ordinary Iranians.

On the other hand, social media campaigns and cultural productions are forms of resistance and disobedience that can create a smaller scale societal impact, called implicit activism. Implicit activism is a less public form of activism and is common in countries where political or human rights activism is risky and the identities of activists must remain hidden.

There are signs of activism having a nationwide impact. While state-run Iranian TV mostly offers homogeneous and traditional portrayals of women on screen, and normalises discrimination, Iranian cinema has addressed the issue in more depth. Violence against women and the problems of gender-based discrimination have been recurring themes in Iranian post-revolutionary cinema.

In 2022, 800 women working in the film industry, including well-known actors and movie directors, signed an open letter known as the “800-signature campaign,” in which they condemned what they considered systematic and structural sexual violence and harassment against women working in the film industry, from within the industry.

Substantial attention has also been given to violence against women in academic scholarship. The number of master’s and doctorate-level dissertations written on women’s issues, including violence against women, has been so overwhelming that universities have discouraged students from researching the topic, especially as the findings and policy implications are rarely taken up by authorities. Studies conducted by prominent Iranian researchers such as sociologist Shahla Ezazi and legal scholar Mehangiz Kar have been influential to a new generation of scholars who continue to form a vast body of work on the topic.

As Shahla Ezazi says, much attention has been given to individual factors and interpersonal relations as the underlying cause of violence against women. This approach depoliticises the problem and is essentially a survival strategy. Researchers often use individual and family-oriented analysis that often finds social factors like addiction, unemployment, lack of and education to be correlated with committing violence against women, allowing them to discuss the issue without upsetting the state.

While tackling violence against women in Iran requires extensive social and cultural reform, there seems to be a growing consensus among activists and ordinary Iranians that the most prominent obstacle to progress is the nation’s traditionalist view on gender.

Gender politics, such as the compulsory veiling law, are a fundamental part of the national identity. Reform has been impossible, leading many Iranians to believe that fundamental changes will not be possible unless the regime collapses — a central demand in the ongoing uprising.

— —

Originally published under Creative Commons by 360info™.


Editor’s Note: The opinions expressed here by the authors are their own, not those of Impakter.com — In the Featured Photo: Mahsa Amini’s death sparked one of the largest protests seen in Iran. Featured Photo Credit: Taymaz Valley/Flickr.

Tags: 360infoIranIran UnrestMahsa Aminiprotestviolence against womenwomen
Previous Post

World Cup Kick-Off in Qatar: After 15,021 Migrant Lives Lost, How Can We Just “Focus on the Football”?

Next Post

Despite Historic Consensus on Reparations, COP27 Misses the Root Cause of Loss and Damage

Ladan Rahbari - Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam & Senior Researcher at the International Migration Institute (IMI)

Ladan Rahbari - Assistant Professor at the University of Amsterdam & Senior Researcher at the International Migration Institute (IMI)

Ladan Rahbari is an assistant professor at the Department of Sociology at the University of Amsterdam and a senior researcher at the International Migration Institute (IMI). She is a member of Amsterdam Young Academy and a board member of the Amsterdam Research Centre for Gender and Sexuality (ARC-GS).

Related Posts

Pros & Cons of Medicare Advantage Plans
Health

Pros & Cons of Medicare Advantage Plans

December 4, 2023
To Truly Invest in Children, Africa’s Leaders Must Invest in What Keeps Them Safe
Society

To Truly Invest in Children, Africa’s Leaders Must Invest in What Keeps Them Safe

December 4, 2023
developed countries climate crisis
Climate Change

Developed Countries Not Doing Their Fair Share in Tackling Climate Crisis, New Report Shows

December 4, 2023
Next Post
GSC at COP27

Despite Historic Consensus on Reparations, COP27 Misses the Root Cause of Loss and Damage

Recent News

Clean tech fund

COP28: Danish Investment Firm Launches $3 Billion Clean Energy Fund

December 4, 2023
Pros & Cons of Medicare Advantage Plans

Pros & Cons of Medicare Advantage Plans

December 4, 2023
To Truly Invest in Children, Africa’s Leaders Must Invest in What Keeps Them Safe

To Truly Invest in Children, Africa’s Leaders Must Invest in What Keeps Them Safe

December 4, 2023

Impakter informs you through the eco news site and empowers your sustainable lifestyle with its eco products marketplace.

Visit here IMPAKTER ECO for your eco products needs.

Registered Office Address

32 Lots Road, London
SW10 0QJ, United Kingdom


IMPAKTER Limited

Company number: 10806931

Impakter is a publication that is identified by the following International Standard Serial Number (ISSN) is the following 2515-9569 (Printed) and 2515-9577 (online – Website).


Office Hours - Monday to Friday

9.30am - 5.00pm CEST


Email

stories [at] impakter.com

Playwire

Advertise on this site.

About Us

  • Team
  • Contributors
  • Privacy Policy
  • Contact
  • Partners

By Audience

  • Lifestyle
  • Green Finance
  • Culture
  • Society
  • Style
  • Impact

Impakter Platforms

  • Media
  • Index

© 2023 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.

No Result
View All Result
  • News
    • Culture
    • Style
    • Society
    • Impact
  • Sustainability Index
  • About
    • Team
    • Partners
    • Contact
    • Privacy Policy

© 2023 IMPAKTER. All rights reserved.