{"id":93433,"date":"2021-03-10T06:05:26","date_gmt":"2021-03-10T11:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/?p=93433"},"modified":"2021-03-10T06:05:26","modified_gmt":"2021-03-10T11:05:26","slug":"irans-women-enduring-violence-high-unemployment-say-activists-on-womens-day","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/PERSIAN-HERITAGE.COM\/en\/2021\/03\/10\/irans-women-enduring-violence-high-unemployment-say-activists-on-womens-day\/","title":{"rendered":"Iran’s Women Enduring Violence, High Unemployment, Say Activists on Women’s Day"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"VOA \u2014 WASHINGTON – Iranian rights activists based in Iran and in exile have marked International Women\u2019s Day by drawing attention to some of the main hardships facing women in the Islamic republic, including violence directed at them by men and deepening unemployment in a coronavirus-hit economy.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cAs a woman who grew up in the Islamic republic, I\u2019m very much accustomed to the regime\u2019s assaults, humiliations and insults,\u201d\u00a0said Iran-based dissident Narges Mohammadi\u00a0<\/a>in a video message to VOA Persian for a special Monday program<\/a>\u00a0about International Women\u2019s Day.\u00a0\u201cBut I object to the way\u00a0the regime has treated me recently. Why did male police\u00a0assault\u00a0and rough me up?\u00a0I\u2019ve\u00a0repeatedly asked\u00a0officials to send me a written\u00a0response, but they have not done so,\u201d\u00a0she said.\u00a0\u202f\u00a0<\/p>\n

Mohammadi, a 48-year-old journalist and human rights advocate, had been released in October<\/a>\u00a0from five years of imprisonment in Iran after years of campaigning by\u00a0international rights activists demanding an end to what they described as her unjust and cruel detention.\u00a0In an August message to VOA,\u00a0her France-based husband, Taghi\u00a0Rahmani, said Mohammadi needed specialized medical care outside prison for a lung disease and weakened immune system, as well as for beatings that she apparently sustained\u00a0during a\u00a0prison\u00a0transfer\u00a0in December\u00a02019.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

London-based rights group Amnesty International\u202fhas\u00a0said\u202fIranian authorities\u00a0assaulted\u00a0Mohammadi\u00a0as they transferred her\u00a0to\u00a0a prison in the northwestern city of\u00a0Zanjan\u00a0from Tehran\u2019s Evin prison, where she had been incarcerated since her May 2015\u00a0arrest.\u00a0Video recordings posted on social media have shown other female Iranian rights activists suffering public assaults by ultraconservative men in the Islamist-ruled nation in recent years.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Domestic violence against women also is a serious problem in Iran, according to Iranian cultural\u00a0studies\u00a0researcher\u00a0Leily Nikounzar, a PhD candidate at Belgian university KU Leuven. Speaking to the VOA Persian program<\/a>, she cited Iran\u2019s welfare organization as saying phone calls to its\u00a0psychological counseling center doubled\u00a0this past year compared to previous years, with many of those calls being domestic\u00a0violence-related.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cConsider that when members of a family stay at home and in a confined space for days and months\u00a0[due to coronavirus lockdowns]\u00a0and\u00a0face other pressures such\u00a0as unemployment, stress,\u00a0illness and\u00a0death, domestic violence will increase,\u201d\u00a0Nikounzar\u00a0said.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iranian women\u2019s rights activist and journalist\u00a0Mahboubeh\u00a0Abbasgholizadeh, who lives in Los Angeles, told the VOA show<\/a> that Iran lacks a developed\u00a0\u201cMe Too\u201d\u00a0social movement to fight against such violence and sexual harassment against women. Since its 2006 founding by American survivor\u00a0Tarana\u00a0Burke, activists around the world have adopted the\u00a0\u201cMe Too<\/a>\u201d\u00a0movement slogan to highlight sexual violence cases and help survivors in their own countries.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cIran\u2019s\u00a0\u2018Me Too\u2019\u00a0movement\u00a0lacks maturity\u00a0compared\u00a0to the U.S. version,\u201d\u00a0Abbasgholizadeh\u00a0said.\u00a0\u201cIt is a very angry Iranian movement that is unable to offer\u00a0empowerment,\u00a0clinical advice\u00a0and other tools to help\u00a0assaulted or raped\u00a0women\u00a0to overcome\u00a0their\u00a0trauma.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Masoumeh\u00a0Ebtkekar\u00a0downplayed domestic violence and other forms of violence against women in her country as\u00a0\u201cnot high\u201d\u00a0in remarks to a regional forum last month<\/a>. She also asserted that Iran was in a\u00a0\u201cbetter position\u201d\u00a0than other countries dealing with such problems.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

But in a statement issued Monday, the U.N. Human Rights\u00a0Office<\/a> said a report to be presented to the Human Rights Council the next day highlights\u00a0\u201cserious concerns\u201d\u00a0about domestic violence in Iran. While noting some positive steps such as an Iranian\u00a0law against acid attacks,\u00a0it said the report by\u00a0U.N.\u00a0Special\u00a0Rapporteur\u00a0Javaid Rehman will\u00a0press\u00a0Tehran\u00a0to do more, such as making improvements to an anti-violence bill awaiting parliamentary approval.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Iran is one of only a few countries that have not signed a 1979 U.N.\u00a0Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

Another hardship facing Iranian women is high unemployment exacerbated by the pandemic that began affecting Iran early last year. In another interview for Monday\u2019s VOA program, Berlin-based Iranian political activist and former industrial economics student Mahdieh Golroo said about 70% of those laid off from Iran\u2019s workforce since the pandemic began have been women.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u201cImportantly, that 70% estimate is for the proportion of women who lost official jobs rather unofficial ones,\u201d\u00a0Golroo said.\u00a0\u201cIranian\u00a0housewives\u00a0who work in villages, women who\u00a0work as\u00a0street vendors\u00a0and those who\u00a0produce goods\u00a0at\u00a0home\u00a0—\u00a0many of them also lost their jobs due to the coronavirus and they are not included\u00a0in this statistic.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n

The Islamic republic\u2019s poor record on women\u2019s rights prompted a defiant message from a mother and her daughter whom it has jailed since April 2019 for campaigning against its forced public veiling of women. In the poetic audio recording sent to VOA Persian from inside\u00a0Qarchak\u00a0women\u2019s prison in southern Tehran, Monireh\u00a0Arabshahi\u00a0and her daughter Yasaman Aryani denounced what they called the\u00a0\u201cpatriarchy and misogyny\u201d\u00a0of Iran\u2019s Islamist rulers and vowed to stand firm against their\u00a0\u201ccruelty and belittlement.\u201d<\/p>\n