Feminist Peace Network

Excerpted from the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI) Newsletter:

AKI Italian News Agency - May 15, 2007 Iranian health minister Kamran Bagheri Lamkarani has presented a reform under which men and women would be divided in public hospitals under a new moralization campaign which kicked off last month. Under the new provisions, women would be treated only by female doctors and nurses and male patients would only be in contact with medics of the same gender. This follows a rigid interpretation of Sharia law which forbids physical contact between men and women. A major problem with this change is the higher number of male medics compared to women, although 67 percent of medical students in Iran are today women. However, the ministry has said the change could be gradual.Agence France Presse - May 15, 2007 Iranian police have prevented 50 women from boarding flights in their ongoing crackdown on dress styles deemed to be out of line with Islamic dress rules, officials said Sunday. “Fifty badly-veiled women were prevented from boarding domestic and international flights for failing to respect Islamic dress rules,” said the head of airport police Mamoud Bot Shekane, according to the Fars news agency. He said that the airport police have handed out “17,135 warnings to women who are not fully respecting the Islamic veil and 850 of them have had to make a written pledge to respect the veil more.” Out of these, the cases of 80 women as well as 50 men have been sent to the judicial authorities, he added. Iran’s police have been enforcing a nationwide crackdown on slack dressing for the past three weeks - a regular pre-summer event that has been pursued with increased vehemence this year. Women in Iran are obliged to cover all body contours and their heads, but in recent years many have pushed the boundaries by showing off naked ankles and fashionably-styled hair beneath their headscarves.

Agence France Presse - May 15, 2007 Iran will soon start manufacturing “Islamic bicycles” for women to allow them to remain largely hidden from view as they ride. The government newspaper “Iran” quotes an architect of the project, Elaheh Sofali, as saying the bike has a cabin that conceals half of the cyclist’s body. Sofali said the new bike will encourage women’s sports in the Islamic republic. Women must cover their heads and conceal their body shapes in public under Iran’s strict dress codes.

The Washington Post - May 19, 2007 The 16 female U.S. senators appealed to U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki Moon yesterday to take “urgent action” with Iran to win the release of imprisoned American scholar Haleh Esfandiari and journalist Parnaz Azima, who has been refused permission to leave the country. “The detention of these women is inexplicable and unjustifiable,” the senators said in a letter to Ban. “Detaining Dr. Esfandiari and Ms. Azima on questionable grounds contradicts the very essence of their work: to promote peace, reconciliation and freedom for all. We urge you to intervene…in order to end their unjust detention.”

Asharq Al-Awsat - May 19, 2007 [In] Karbala, the majority of the city’s original residents complain of [Iranian] presence. Among the negative aspects that Hussein al Khafagi, a retired teacher, lists is, “Drugs. This Iranian presence has brought with it drugs that we did not know of before. Here you can see hashish being sold almost publicly. Iraqi security forces have managed to arrest entire Iranian families dealing hashish. The situation has become one where those seeking hashish come from Baghdad and other Iraqi cities to buy this poison in Karbala,” he said. Mutaa’ marriages [temporary marriage based on consummation] have become widespread among the Iranian women,” al Khafagi added. “As Shia in Iraq, we do not approve of this type of marriage. It was once only known to a small minority but now it has become prevalent in Karbala and mutaa’ marriages have become widespread among Iranian women and Iraqi men. But it’s become even worse; we now see Iraqi women offering themselves for mutaa’ marriage so as to alleviate their difficult economic situations. I am not talking about that particular group and what is allowed and forbidden by our jurisprudence - I am not a cleric. However, I have spent years rearing and educating generations of our children and I do not want to see them deviate today by chasing after hashish and marriages to Iranians or Iraqis that last an hour or two…” he said.

Reuters - May 20, 2007 Iran rejected on Sunday criticism by a U.S.-based rights group over a crackdown on women flouting the strict Islamic dress code, saying the country’s efforts were aimed at “fighting morally corrupt people.” Asked about the criticism of the national crackdown launched last month, Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini told reporters he was surprised, adding:”Officials are trying to provide security for the whole Iranian nation and fighting rebels, drug smugglers and morally corrupt people who are violating both Iranian citizens and their belongings.” Under sharia, Islamic law, imposed after Iran’s 1979 revolution, women are obliged to cover their hair and wear long, loose-fitting clothes to disguise their figures.Violators can be given lashes, fines and imprisonment. Since Mahmoud Ahmadinejad won the presidency in 2005, promising a return to the values of the revolution, hardliners have pressed for tighter controls on “immoral behaviour”.

NCRI Website - May 21, 2007 The advisor to the Minister and head of Women’s Affairs in Education Ministry, Zahra Soweizi called the Iranian women’s positions ‘very humiliating,’ in a meeting in northern city of Sari on Sunday, May 20. She said: “Those who leave the cycle of Islamic dress and veiling are in the territory of animals.” The state-run IRNA news agency quoted Soweizi and called this policy as ‘obeying the rule of God.’

Reuters - May 21, 2007 Iran’s first female-only Internet cafe has opened near the capital Tehran aimed at creating an “appropriate atmosphere” for young women, a semi-official Iranian news agency said on Monday. Under strict Islamic law introduced after Iran’s 1979 revolution, men and women who are not related should not mix in public, even though this ban is often broken in practice, for example in several Internet cafes in Tehran. “The atmosphere of most Internet cafes in the city is not appropriate for girls, therefore this Internet cafe has been started up in a complete female atmosphere,” Mehr News Agency said. Iranian officials say strict rules on sex segregation as well as the Islamic dress code for women are aimed at protecting them and are not restricting their rights. Parts of Iranian beaches are reserved for women and there are also parks for women only. Officials have previously announced the establishment of a female-only island in a northwestern lake as well as a taxi company serving women only.

Catholic News.com - May 31, 2007 Christian women in Iraq are being warned that they must wear the Islamic head scarf or face punishment, the Middle Eastern news agency AINA reports. AINA says that the influential Iraqi Shi’ite leader Moqtada al Sadr has issued a statement calling upon all women, Muslim or Christian, to wear the traditional Islamic veil. Those women who refuse to obey this order should be confined to their homes, the radical Muslim cleric said. Al Sadr’s order could be enforced by the Mahdi militia group that he commands.

BBC News - June 2, 2007 Iran’s Interior Minister, Mostafa Pour-Mohammadi, has started promoting temporary marriage as a solution to the country’s social problems. Shia Islam allows a man and woman to marry for a fixed period of time, ranging from an hour to a century. A man can also have any number of temporary marriages - or sigheh, as they are known. However, Iranian society still looks down on temporary marriage as a cover for prostitution. Iran’s interior minister, himself a cleric, said marriage was a human need and temporary marriage should not be used just for sex but to solve social problems. He said there needed to be a cultural change to allow this. He also said couples should marry at an earlier age. Iran first started promoting temporary marriage as an alternative to living in sin 15 years ago. The then President, Hashemi Rafsanjani, said it was a way for men and women to satisfy their sexual needs. He even said there was no need for a cleric: the couple could read out an oath in private in order to marry. These days, some girls who want to travel with their boyfriends and be allowed to stay in the same hotel room or avoid arrest by the moral police might have a temporary marriage. Poor women who need financial support also do it. There are already tens of thousands of children from temporary marriages whose fathers will not acknowledge them and are therefore considered illegitimate. One Friday prayer leader has suggested that Iran needs a centre to help young people find spouses. Meanwhile, a hardline newspaper has complained that a travel agent in Tehran has been advertising holidays by the Caspian Sea for couples who want to have temporary marriages, offering accommodation and a cleric to register the marriage.

Agence France Presse - June 12, 2007 A hardline Iranian daily yesterday launched an attack on former reformist president Mohammad Khatami who it said had publicly shaken hands with women while on a visit to Italy last month. “Recently a video has been circulating on the Internet showing a former top official visiting Italy, shaking the hands with several women and young girls,” said the Siasate Rouz daily, one of Iran’s most ultra-conservative papers. “We do not want to publish the address of the Internet site where this film can be seen, in order to avoid propagating corruption in society,” it added. The paper carefully avoided naming Khatami although he is the only “former top official” to have visited Italy in recent months. Khatami’s trip at the start of May saw him meet Italian leaders as well as Pope Benedict XVI. According to Shariah law, it is forbidden for a man to have any physical contact with a woman to whom he is not related. Pictures circulating on the Internet show Khatami shaking hands with several female tourists. Whether at home or on trips abroad, Iran’s officials studiously avoid handshakes with female foreign dignitaries and, at most, place their right hands on their hearts to express gratitude.

Iran Focus - June 12, 2007 The U.S. State Department accused Iran on Tuesday of being a major hub of human trafficking…”Iran is a source, transit, and destination country for women trafficked for the purposes of commercial sexual exploitation and involuntary servitude”, the report said. “Iranian women are trafficked internally for the purpose of forced prostitution and forced marriages to settle debts. Children are trafficked internally and from Afghanistan for the purpose of forced marriages, commercial sexual exploitation, and involuntary servitude as beggars or laborers. “According to nongovernmental sources, Iranian women and girls are also trafficked to Pakistan, Turkey, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, France, Germany, and the United Kingdom for commercial sexual exploitation. Media sources reported that 54 Iranian females between the ages of 16 and 25 are sold into commercial sexual exploitation in Pakistan every day.The Government of Iran does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking and is not making significant efforts to do so. Credible reports indicate that Iranian authorities commonly punish victims of trafficking with beatings, imprisonment, and execution. Sources report that the Iranian government fails to meet the minimum standards for protection of victims of trafficking by prosecuting and, in some cases, executing victims for morality-based offenses as a direct result of being trafficked. The Government of Iran did not improve its protection of trafficking victims this year. The government reportedly punishes victims for unlawful acts committed as a direct result of being trafficked; for instance, victims reportedly are arrested and punished for violations of morality standards such as adultery, defined as sexual relations outside of marriage. Although it is unclear how many victims are subjected to punishment for acts committed as a result of their trafficking experience, there were reports that child victims of sex trafficking have been executed for their purported crime of prostitution or adultery. The government runs 28 “health houses” set up by the state-operated Welfare Association to provide assistance to unmarried girls who have run away from their homes and who are at risk of being trafficked. However, girls reportedly are abused in these shelters, even by shelter staff and other government officials. The Government of Iran should take immediate and significant steps to prevent the punishment of trafficking victims and should improve the protection services available to victims”, the report said.

Filed under: Uncategorized, Atrocities