From the Women’s Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran (WFAFI):
WFAFI News – July 16, 2008 (The) Head of Tehran’s Family Dispute Council announced that “if women had the right to divorce, then all of our men will be single.” In his interview with Tehran Radio, he said “Given that 80% of those who initiate request for divorce are women, if we give women the right to divorce, then all of our men will be unmarried and divorced.” Freydoon Amirabadi said with the demands for divorce “women have unrealistic expectations.” He further explained that “we cannot allow women to have the divorce rights” because it will interfere with the interest of men. He explained “we have to rethink our law such as the cases where the husband is an addict and women have the legal grounds to divorce their husband. I suggest we remove such grounds. We have 4 million men who are drug addicts in Iran, we just need to tell their wives to live with it.”
NCRI Website – July 18, 2008 Soghra Najafpoor (Molaii) accused of killing an eight-year-old boy spent nineteen years behind bars. She was thirteen at the time of alleged crime but the mullahs’ judiciary insists on carrying on the hanging soon, the state-run daily Etemaad reported on July, 15. She was sentenced to death in October 2, for the last time. As a state party to the International Convention on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC), the Iranian regime has undertaken not to execute anyone for an offence committed when they were under the age of 18, however, a famous case in recent past was Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh executed on August 15, 2004. The 16-year-old schoolgirl was executed after being sentenced to death by a mullah named Haji Rezai in the northern town of Neka. On October 29, NCRI’s Women’s Committee Chair Ms. Sarvnaz Chitsaz said, “The mullahs’ regime is a signatory of both ICCPR and CRC. However, according to reports by international human rights organizations, more than 114 juveniles are presently on death row in Iran.” She added, “The growing number of executions, under the clerical rule in Iran, is appalling. In past 11 months, the hangings have doubled the total number of executions reported last year in Iran.” She called on all international human rights organizations, women’s and children’s rights groups to condemn the brutal violation of human rights by the regime and to adopt urgent measures to save Soghra Najafpoor.
NCRI Website – July 22, 2008 Abbas pouriayi, the prosecutor general for the northeastern province of Golestan told the state-run news agency ISNA on Saturday that more restrictions are on the way for women deeded “immodest in what they wear.” Pouriayi told a meeting of the Drug Enforcement Unit for Golestan Province that “we will assign a judge in every park working closely with the State Security Forces (SSF) — [mullahs' suppressive police] — to expedite the legal proceedings for those women not abiding by the dress codes.” “Local judiciary officials as well as SSF agents are instructed to stop vehicles with occupants improperly dressed in all district of the province,” Pouriayi added. The so- called “boosting public security plan” was first introduced in April 2007 to combat popular uprisings. Mass street arrests of hundreds of thousands of women and youth under the pretext of “mal-veiling” and cracking down on “thugs and hooligans” followed. In the same period, more than 300 prisoners were sent to gallows. It seems that the clerical regime is taking a U-turn in so far as kangaroo trials of 1980s are concerned. Such conduct by the mullahs’ regime is a reminder of those days when citizens were stopped in the streets and tried in fewer than ten minutes for crimes they had not committed.NCRI Website – July 27, 2008 Women refuse to wear a chador are banned from sitting in the first three rows of the prestigious Rudaki Hall in Tehran. “Ladies intent to sit in the fist three rows of the theater must wear chador,” said in a statement Rudaki Hall state-run management. However, Asghar Amirnia, the newly appointed management has not issued any directives to employees at the theater to distribute chadors to women at the cloak rooms. It has become customary in some mosques in Iran since the start of the mullahs’ regime to give out chadors to women whishing to take part in the prayer sermons on Fridays. Amirnia in his first press conference after his appointment as the new general manager of Rudaki Hall made it clear that “art for the sake of art is nonsense. Art is valuable when it is at the service of the society. Otherwise spending money on anything else is wasting it.”
Iran News Agency – July 29, 2008 Based on article 987 of the Civil Law: If an Iranian woman marries a foreigner, her nationality will stay with her, unless the law of the husband’s coutnry imposes that nationality on the woman. Like Iran, the Civil Law of Afghanistan prefers the nationality of the man over the woman’s and for this reason if an Iranian woman marries a foreign man; she will gain her husband’s nationality. Even if her children are born in Iran they can not have the Iranian nationality and will not be issued birth certificates. Based on article 1060 of the Civil Law, if an Iranian woman marries a foreign man illegally, she will not receive any support from the government.Village girls wed foreign men such as Afghans for different reasons including poverty.
Kargozaran Newspaper – August 4, 2008 In a letter to the Higher Education Commission of Majlis (the mullahs’ parliament), 2611 pre-university girl students applying for university admissoin expressed their protest to the enforcement of gender quota in the university admission exam. They demanded that the commission observe the rights of female students.
WFAFI News – August 6, 2008 According to the state-run Fars News Agency, the head of the Cultural Center in city of Kerman (southeastern Province of Kerman) had revoked the permit for concert by Lilly Afshar, an American-Iranian guitar player. Ms. Afshar and her group had already been granted permit to play in concert hall named Emaad Talaar on August 9 and 10, 2008. However, upon learning that the event is lead by a woman and that tickets have been sold to public includes men, the permit was revoked.
NCRI Website – August 10, 2008 On Saturday, judges have been assigned by the mullahs’ to “advice” women violating the imposed dress codes in the streets of the central city of Yazd. Such a suppressive move has caused much hatred for the clerical regime among the local residents. However, judges are backed up by the State Security Forces (SSF) – mullahs’ suppressive police — if the subjects do not comply. So far more than 100 people have been arrested since the start of the new plan in Yazd.The move is in line with the so-called “boosting public security” plan. The plan was first introduced in April 2007 to combat popular uprisings. Mass street arrests of hundreds of thousands of women and youth under the pretext of “mal-veiling” and cracking down on “thugs and hooligans” followed. In the same period, more than 300 prisoners were sent to gallows.
WFAFI News – August 10, 2008 State run news agencies report 40 percent of infants born in Sistan Baluchistan province have no birth certificates, due to their fathers’ multiple marriages which have not been registered and licensed by the city hall. Yazdan Eesaapour, the deputy in charge of Social Department said in an interview with Fars in the city of Zahedan (capital of Sistan Baluchistan): “why men are not satisfied with having one woman and without considering their rights, marry other women”? He continues to elaborate that due to multiple and temporary marriages taking place in tribes traditional customs, such as infertility of first wives, many men opt to marry again without obtaining marriage certificate, thus, children born out of those marriages are left without birth certificate, exposing them to much difficulties later on in their lives. Essaapour also states that, “according to statistics obtained by the State’s Health department, 6 out of every 10 women visiting the department seeking help, have not documents of their divorce or financial support by their husbands. In Zahedan alone, children of 500 families have no birth certificates, due to multiple marriages, which have not been registered with the city hall. Also, 3,721 un-registered marriages have been identified.”
NCRI Website – August 13, 2008 A 34-year-old woman identified only by her first name as Shabnam is scheduled to be executed on August 13, reported the state-run daily Etemaad on Tuesday. Shabnam allegedly killed her husband in a domestic dispute. She has already spent three years in prison, the report said. Her death sentence has been upheld by the mullahs’ Supreme Court and the execution order has been sent to prison. Her family has been told by the prison officials that she will be executed today. In past two weeks 39 prisoners have been executed by the mullahs’ regime. In a single incident, at crack of dawn on July 25, twenty-nine prisoners were sent to gallows. The rights groups have condemned the hanging with no avail.
WFAFI News – August 15, 2008 Research has revealed that 65% of Iran’s parliamentarians practice polygamy and have more than two wives. The new parliament is now working on a new resolution that encourages and recognizes more rights for those with more than one wife.
Buit it wasn’t always so…
ANI – August 13, 2008 Recent studies of a team of archeologists have shown that 5000 years ago (3200 BC) women had the economic control of the Burnt City in Iran. The Burnt City has been continually excavated since the 1970s by Iranian and Italian archaeological teams, with new discoveries periodically reported. Covering an area of 151 hectares, the city was built around 3200 BC and abandoned over a millennium later in 2100 BC. The city experienced four stages of civilization and was burnt down three times. It took its eventual named because it was never rebuilt after the last fire. According to Seyed Mansour Seyed Sajjadi, director of the team working at the Burnt City in Sistan- Baluchestan Province, southeastern Iran, some paleo- anthropologists believe that mothers in the Burnt City had social and financial prominence. Sajjadi said that 5000 year-old insignias, made of river pebbles and believed to belong only to distinguished inhabitants of the city, were found in the graves of some female citizens.
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