The question comes: why people keep talking so much about the United Nations today?
Because we are celebrating our largest international organisation twofold. First, today is the United Nations Day. This date marks the anniversary of the entry into force in 1945 of the UN Charter. As the UN itself, this day aims to remind and encourage “governments and individuals to work in common cause for the common good”.
The second link to the UN stresses its work in the field of development. The UN General Assembly instituted the so-called ‘World Development Information Day’ in 1972 with the object of raising awareness of world public opinion to development problems and the necessity of strengthening international co-operation to solve them.
Tackling development problems to reach development goals: you presumably have heard about the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). We are talking about eight international development goals set in 2000 to be achieved by 2015. Let’s mention a few with the most impact on women: the UN Member States committed themselves to eradicate poverty, improve maternal health, promote gender equality and empower women. Coming closer to the deadline it’s easy to notice that some regions of the world are still lagging far behind others in working towards these goals.
In February this year the Deputy Executive Director of the UN Women (the UN organization dedicated to gender equality and the empowerment of women), John Hendra called for gender equality at Asia-Pacific Regional Preparatory Meeting for the 58th Commission on the Status of Women. As he said: “Women in particular in the Asia-Pacific region continue to face severe deficits in health and education, and in their access to power, political visibility and rights as the region has seen slow progress in terms of women’s participation in decision-making [..]”.
We can easily understand what he was talking about if we consider the situation on the ground and the latest developments in one of the most impacted countries of the region, Iran.
(image by WordPress)
A goal: to promote gender equality and empower women
Women in Iran face widespread discrimination under the law. The distinction between men and women is readily identifiable in the country’s legal system which gives women a subordinate status relative to men. Under the amended Islamic Penal Code, the testimony of a woman is accorded half the value of that of a man. But even the age of criminal responsibility also differs significantly: girls reach it at nine, while boys only become criminally liable at 14. Similarly, the Civil Code grants to women inferior rights than to men in matters such as marriage, divorce and child custody. While men have an incontestable right in law to divorce their spouse, women do not.
Women face a wide range of violence, both in their domestic lives and in the public realm, without any legal protections. Alarmingly, under Iranian law rape is not recognised as a crime. Consequently, victims of sexual violence often forgo lodging complaints to the authorities fearing that it could result in their own prosecution on a charge of making a false accusation of adultery. Sexual relations outside marriage entail the penalty of flogging. Another surprising fact that men who catch their wife in an intimate situation with another man and then kill both of them, are exempted from the Islamic Penal Code and enjoy impunity for the “honour killing”.
As mentioned before, women are also subjected to violence and discrimination in the public arena. Since 1978 when veiling became compulsory hundreds of women and young girls have faced assault and detention by the State for not complying with the dress code. In recent years several discriminatory policies have been implemented in universities such as gender-based segregation at campuses and gender quota systems for certain subjects. But the phenomenon of gender segregation has lately emerged in workplaces and even at concerts, too. Furthermore, since 2012 women are banned from attending matches in stadiums. Over a handful of women, among them Ghoncheh Ghavami - Amnesty’s prisoner of conscience expressed their opposition to that ban. For her dissent and participation in a demonstration, Ghoncheh and her companions were detained. Ghoncheh Ghavami still serves her jail term for charges of "spreading propaganda against the system”. Officials see her actions unacceptable, especially because according to them that ban is for women’s own benefit as they need protection from the lewd behaviour of male fans.
The issue of improving maternal health
But let’s go back to another development goal: the issue of improving maternal health. This has also recently been a sensitive topic in the Iranian society. The policies of the authorities on population control have lately targeted women’s right to access sexual and reproductive health services and to receive information about them. Amnesty International is concerned that this may result in increased incidences of unwanted pregnancies, illegal and high risk abortions, and hamper the prevention of HIV/AIDS (another MDG: to combat HIV/AIDS!). The current situation may be even more alarming if the new version of the Islamic Penal Code is implemented, which states that pregnant women who choose abortion and those who assist them would be punished, except in cases where abortion is medically prescribed.
But let’s go back to another development goal: the issue of improving maternal health. This has also recently been a sensitive topic in the Iranian society. The policies of the authorities on population control have lately targeted women’s right to access sexual and reproductive health services and to receive information about them. Amnesty International is concerned that this may result in increased incidences of unwanted pregnancies, illegal and high risk abortions, and hamper the prevention of HIV/AIDS (another MDG: to combat HIV/AIDS!). The current situation may be even more alarming if the new version of the Islamic Penal Code is implemented, which states that pregnant women who choose abortion and those who assist them would be punished, except in cases where abortion is medically prescribed.
Voices of concerns
These – and several other concerns – have been raised over and over again. Besides international organisations such as Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the UN Women, local civil society groups and the Iranian women themselves dared raise their voices and claim women’s right to be on an equal footing with men. One of the civil society groups which demand to end discrimination against women in Iranian law is the so-called ‘Campaign for Equality’. This popular movement provides volunteers with basic legal training, so that they can travel around the country promoting the campaign and talking to women about their rights.
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(image by Campaign for Equality)
The movement pushes for legal reform and an end to legal discrimination against women by collecting one million signatures of Iranian nationals for a petition. But claiming revisions of law, justice and respect of human rights has its costs in a country where dissent is not tolerated. Many of the activists and members of the Campaign for Equality have been detained since its launch in August 2006. Among the arrested activists is Behareh Hedayat who currently serves a ten-year-long prison term. As a member of the campaign and chair of a national student body active in calling for political reform and ending human rights violations, she was arrested on 31 December 2009, shortly after mass arrests following anti-government protests on a religious festival. Like so many human rights defenders, she was charged with offences such as “insulting the leader” and “disrupting public order through participating in illegal gatherings”. Amnesty International considers her as a prisoner of conscience as has been detained solely for exercising her right to freedom of expression, assembly and association.
Long way to the goals
Protecting women from violence and injustice and granting equal right for women and men to services, public spaces and facilities require still a lot of actions from the Iranian authorities. The first step towards reaching the aforementioned goals could be the ratification of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women. Besides the symbolic character of this act, by signing the convention, Iran would be obliged to incorporate the international human rights obligations in its domestic law, to put its provisions into practice and report on the progressions. Then, it could answer the calls of civil society groups and organisations to review and remedy all laws that discriminate directly against women or have a discriminatory impact on women and to investigate abuses and ill-treatment of women. Finally, Iran could also respond to Amnesty International’s urges for dropping all charges against women human rights defenders and activists and release them.
But Iran wouldn’t have to do all these on its own. By working towards another MDG, it could be part of a global partnership for development, a partnership for empowering women.