Crumbs of human rights

On 15 June, shortly after the day of solidarity with Iranian women (12 June), about three dozen people gathered at Amnesty International UK’s Human Rights Action Centre to take part in an event on women’s rights in Iran. They came to learn more about Iranian women’s fight for gender equality and take various actions for female human rights defenders. The evening kicked off with an excellent documentary by Sheema Kalbasi, which gave the audience a good overview on the restrictions imposed on women’s daily lives. With the help of this film, ‘Women on the Front Line’, we learnt about the discriminatory laws and practices that exist in the country, such as the fact that a woman’s testimony at court is valued half as that of a man. Or to name another typical example: the law says that the guardianship of a child is with her father. After the film, we turned to our special guests who enlightened us about the situation of women in some specific contexts. Our first speaker, Dr ...

I n the Western world we are used to the process that women or the partners together decide on whether to have kids, how many of them and over what period. Iranian women have exercised the same rights. But if the parliament adopts two new bills (Bill 446 and Bill 315) within the next few weeks, politicians will determine women’s family life in the future. These bills would mean taking several steps back regarding ending discrimination against women . www.amnesty.nl Let’s examine the two bills in more details. The so-called Bill 446 (or as its full title says “ The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline”) concentrates on methods as to how a rapid increase in the Iranian population could be reached, not taking into account the threats, which this bill would impose on women’s sexual and reproductive health. This bill would restrict women’s access to modern contraceptive methods and proscribe spreading information about them. It would also demolish sta...