Legal Injustice for Iranian Women
Source: Teheran Journal; One Wife Is Not Enough? A Film to Provoke Iran
By DOUGLAS JEHL
Published: December 24, 1997
THE STATUS OF WOMEN IN IRAN:
LITTLE CHANGE
The country's new President, Mohammed Khatami, is a relative moderate who has said that more should be done to elevate the role of women. Since he won election in May, newspapers have buzzed with debate, pitting increasingly bold assertions of sexual equality against the scornful retorts of conservative clerics, who quote the Koran in arguing that women will forever be inferior.
Critics of these practices have begun to call for changes that would level the age of responsibility; declare a woman's life as valuable as a man's, and grant custody on the basis of a child's interests..."
"The dress restrictions are dehumanizing, submerging the individual identity of women in a colorless sea. Not a single woman in Teheran, a metropolis of 12 million people, dares wear anything other than a dark, bulky raincoat or black chador, and head covering, even on scorching summer days..
Men can divorce their wives without cause at any time and are automatically awarded custody of children. Wives who outlive their husbands are generally permitted a much smaller inheritance than men who outlive their wives, regardless of variations in income. A woman who kills a child is subject to capital punishment; a man who commits the same crime is not ...
Though Iran is by no means the most constrictive society for women in the Muslim world, the limitations seem especially oppressive because they were imposed less than two decades ago and are enforced as much to discourage individuality as to maintain religious faith. They are part of a system of ideological and political control used by the ruling clerics to keep order and limit liberty.
At every age and economic level, women resent the restraints and are struggling to overcome them. The clearest sign was the overwhelming majority of women who voted in May for Mohammed Khatami, a presidential candidate who seems to favor more equality for women. Propelled by the support of women and young people, he easily defeated the candidate favored by the conservative clerics.
Mr. Khatami, a cleric himself, may not soon deliver the changes women want, in part because reform is opposed by the religious leaders who still control the military and security services and dictate the laws of Iran. But even without much help from Mr. Khatami, women clearly intend to press for change in everything from the dress code to the divorce and inheritance laws that discriminate severely against them ... There is no escaping the unequal laws and stifling customs of Islamic fundamentalism..."
Ten-year-old girls are forced to wear veils to school from 1980.
The Iranian women are fighting for their right.
10 Facts about Women in Iran
