Dr. Maryam Afshari – Director of the Women’s Legal Clinic at UNESCO Chair for Human Rights, Peace and Democracy in Shahid Beheshti University, Iran
Greetings and politeness and respect to the lovers of human rights, Peace, women and children. Today I am going to talk about all kinds of violence against women In West Asia and especially in Iran by Looking at its developments during the house quarantine in Covid19. Violence against women has been a human problem throughout history and over time, it has appeared in various forms. Concerns for women today are greater than ever and they are formed in two main parts of the family and society and in the physical, sexual, psychological and emotional fields and it demands women’s awareness of rights and protective laws.
The most important issues of women rights activists in Iran and West Asia and maybe we can say in majority places of the world are issues such as amending the laws, especially regarding alimony, heritage, dowry or Spouse child which is in most of the West Asian countries, bigamy, maltreatment with divorced and widowed women and other forms of violence which exist. All family and community violence are considered against women. Today we want to explore the kinds of violence against women especially in quarantine times which has been a little worse. According to various statistics, almost 30% has been added to this violence and more than ever requires the law protection of women against such violence. Some existing laws also need to be amended to eliminate some legal gaps in this area.
As you know, conferences, treaties and various international predications have been passed in the field of women which has given good legal and global order to this issue and some efforts have been made to ensure the rights of women and also find an acceptable balance with human rights standards. The evolution of women’s rights in society, such as the learning right and right to participate in political affairs, has begun to be interpreted as social rights, and efforts have been made to vindicate the right of employment or to fairly intervene in the balances of women’s economic rights. This global and human concern to achieve gender justice is one of the desirable ideals of the human world that they seek. The issue of women’s rights and its violence has appeared under various titles in the family and society. Every manner of speech that implies hardness, anger, humility or insult can be considered Violence.
Violence against women and girls in private and public life is one of the phenomena that distort human grandeur and dignity and it damages the status and position of women as the mirror of God’s beauty. Examples of this phenomenon are not limited to physical violence but also include all of the psychological and sexual violence against women and children in society and by the government. This violence has been going on from the past to the present and it has appeared in different ways. Abuse and violence against women are the most common social crimes and perhaps it can be said that it is one of the manifestations of patriarchy in the world which can be seen in all social levels and groups even in developed western countries. Today In most societies, women are exposed to violence by men and not only they are victims of male violence, but the fear of violence has been overshadowed throughout their life. The violence of any kind is a symbol of domination that sacrifices value, feeling and humanity.
Declaration or Convention about the elimination of violence against women which its article 2 talks about physical, sexual and mental violence, But as I said, violence against women encompasses a wide range of violent behaviors which includes family, social and economic violence too. Over time and according to the condition of society, the type of violence against women has undergone changes like spouse child which is an issue that has received a lot of attention in recent years. This case was considered a normal issue in the past. The issue of women entrance to some circles like Stadiums and so on and some limitations that have been raised in recent years are other samples of violence against women. Unfortunately, with the current not so good situation of culture and economy of the communities which causes some problems. Many marriages due to cultural and economic issues that have arisen in the societies lead to divorce.
As a result, today we see many women who appear in society as divorced women and the issue of abuse of divorced and widowed women is one of the current problems in society. Men are not forced to pay dowry is a trouble due to the economic conditions of society which is considered as a support for divorcing women. This issue has been raised as a law in the Islamic Consultative Assembly in recent years and it did not make much progress. In addition to all this, we have other issues such as inheritance and alimony which is considered as a new domestic and community violence against women which needs more legal protection. In addition to all this violence in recent months, Corona disease has caused many problems for family members, especially women and children. As a result of home quarantine as well as in the work environments especially in physically workplaces were very visible. Due to our women making up half of society, there is a need to pay more attention to these issues.
I will briefly say something about dowry. Dowry exists in most societies, especially in Islamic societies and it is highly emphasized in Islam. It is considered an essential element in marriage and also contracts without dowry are not considered possible in many fatwas of our jurists. Dowry is considered a kind of honesty of a man towards a woman and that’s why the word dowry is used for it. God has set the dowry as a gift from a man to attract the love of a woman and it is a wise plan of God to satisfy and meet the natural needs and adjust the relationship between men and women. This raises the value and credibility of women and some mental and social considerations. One of the current violence against women is the reduction of dowry, and this is an injustice to women’s rights. However, due to the temporary economic crisis that has arisen, they want to change the dowry law.
This issue can be temporary and because of this temporary condition the law of dowry which is God thanks for adjusting the family and the love which is created between men and women in the family can’t be changed. In fact, the law is supposed to provide solutions to this issue. Nowadays, the on-demand 110 coin solution has taken over and also, how to receive it must be clearly stated in the law because our women also have a problem with receiving this amount. Another important issue that is very important in Iran and West Asian countries is the child of the spouse or the marriage of children. Child or child-spouse marriage is a formal or informal marriage in which a person enters into a marital relationship before the age of 18.
Child marriage, especially among girls, is one of the social problems in our time, which is a kind of wastage of children’s rights. In Iran, the Islamic Consultative Assembly has recently addressed this issue and passed an urgent amendment to Article 1041 of the Civil Code. However, with the approval of this plan, the lawmakers demanded that the parliament quickly address the issue of marriage of girls under 13 years old and boys under 16 years of age as soon as possible, unfortunately, some do not believe in this and do not prioritize it. The problems of children who become parents in childhood or early childhood are not hidden from anyone and according to psychologists and sociologists’ opinions, it devastates effects on both the child and the community.
Many warnings have been given about the consequences of having a child spouse and a lot of children have been sacrificed. We hope that a reasonable decision is made in the Islamic Consultative Assembly and also in some similar countries on this issue. The last fact that was said in the Legal Commission after the amendment of Article 1041 of the Civil Code was that the marriage of a girl before reaching the age of 13 and a boy before reaching the age of 16 is all required to the permission of their parent and the discretion of the court. The next issue is Polygamy, the permission of a man to marry four women is one of the controversial rulings. The most important source can be Holy Qur’an, which is mentioned in a surah, and the civil law explicitly does not accept the issue of polygamy. In fact, in today’s society, polygamy turns the marital environment, which should be cleansed and intimate, into a battlefield and a hotbed of resentment and revenge. According to Islam, justice is a duty that is the responsibility of a man.
None of the men or women don’t have the right to include such a condition in the text of the contract and to make it mandatory for one of them to continue to resign their rights. Of course, the phenomenon of polygamy has some agrees, but we will not address them. Then one of the troubles in some societies can be this. Alimony and the provision of it are also issues that can lead to violence against women. Many jurists have stated that the amount required for a woman’s alimony is everything that a woman needs, such as food and clothing and housing and so on. The precondition is the permanent marriage and obedience of the wife. In various cases, women are denied the right to receive alimony, such as women who are pregnant or whose husbands die. Article 1110 of the Civil Code should be amended especially in the case of mothers or women who are pregnant or whose spouses are died, they should be able to get their alimony until the delivery of the child.
The twenty-first principle of the constitution, as well as the laws and articles in the law, such as Article 1 of the Law on women and orphans, should be corrected. In such a way that in the text of the law, the word “alimony” should be mentioned instead of the word “homeless” to protect these people. Abuse of divorced women is another issue that some words like widow have a heavy meaning. This word is also used in the constitution of our country. Due to the fact that these women are so numerous, they should definitely be supported legally, socially and verbally. They need to be given a lot of attention, from the view of emotionally, psychologically and socially. With The issue of these women, Article 21 of the Constitution states that the government is obliged to ensure the rights of women in accordance with the standards. Favorable conditions for a woman’s personality and the restoration of her material and spiritual rights, support for mothers, especially during pregnancy and child custody, and for orphaned children, should be provided.
We hope that these issues will also be supported in the laws and customs of our society. Women’s inheritance is another issue that raises some forms of violence against women, and the small share of a husband’s inheritance to a woman is discussed. In any case, this can also lead to changes and a supportive view of women. Some of our laws have been amended. In Article 948 Some amendments have been made. Three solutions have been proposed to amend the inheritance regulations in our country. Inheritance rules that have Quranic prose and narrative prose cannot change these but in the part of the rulings of inheritance which is related to the inference of the jurists, it can be examined in some parts. During the home quarantine period, statistics show that domestic violence has increased from community violence. We may see physical violence, which statistics show has increased by 30% and physical abuse and beatings of spouses have increased. Verbal violence has increased. And finally, given that we do not have much time, we can conclude that the twentieth principle of the Constitution puts men and women equally in the protection of the law and enjoys human political, social, economic and cultural rights in accordance with Islamic principles.
Article 21 deals with women’s rights and enshrines equality between men and women in the constitution and of course, we have some drawbacks to this. In recent years, many demands have been made by women about their rights, and despite the fact that some of them have been considered in the law, there have been cases in which the legislature has paid more attention and seen inequality between men and women in society. For example, salaries, leaving the country with the permission of the spouse are controversial issues, the right to divorce and the right to work or the right to participate in legal freedoms and finally the rights of guardianship which we can pay more attention to. The issue of women’s rights is a very broad one, and if not addressed, it is sometimes considered violence. We demand the support of half the population, and we hope that laws will be passed that protect the rights of women in all countries, and we hope that we will have a society full of peace and respect for human rights. I will not take your time more than once and hope that I have been able to convey the content to you in a very short time. Thank you for your patience and I hope we can take a small step towards protecting human rights, women’s rights and peace in society. Goodbye.
