Iran: Where the regime opposes women’s rights

woman in iran with women should have same rights as men on her hands

 

   The violence led to chatter on social networks that there had been up to 13 acid attacks against women drivers

Subhuman treatment of women

It is not difficult to prove that Iranian theocrats are opposed to the idea of gender equality. Iran’s Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei has been quoted as saying: “Gender equality is ‘Zionist plot’ aimed at corrupting the role of women in society.” In Iran’s version of religious law, women are considered property.

Their inheritance is half of what men receive and women are not allowed to leave the country without their husband’s consent. They are also forced to observe a very strict dress code. There are several security measures in place in Iran to impose these laws. The most repressive one is the infamous ‘morality police’ that roams around cities arresting young women for not observing the dress code.

There are gruesome videos on YouTube and other social media showing how women are treated in Iran for what they wear. In a recent incident, a 14-year-old girl was beaten and detained for wearing ripped jeans in Iran (one of many such cases of police brutality against women). After her arrest by Islamic Revolutionary Guard Coups (IRGC) unit, she said: “I still carry the bruises sustained from their beatings on my face ... my ribs still hurt.

Women in Iran are also banned from entering sports stadiums. In a recently reported case by Human Rights Watch (HRW), a woman named Mina tried to get under the radar of security forces to watch a volleyball match in 2016. Despite her attempt to watch the match from the roof top of a café near a volleyball stadium, she and a few other women were caught by IRGC and were evicted from their vantage point.

Irrespective of their position in society, women in Iran have no right to travel without the consent of their husband or father. Hassan Rouhani and his predecessor Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had once made bogus promises of giving women more rights in order to garner their votes. In May this year, Rouhani had spread the word that he might appoint a women minster in his cabinet. But soon after his sham election he did not include any woman in his cabinet.

 

Iranian women defy repression

However, Iranian women seize every opportunity to show their resistance against their ill-treatment by the regime. After Khamenei’s ridiculous fatwa banning women from riding a bike in public last year, women in Iran came out in droves riding their bikes in defiance. According to the state-run media, Khamenei issued a decree on 10 September 2016 wherein he said: “Riding a bicycle often attracts the attention of men and exposes the society to corruption, and as contravenes women’s chastity so it must be abandoned”.

Since the first day of the installation of the regime, Iranian women have resisted their attempts at oppression. Back in the day, Iran like other countries of the Middle East could hardly imagine any role for women other than staying at home and taking care of children.

One woman took the lead in this struggle for freedom which was no longer about just freeing Iranian women but the entire Iranian society, which was taken hostage by the regime. Maryam Rajavi, president of the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI), an educated woman has done the impossible and instilled thousands of Iranian men and women with the idea that all citizens in the country can struggle for a common cause: Freedom.

She has proven through her leadership role that the same deprived and underprivileged woman is no different than her male counterpart in struggling for a free and democratic society. She has built a blueprint for building a better Iran with her 10-point plan, wherein women are deemed fully equal to men in all spheres of social activity.

There would be no limits for women in this new Iran. Filling the highest political positions will no longer be just a dream for women. The Mujahedin-e Khalq (MEK) — the biggest Iranian opposition group and a member of the NCRI — has followed her teachings for years and is now led by her.

Violence against women in Iran is institutionalized simply because half of the society is treated as crippled and in need of guidance from men; be it the male 

Sanctions are not keeping aid from reaching Iranian earthquake victims

Sanctions dont hurt the people, the regimes negligence does

The Washington Examiner, November 20, 2017 

The devastating earthquake that struck the western regions of Iran last week has triggered a nationwide crisis, leaving hundreds dead and thousands wounded.
But while the victims are still reeling in aftermath of the disaster, apologists of the Tehran regime abroad, who have no regard for their plight, are trying to take advantage of the situation to further their political ends. No more than a couple of days following the earthquake, Trita Parsi, the president of National Iranian American Council (NIAC), a well-known lobby for the Iranian regime, took to the media to claim U.S. sanctions are hindering donations and humanitarian aid from reaching the affected people.

'President Trump has not shown any human side that would extend itself to a country and the people like Iran,' Parsi said in an interview with Al Jazeera. 'If sanctions are really hindering emergency aid after an earthquake, I think that really shows the problematic aspect of the sanctions.”

What’s missing in Parsi’s arguments, which he has repeated in similar interviews with other outlets, is how the Iranian regime has already made a debacle of the disaster relief and is preventing aid that already exists in the country from reaching the victims.

According to reports by state-run media, the disaster has left more than 500 people dead and 8,000 wounded. One Iranian member of parliament from the Kermanshah, the province that was hit hardest by the earthquake, estimated the casualties to be well above 1,000. The Iranian regime’s response, not nearly as efficient as its speed and efficacy in cracking down on social protests, leaves a lot to desire. The same MP said that only 10 percent of the struck regions have received minimal help.

Since the signing of the nuclear accord in 2015, the Iranian regime has received an infusion of cash and economic incentives. But none of it has trickled down to the Iranian people, and it has been mostly spent on fueling the regime’s intervention in Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. Therefore, when disasters such as last week’s earthquake strike, the people are left on their own.

Images and video obtained from the affected regions show victims of the quake left to spend the night in the freezing cold without tents and blankets. In a video posted on Facebook, a father whose 16-year-old son was crushed under the rubble of their home accuses the government of sending aid to neighboring Arab countries but neglecting the needs of its own people. Social media networks are filled with similar videos and posts that express outrage at the regime for abandoning the people in times of need.

The Revolutionary Guards, the notorious military body that takes orders from Iran’s supreme leader, were dispatched to the struck areas ostensibly to help in relief efforts. But their effective mission was to prevent protests against the regime’s poor handling of the situation.
According to reports obtained by the National Council of Resistance of Iran, people from around Iran have rushed to help the victims. But government forces are preventing the arrival of public aid to affectd areas, and are taking possession of individual donations and goods under the excuse that it should be distributed through state-controlled institutions.
Meanwhile, according to NCRI , state security forces and those same institutions have stolen a considerable amount of these donations. “If the regime did not steal people's aid and did not obstruct their distribution, the earthquake problem would be solved,” a statement by the NCRI reads.
On the second day after the earthquake, the regime officially declared the rescue operation had ended, declared the situation as normal, and advised people to return to their homes and avoid gatherings and congestions. Meanwhile, the Iranian people continue to search the ruins of their homes for the missing, sometimes with nothing more than their bare hands.
Of course, none of this matters to Parsi and his ilk, whose sole purpose is to justify the crimes of the Iranian regime. In this regard, they are shamelessly trying to use the people’s suffering as an excuse to push for the lifting of pressure from a regime whose only role was exacerbating an already bad situation.