Fatemah Ali Explains Iran's Policy on Women's Rights

Head of the Iranian Parliament's Committee for Women and Family Affairs, Fatemeh Alia gave an exclusive interview to Press TV in Tehran regarding women's rights in Iran. I don't think it's exactly coincidental that this interview comes just days after the arrest of Jelveh Javaheri, women's rights activist who set up We4Change.

Q. Can you please explain some of the shortcomings of The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW)?

A. Iran is concerned about various issues of the mentioned convention. CEDAW undermines the traditional family structure which is much respected in our society. The preamble states, "A change in the traditional role of men as well as the role of women in society and in the family is needed to achieve full equality between men and women." This requires states to "Modify the social and cultural patterns of conduct of men and women, with a view to achieving the elimination of prejudices based on stereotyped roles for men and women."

This convention denies any distinctions between men and women. It defines discrimination in its own words as "any distinction on the basis of sex," in "any field". This is to say, it ignores differences between the roles, rights and obligations of men and women in the natural world.

The convention also states that governments should "ensure, on a basis of equality of men and women, access to health care services, including those related to family planning". This sort of rhetoric also includes open access to abortion services.

Abortion, of course, is only one of the contradictions between Islamic law and the Convention. Countries that have ratified CEDAW will also be obliged to welcome sexual relations out of wedlock, which Islam prohibits because of the harm it does to the society.

The Islamic tradition of hijab frees women from being perceived primarily as sexual instruments and helps cleanse the society of promiscuity. A healthy and vigorous society is considered essential in Islam for individuals to be able to nurture and develop their abilities.

Societies which promote women as sexual objects also have a horrendous rate of violence toward women. The wisdom behind this dress code is to minimize sexual enticement and degradation in society as much as possible for both men and women.

Regarding Islamic laws relating to inheritance, women have been granted the benefit of being completely entitled to their own property.

A woman receives a dowry at marriage and can choose to keep all of her inheritance for herself. She does receive less inheritance than her male sibling but this is due to the difference which derives from the obligation men have to support their wives financially, while the woman's share would be entirely at her own disposal.

Islam allows polygamy for men whereas there is no such law for women. Certain circumstances require such remedial laws to be introduced in the society. Due to conditions like war, the total number of women sometimes exceeds the number of men. At such times, the society must resolve the dilemma of caring for women who have the right of marriage, emotional support and welfare. In these circumstances polygamy is the only just solution.

The full interview is available here.

We4Change challenges Iranian laws that are unjust and detrimental towards women's equality. A full explanation can be found on their site. Nafiseh Azad, another campaigner with We4Change, has posted about the extreme hypocrisy and inanity of Javaheri's arrest.

UNIFEM Launches New VAW Campaign

I only just had a chance to look at UNIFEM's new campaign to end violence against women, launched by Nicole Kidman and other partners on the 26th of November. I confess that I didn't think it was that fabulous having Nicole Kidman be 'the face' of the campaign. I know that she is bringing her name and fans etc to the project and probably helping get it alot more press coverage than it would, but frankly I would have rather seen the face of a woman who is actively fighting against VAW in her daily life, whether it be with personal struggles or as part of a group - one of the many women from UNIFEM's Stories From the Field section for example. But I digress.

The campaign has launched a new website and is looking for signatures and donations. They are really pushing the virtual signature book and it will be interesting to see how many names they get. Make sure to watch the film. I was torn about how I felt about it. it seemed a bit too 'Hollywood', with the dramatic music and quick cut shots. But I thought it was pretty effective in terms of getting the point across. Hopefully there will be some follow up films, focusing more on women and the varied forms of violence women experience.

Tags: takebackthetech

Amnesty International Campaigns Against FGM

In my second year at university I was campaigning about women's rights and trying to raise awareness on campus about violence against women. One week we had printed out leaflets to distribute, which listed a number of types of statistics about violence against women including info about FGM. We had already been told that the on-campus shop would not let us leave a pile of leaflets on the counter because customers (students) might find the information offensive - I tried to point out that it was offensive, it's wasn't supposed to make them feel warm and fuzzy on the inside, it was supposed to get them to do something and get involved. Apparently the other half dozen posters and flyers in the shop advertising other political groups on campus weren't offensive.

Later in the day, we stood outside during a lecture hall handing out the leaflets. A young man took a flyer without really looking at it. About 2 minutes later he walked back and asked if he could talk to me. There was something on the flier he had never heard of: female genital mutilation. I tried to explain to him what it involved, with students and staff rushing to and from class, he stood there looking more and more shocked. It finally clicked in his head and he immediately excused himself and rushed away. It couldn't have been more than a 5 minute conversation and I felt frustrated that we hadn't actually been able to talk about the complexity of the issue.

Amnesty International has just launched a new campaign against FGM. I came across it at Feministing where there is an interesting comment thread about the use of flowers to symbolize the vagina. But I find these images pretty effective. They made me look twice. And that's what most people have to do. FGM isn't a hot topic - many people have never heard of it or understand why it's practised. Amnesty has an lengthy section on what FGM is.

Of course like most awareness campaigns, the subject has to be boiled down to a simple quick concept that can be absorbed in a few seconds. There is no room for nuance, background, history, policy etc. And thus the subject is not fully understood. But of course, limited awareness is better than complete ignorance and we have to start somewhere.