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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Iran
Organized and Institutionalized Sexual Exploitation
and Violence
Policy and
Law
The "Press Law and Women Bill"
was ratified into law on the 13th of August 1998 in Iran; it is the Fifth
Amendment of Article 6 of the press law. The bill states that, "commercial use of
women's image and texts declaring women's issues, humiliation, insult, propagation of
formality, use of ornaments, and defending women's beyond the bounds of legal and
religious law is forbidden." Violators of the law will be punished with lashes and
imprisonment, as well as losing their publication license. Consequences of "Press Law
and Women Bill" include:
- According to this amendment, supporting or defending the rights of
women in any publication is strictly banned because it is believed that such arguments
create more contention and adversity between men and women. However, men are excluded from
the above law. This encourages a culture of male chauvinism.
- The ratification of this bill does not allow any criticism
advocacy, in the press, of the laws governing women's rights.
- This bill will ban all female images, texts, or arguments for
modification of the existing law. Therefore, women's issues are completely invisible in
the media.
- This bill will create conflicts between the clerical community and
the press because the law has never defined "commercial use of women's image and
text." Therefore, the subject is completely left at personal interpretation and
judgment. Because of the fanatic nature of Islamic rulers, this amendment means complete
elimination of women from public media. ("Iranian Women Brief #2," Association
of Iranian Women USA (A.I.W.US), September 1998)
Married Iranian women require their husband's permission to apply
for a passport, according to Article 18 of the passport law. In case of an emergency or
absence of the husband, the public prosecutor's office can issue the permit within 3 days
from the date of the application. ("Iranian Women Brief #2," Association of
Iranian Women USA (A.I.W.US), September 1998)
Islamic government does not recognize the divorces and the
marriages administered in foreign countries unless they are endorsed by Iranian embassies,
consulates, or the rituals are repeated in Iran. The consequences are:
- If an Iranian married couple immigrate to a foreign country and
divorce according to the laws of that country, the divorce is not legitimate for the
woman. The process must be repeated in the Islamic embassy or the consulate. If each of
the spouses remarries separately after the divorce in the overseas country and travels to
Iran, the wife could be arrested and tried for committing adultery. The punishment for
adultery is burying the woman in the ground and stoning her to death. However, this does
not apply to the man. By law, the man is not in marriage violation.
- If a couple have children, and the court granted custody of the
children to the mother, if they traveled to Iran, the husband could take the children away
from his ex-wife because husband is the sole custodian for the children. No custody
privilege is granted to women under any circumstance.
If a couple divorce in a foreign country and then travel to Iran
to finalize their divorce proceeding, the divorce process for the woman might take years
because the consent of the husband is always necessary to finalize the divorce. The
husband may go ahead and marry another woman while his case is pending with the first
wife. ("Iranian Women Brief #2," Association of Iranian Women USA (A.I.W.US),
September 1998)
Under laws
imposed after the 1979 revolution, women:
- Must cover all parts of their bodies (including their hair) except
for the face and hands, with loose-fitting garments.
- Must not wear any make-up.
- Unrelated couples are not allowed to socialize at all.
The penalties for violating these rules, imposed in the name of
preventing social vice, vary from simple reprimands to lashes and payment of fines, and
even execution by stoning in the case of illicit sexual relationships. The Iranian Human
Rights Working Group (IHRWG) maintains that these laws are in violation of Article 18 of
the Universal Declaratiion of Human Rights (UDHR), to which Iran is a signatory.
("IHRWG Statement: Social and cultural restrictions in Iran violate universal human
rights," Edited/Distributed by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network, 16
June 1998)
Official Response and Action
On May 18, 1998, some 20 women and girls
were arrested by the Iranian police in Tehran for socializing with unrelated men or
failing to observe the strict dress code that is mandated for women. These types of arrest
have occurred regularly since 1980. In April, 1998, an Iranian girl, detained by
authorities on suspicion that she was having a relationship with a man, committed suicide
while in detention in the southwest Iranian city of Abadan. ("IHRWG Statement: Social
and cultural restrictions in Iran violate universal human rights," Edited/Distributed
by HURINet - The Human Rights Information Network, 16 June 1998)
Case
Sheyda Khoramzadeh Esfahani was sentenced to death following her conviction on charges
of 'organizing `corrupt gatherings' with prostitutes, alcohol, drugs, music and dance `
and to establish immoral contacts with people in various political bodies.'' She was
executed in August 1997. Her husband Abolghasem Majd-Abkahi was reportedly executed in
late December 1996 or early January 1997. (Amnesty International, Further information on
EXTRA 115/96, 1 July 1998.)
Three women and three men were stoned to death in public in Khazar Abad after a court
found them guilty of adultery and prostitution under Iran's Islamic laws. Prostitution and
adultery are illegal and punishable by death. The stoning was carried out by local
citizens in public in Khazar Abad, near the Caspian Sea. (Salam, "Iran Stones Six to
Death," Asociated Press, 26 October 1997)
A 20-year-old Iranian woman was stoned for adultery in Bukan, in Western Iran. Stoning
is a death sentence, but she was mistaken for dead and later revived in the morgue. A
court official said that an appeal for amnesty has been submitted to the court.
("Young woman survives stoning to wake up in morgue," Agence France Presse,
12 August 997)
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Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic, Nadine Z. Mendelsohn and Vanessa Chirgwin
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