Araz News:  If we want to compare women rights in Iran with that of western women we can see (no the) huge disparities as Iranian women are still denied their basic fundamental rights. Iranian women are treated as second class citizens but authorities chose to ignore it as well. The basic civil rights chosen to reject women accessing rights as entering stadiums, gender barriers in market, no control on their bodies and leaving the country without their husband permission.

Women Ban to Travel Abroad and Entering Stadiums

Women are banned from leaving the country without permission of their husbands; Iranian single women (up to age 40) also might need their father’s permission to go abroad.

Female athletes in Iran face huge difficulty for attending the matches. Husbands can ban their wives from leaving the country at any time.

Accordingly, Niloufar Ardalan, the Iranian soccer team captain and the best woman player equipped with her “magic” left foot, was deprived of being in the Women’s Futsal Championship of Malaysia in 2015 due to Sharia Laws. Niloufar was banned from attending the matches when her husband, TV showman Mehdi Tootoonchi, had not permitted her to attend the tournament under Iran’s Islamic rules.

Iranian women are still banned from stadiums. They are deprived of their rights to enter stadiums to watch games; the ban rule originally came after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, which was approved and implemented by hard-liners.

Gender Discrimination

Iranian parliament opposed granting citizenship to the children of Iranian women who married foreign men. Iran’s Islamic rules do not extend to children born to Iranian mothers outside Iran. Hossien-Ali Amiri, Deputy Minister of Interior said the adoption of this law would create “security, political and social” problems for the country and increase immigration, according to official IRNA news agency, September 29, 2015.

Gender Inequality and Discrimination under Islamic laws are the Cases with which Iranian Women are treated as a second-class citizen. According to Islamic sources, the criterion for criminal responsibility is when an individual reaches the age of maturity is 8 years and 9 months for girls (Article 147 of Iran’s new Penal Code, which was approved in January 2012). In addition, the testimony of a man is often given twice the weight of that of a woman under Iran’s Islamic rules. Moreover, the testimony of a woman is not accepted for certain types of offenses.

Women undergo various forms of harassment, abuse, and discrimination by the regime of Iran on a daily basis for not observing “proper” hijab. Hijab refers to both the head-covering traditionally worn by some Muslim women and modest Islamic styles of dress in general. Article 683- “Those women that appear in the streets and public places without the Islamic hijab, shall be sentenced to prison or fined as a punishment to pay some money to superior authorities”.

The guardianship of children is determined to the natural guardian (the father and/or paternal grandfather), according to Article 1168 of the civil Code. Further, the husband can end his marriage by following the rules without any grounds; Article 1133 of the previous Civil Code (1928) provided that “A man can divorce his wife whenever he wishes to do so.”

At the core of the marriage contract is the wife’s submission (tamkin), defined as an unhampered sexual availability that is regarded as a man’s right and a woman’s duty. Without an acceptable excuse, the wife’s failure to comply with the lawful wishes of her husband constitutes “nushuz” (disobedience) and means that she may lose her right to maintenance, Iran Human Rights Documentation Center (IHRDC) stated. Under Iranian Islamic law, while women may contract only one marriage at one time, it is a man’s religious and legal right to marry more than one woman. One man can enter into up to four permanent marriages at a time. Although this right is not stipulated in Civil Code, it can be deduced from several articles, the organization said. Under Iran’s Islamic rules, it is the duty of the husband to work for a living and provide nafaqa (maintenance) for his family while the wife has no such duty. However, if she decides to work, whether on account of her personal desire or due to insufficient income of the family, she does have the right to work.

Despite the election of new President Hassan Rouhani in the Islamic Republic of Iran, women continue to face new challenges in exercising their civil rights. It’s a great challenge to reach equality as well as accessing educational and workforce resources, Women News Network reported.

In Iran, the President is elected for a four-year term by the direct vote of the citizens, but it’s not as simple as that, the president must be elected from among religious and political man, according to Article 114 and 115 of the Constitution of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The rules out half of Iran’s population and systematically bar women from running for president.

The equal rights to Inherit also is not recognized for women under Iran’s Islamic Sharia law; when a father dies his son is entitled to twice as much as his daughter, according to the Article 907 of Civil Code.

The court can approve a minimum age for marriage recognized at 13-year-old for girls under Islamic Sharia law of Iran. Authorities turn a blind eye to underage marriage before immature girls reach the age they can be legally vote. Meanwhile, Citizens of the developed societies have to wait the longest, at least 16 to 18-year-old, due to civil codes.

By: Laleh Moazen and Kaveh Taheri