Women, life, freedom

Abstract

Over the past few months, people around the world have heard the slogan “woman, life, freedom”. This slogan, which was shouted all over Iran, reveals the existing gender inequality in Iran. Iran’s political and economic situation, as well as climate changes that have led to crises such as air pollution and water crisis, have created conditions where the general Iranian people have less chance of survival compared to a European person; but even among Iranians, women have more difficult living conditions and fewer survival chances compared to men.

Gender inequality in Iran is systematically applied to women by the government and the institution of the family. The law in Iran has deprived women of many rights. In other cases, if there is no complete deprivation, a woman’s right is half of an Iranian man’s right in similar circumstances. These inequalities are legally and conventionally applied in areas such as marriage, divorce, custody of children, laws related to inheritance, education, body ownership, and free choice of clothing.

The set of these Shariah and customary laws are aimed at restricting women to the framework of the family and placing them in roles such as daughter, wife, and mother rather than a free human being with equal rights to men. Any disobedience of women against these rules is associated with control, subjugation, repression, punishment, aggression, and, worst case, femicide. The government and law in Iran are the main cause of gender inequality, and also the main supporter of violence towards women in the family. In the areas the institution of the family is more traditional, most of the violence is carried out by the family members with the protection of the law. Women and girls are constantly controlled by their fathers, brothers, and husbands, and if they do not live their life as the men wish, they are punished or even killed. In most cases, these murders are not accompanied by the punishment of the murderer. For example, according to Iranian law, a father is not prosecuted for the crime of murdering his child. For this reason, every year we witness the murder of girls who are killed by their fathers under the pretext of honour killing. In parts of the country, such as the capital, where the control and violence by the family are much less, the government itself has taken over these matters. Moral police are one of these examples that try to control Iranian women’s Hijab by using violence. This type of control was what led to the murder of “Mahsa Amini” in custody in September 2022 and widespread nationwide protests in Iran after that.

Although gender inequality in Iran does not always apply in the form of violence leading to femicide, the set of these restrictions, which are widely and systematically applied to women in different fields, has led to an unequal chance of survival for Iranian women compared to Iranian men. The harsh conditions caused by this situation have even led to women’s suicide in some cases.