[fullwidth background_color=”#ffffff” background_image=”” background_parallax=”none” enable_mobile=”no” parallax_speed=”0.3″ background_repeat=”no-repeat” background_position=”left top” video_url=”” video_aspect_ratio=”16:9″ video_webm=”” video_mp4=”” video_ogv=”” video_preview_image=”” overlay_color=”” overlay_opacity=”0.5″ video_mute=”yes” video_loop=”yes” fade=”no” border_size=”0px” border_color=”” border_style=”solid” padding_top=”20px” padding_bottom=”20px” padding_left=”20px” padding_right=”20px” hundred_percent=”no” equal_height_columns=”no” hide_on_mobile=”no” menu_anchor=”” class=”” id=””][fusion_text]Tiziana Ciavardini
Much, perhaps too much, has been written about the condition of women in Iran. For some, the memory of the Islamic Revolution and the many consequences that resulted from it is still vivid. Consequences still visible today. Women were the ones who suffered and still suffer the side efects of the Revolution. For the past few years in Iran with the arrival of moderate President Hassan Rouhani, it was believed that many things would change. To date everything is as before. We were certain that Iran could really change. International openings and coming out of isolation had led us all to hope for a gradual and steady process of change. He had deluded us, the President, that he would improve the condition of youth and especially that of women, to date conditions these remain unchanged. There was even speculation about the creation of a women’s ministry years ago, which for now remains only a mirage. Today’s situation appears increasingly dramatic. “In Art. 20 and 21 of the Iranian Constitution says ‘In accordance with Islamic norms all individuals who are citizens of the nation, both men and women, are equal before the protection of the law and enjoy all human rights.’ In fact, things are not quite like that. . Women in Iran, despite great efforts since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, are still under siege. Iran a country of 80 million people 70 percent of whom are under 40, finds itself living under restrictions on a daily basis. Women cannot dress as they want, they cannot express their thoughts, they cannot have a normal life, women in Iran have no freedom.
Although 60 percent of those enrolled in university, are women, and there is a higher rate of education than many neighboring countries, the restrictions to which they must submit are many. Women in Irancannot sing in public, cannot enter the stadium, cannot travel without the consent of their father or husband. Women are barred from frequenting certain public spaces such as stadiums; domestic violence generally goes unpunished; and a woman’s testimony in court is worth only half as much as a man’s. In this very macho world, Iranian women have found a parallel life where they can live their lives, trying to make it ‘normal’ like that of many other women in free countries. Being born a woman in Iran today means having to prove that you can do your job one, two, three, times more than a man. Being a woman in Iran means having the drive and tenacity that we Westerners often lack. Iranian women of today are and always will be the driving force of Iran. They are mothers, wives, and daughters who promptly went from the splendors of a life under the Shah of Persia to the restrictions imposed by the Islamic Republic.
Iran presents itself as a country of opposites. What comes to us are the sometimes dramatic but often manipulated media stories from newspapers or TV. This is why Iranian women do not like to be told they are ‘submissive.’ From the Revolution to the present they have worked hard to acquire small freedoms with the expectation of getting more and more. The process is long. The latest reports tell us about Models arrested for posting photos without headscarves. On social Instagram, risking jail time along with their makeup artists and those who photographed them. For the past few months, some seven thousand undercover agents have been keeping watch on the streets of Tehran behind the name ‘morality squad’. They stop and check that women’s veils are not worn differently than the authorities require. Just a few days old is the news of a woman who was whipped for taking part in a party. The news recently covered the fatwa (religious edict) of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei regarding restrictions on women riding bicycles. According to the Supreme Leader simply riding a bicycle, the most popular means of transportation once used by our grandmothers in the West, takes on a provocative contour in Iran. The sport according to the cleric would attract too much attention from men, exposing society to corruption and perdition. The cases are many and sometimes dramatic with fatal consequences. There are many women journalists and activists who are still in prison.
Among the many cases that many human rights associations have been advocating for, the verdict emerged a few days ago, in which the Iranian judiciary upheld the 16-year prison sentence for Narges Mohammadi, a human rights lawyer. Arrested in 2009 and sentenced in 2011 to 11 years for allegedly threatening ‘national security and making propaganda against the state,’ according to authorities. Narges’ case is particularly dramatic in that not only is she in detention for perpetrating in her pro-freedom campaign in Iran, but the authorities have denied her almost any contact with her children. The most atrocious torture that can be inflicted on a mother. We, can no longer stand by and remain helpless in the face of such injustice. Today, more than ever, we should ask ourselves what kind of civilization we have equipped ourselves with if we cannot even prevent women from still being treated as inferior beings in some countries.
http://www.ilfattoquotidiano.it/2016/10/12/iran-la-sposa-bambina-a-rischio-impiccagione/3092688/
http://www.globalist.it/world/articolo/59891/iran-vietato-lo-stadio-alle-donne.html
WHO IS.
Italian cultural anthropologist and journalist. She studied at La Sapienza University in Rome and for years devoted herself to the study of religions. She has been a researcher and taught in the Department of Anthropology in the Faculty of Social Sciences at the Chinese University of Hong Kong. Conducted unpublished research among Borneo head-cutters in an area of West Kalimantan. He is a spokesman for the first Islamic University in Italy. The author of numerous academic publications, essays and news articles, she has lived more than 24 years outside Italy, in the Middle East, Far East and Southeast Asia. He has spent the last 12 years in the Islamic Republic of Iran. Knowledgeable about Sunni Islam and Shiite Iran. Since Hassan Rohani took office as President of the Islamic Republic of Iran, he has begun to follow the events and programs of his new administration. She deals with the status of women in the Middle East and especially in Iran. Many of her articles have been translated and published in major Iranian newspapers, and Iran often grants her the rare opportunity as a foreign journalist to write for them newspapers belonging to both the ultraconservative and reformist wings. He has interviewed top Iranian authorities and commented several times on Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei’s letters against Islamophobia. She has worked several times with Iranian Vice President Shahindokht Molaverdi, human rights activist and delegate for family and women’s policies in IRAN on issues related to women. His articles in Repubblica.it, IlFattoQuotidiano, VanityFair, Art.21…[/fusion_text][/fullwidth]
