These days it trains and helps girls and young women at a time, with 50 or 60 joining every year. The center has a waiting list of up to places, and employs about 50 people who are paid largely thanks to private donations from the Iranian diaspora in the U. But being helped does not make the past disappear.
Take Lima, who like so many others says she is a victim of terrible domestic abuse. The year-old rarely smiles. And unlike most of her comrades, her hair is short and she wears no makeup. While the draft law does increase penalties if the victim has specific vulnerabilities — a pregnant woman, a child under 18, or a person who is sick, elderly, with mental or physical disabilities, homeless, or displaced — it fails to include other vulnerable groups such as undocumented migrants.
More than two million Afghan refugees and migrants living in Iran face discrimination and abuse, and it is particularly important to clearly include them in the draft legislation. The UN Handbook recommends that legislation on domestic violence should make clear that women survivors of violence should not be deported or subjected to other punitive actions related to their immigration status when they report such violence to authorities.
The draft law should also allow immigrant survivors to confidentially apply for legal immigration status independently from the abuser. This appears to have played a role in the case of Romina Ashfari.
In a positive step, the draft law would oblige the police to establish specialized units responsible for protecting women, where necessary to have female policers handle cases, and to refer women for legal and medical services, and shelter where necessary. Most important, it also obliges law enforcement agents and judicial authorities to expedite the process of investigating complaints filed under the law.
However, it goes on to provide that, in cases where if the father or the husband is the accused, authorities should refer the case to the mediation council for a month and if there is no reconciliation, the case comes back to the judicial process.
The UN Handbook recommends explicitly prohibiting mediation, in all cases of violence against women, both before and during legal proceedings because mediation removes cases from judicial scrutiny. Promoting such reconciliation reflects an assumption that both parties have equal bargaining power and may be equally at fault for violence, and thus reduces accountability for the offender.
Lawyers interviewed said that judges often have unrealistic evidentiary standards, which makes it extremely difficult to prove allegations of domestic violence. The UN Office on Drugs and Crime recommends that countries develop guidelines on evidence that should be admissible in court for domestic violence cases.
A lawyer familiar with earlier drafts of the law said that the initial draft included provisions for witnesses, but the judiciary did not include it in the publicly available draft. The UN Handbook provides that states should adopt measures to protect the safety of victims and witnesses before, during, and after criminal proceedings.
Protection Orders In a positive step, article 71 of the draft law provides that the judiciary can issue a protection order if there is a serious threat of beating or more harm to a survivor or her children, or pressure to drop her complaint. A protection order can impose a range of measures, including obtaining a pledge from the accused, prohibiting the accused from entering the residence and place of work of the victim for three months restraining order , obliging the husband to provide separate housing to his wife for three months, obliging the husband to attend therapy, and transferring the victim and any children to a safe house.
Protection orders are among the most effective legal remedies available to survivors of violence against women. However, protection orders would only be possible under the draft law if a criminal complaint is filed and could be issued at any time before a final verdict. Moreover, the provisions in the draft law for a mediation period if the accused is a husband or father can create additional barriers to seeking protection.
While the draft law provides that some protection measures would be limited to three months, it says that if the order issued has no time limit, it would remain in effect until the final verdict, or the judge can amend or change the order if either party requests it in light of new circumstances.
However, the draft law does not explicitly exclude prosecution for extramarital affairs. Under article of the Islamic penal code, anyone who establishes a center of corruption and prostitution or encourages corruption and prostitution can be sentenced to up to 10 years in prison.
Discriminatory Personal Status Laws as Barriers to Justice Numerous discriminatory legal provisions in Iran create barriers for women victims of domestic violence in seeking support, justice, and remedies. Click to expand Image. Your tax deductible gift can help stop human rights violations and save lives around the world. Topic Women's Rights. More Reading. November 10, News Release. November 2, Dispatches. March 29, Report. September 5, Report. Protecting Rights, Saving Lives Human Rights Watch defends the rights of people in 90 countries worldwide, spotlighting abuses and bringing perpetrators to justice.
But as the Iranian currency began to sink in value in the summer of , first in response to the Trump administration withdrawing from the nuclear deal, and then more precipitously, in anticipation of increasingly severe sanctions, sometimes falling by double digits in a single day, families coped by cutting back on leisure spending, on everything from clothes to hair salons to eating out. Small shops and retailers saw their revenue drop, while their rents skyrocketed.
Sanctions have also forced tens of foreign firms to close shop and lay off Iranian workers. These companies tended to offer forward-thinking and empowering workspaces for women, setting high standards — everything from attractive salaries to more professional management and expected conduct — that Iranian companies would have to match.
Some organised anti-sexual harassment training for employees, to bring them in line with minimal codes of conduct in European firms. Sanctions halted that progress. This site uses cookies. By continuing to browse the site you are agreeing to our use of cookies.
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