Iran’s poor record on women’s rights further deteriorated in 2023, the State Department reported. They faced “increased discrimination through expanded application of punishments against people who violated the mandatory dress code,” Ambassador Robert Gilchrist, the Senior Official in the Bureau of Democracy Human Rights and Labor, said on April 22, 2024. The law failed to protect women from domestic violence and other forms of gender-based harassment. Women “sometimes received disproportionate punishment for crimes such as adultery, including death sentences,” the State Department reported. They also faced restrictions on child custody, inheritance and foreign travel compared to men. Activists who advocated for women’s rights encountered judicial harassment, intimidation, detention, and smear campaigns. The following are excerpts from the annual report on human rights.
WOMEN
Rape and Domestic Violence: Rape was illegal, including the rape of men, and subject to strict penalties, including death, but it remained a serious problem. The law considered sex within marriage consensual by definition and, therefore, did not address spousal rape, including in cases of forced marriage. There were no known reports of corrective rape of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, or intersex (LGBTQI+) persons.
Most rape victims likely did not report the crime because they feared official retaliation or punishment for having been raped, including charges of indecency, immoral behavior, or adultery, which carried the death penalty. Sex outside of marriage in any form was a crime with varying punishments. Rape survivors also feared societal reprisal or ostracism. For a conviction of rape, the law required four Muslim men or a combination of three men and two women, or two men and four women, to have witnessed a rape. A woman or man found making a false accusation of rape was subject to 80 lashes.
The law did not prohibit domestic violence. Authorities considered spousal and intrafamilial abuse a private matter and seldom discussed it publicly.
There were reports that security forces incited, perpetrated, or condoned gender-based violence. There were numerous reports of sexual abuse, rape, and threats of rape against prisoners and detainees, including women and men who were imprisoned for participating in the protests that began in September 2022.
In January, protesters Mehdi Mohammadifard and Javad Rouhi were sentenced to death based on forced confessions obtained through sexual abuse, according to Amnesty International. Security agents reportedly raped Mohammadifard while in custody and tortured Rouhi by placing ice on his testicles for two days. In May, the Supreme Court canceled their convictions and overturned their death sentences. Rouhi died in custody in August; there was no known investigation into his death.
Majid Kazemi, a protester who was executed in May, said in an audio recording from prison that he was forced to make false self-incriminating statements after interrogators beat him, gave him electric shocks, subjected him to mock executions, and threatened to rape him, execute his brothers, and harass his parents.
Other Forms of Gender-based Violence or Harassment: There were reports of killings motivated by “honor” or other harmful traditional practices during the year. There were no official statistics kept in the country concerning “honor killings,” but according to academic estimates cited by the daily newspaper Ebtekar, every year between 375 and 450 such killings occurred, mostly women killed by their male relatives in the name of preserving the family’s “honor.”
The law provided lesser penalties for fathers and other family members who were convicted of murder or physically harming children in domestic violence or “honor killings.” According to the Legal Information Institute of Cornell Law, the law “allows a man who witnesses his wife in the act of having sexual intercourse with another man to kill both of them if he is certain that his wife is a willing participant.” If a man was found guilty of murdering his daughter, the punishment was three to 10 years in prison rather than the normal death sentence or payment of diya (blood money) for homicide cases, because fathers (but not mothers) were considered legal guardians and were exempt from capital punishment for killing their children.
In July, a man in West Azerbaijan Province shot and killed his daughter, age 15, in response to an SMS message she received indicating a relationship with a boy, according to Etemad newspaper. IranWire reported this was the ninth “honor killing” perpetrated by a father in four months.
In the first half of the year, there was a wave of poisonings at schools in almost every province that primarily affected girls’ schools. Hundreds of schoolgirls were hospitalized with symptoms of respiratory distress, numbness in the limbs, heart palpitations, headaches, nausea, and vomiting. In March, authorities reported they had detained more than 100 individuals responsible for the incidents, but the investigations lacked transparency, according to NGOs. The exact causes of the symptoms, motives for the attacks, and perpetrators were unknown.
Discrimination: The law did not provide equal rights and protection for women as for men. Provisions in the law, particularly sections dealing with family and property law, discriminated against women. Judicial harassment, intimidation, detention, and smear campaigns against NGOs and activists significantly hindered the ability of civil society organizations to fight for and protect women’s rights. Women’s and human rights observers reported that sexual harassment was the norm in many workplaces.
The law provided that a woman who appeared in public without appropriate attire, such as a hijab and a manteau (long jacket), or a chador (large full-length cloth covering), could be sentenced to flogging and fines. According to the country’s Islamic penal code, “Women that appear in the streets and public places without the Islamic hijab shall be sentenced from 10 days to two months’ imprisonment or fined 50,000-500,000 Rials.” There was no similar rule for men in the penal code.
On September 20, parliament approved the intensely controversial “Bill to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab.” If adopted, the new law would set new penalties for noncompliance with the Islamic dress code as interpreted by authorities, with new fines and prison terms of up to 10 years. According to press reports, the bill also called for more strictly segregating the sexes in schools, parks, hospitals, and other locations. The bill reportedly extended punishments to business owners who served women not wearing hijab and activists who organized against it. Celebrities not wearing hijab properly could be banned from leaving the country and performing.
Enforcement of hijab laws resulted in fines, imprisonment, and other punishments such as mandatory psychiatric care for many women, and allegedly led to the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022. Amini died after reportedly being beaten while in the custody of the morality police, who detained Amini for her alleged “improper hijab.”
IranWire and The Guardian reported that a woman wearing a chador assaulted Armita Geravand, age 16, on a subway train in Tehran on October 1, causing Geravand to fall, hit her head, and lapse into a coma. The assault reportedly occurred after a verbal dispute in which the woman, who some reports claimed was a member of the morality police, criticized Geravand for not wearing the hijab. Geravand died four weeks later. NGO Hengaw reported that authorities pressured Geravand’s family, friends, and classmates to not speak out against the government’s official account that Geravand fainted due to a drop in blood pressure.
During the funeral for Geravand, authorities also beat and detained multiple attendees for protesting or not wearing hijab, including prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. Sotoudeh was charged with removing the hijab and acting against society’s psychological security according to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency. She was released from Evin Prison on bail on November 15.
Multiple businesses were closed by authorities for violations of hijab policies by staff.
Laws recognizing a divorced woman’s rights to alimony and part of shared property were not always enforced. A woman could divorce only if her husband signed a contract granting her that right, could not provide for his family, violated the terms of the marriage contract, or was a drug addict, insane, or impotent. A man could divorce his wife without providing any reason.
The law provided divorced women preference in custody for children up to age seven, but fathers maintained legal guardianship rights over the child and had the right to decide upon many legal aspects of the child’s life (such as issuing travel documents, enrolling in school, or filing a police report). Additionally, the civil code stated, “If the mother becomes insane or marries another man during her period of custody, the custody shall devolve upon the father.” After the child reached age seven, the father could gain custody unless he was proven unfit to care for the child.
The law permitted a man to have as many as four wives and an unlimited number of sigheh (temporary wives), based on a Shia custom allowing limited duration civil and religious contracts. The law did not grant women the right to multiple husbands.
On September 20, parliament approved the intensely controversial “Bill to Support the Family by Promoting the Culture of Chastity and Hijab.” If adopted, the new law would set new penalties for noncompliance with the Islamic dress code as interpreted by authorities, with new fines and prison terms of up to 10 years. According to press reports, the bill also called for more strictly segregating the sexes in schools, parks, hospitals, and other locations. The bill reportedly extended punishments to business owners who served women not wearing hijab and activists who organized against it. Celebrities not wearing hijab properly could be banned from leaving the country and performing.
Enforcement of hijab laws resulted in fines, imprisonment, and other punishments such as mandatory psychiatric care for many women, and allegedly led to the death of Mahsa Zhina Amini in September 2022. Amini died after reportedly being beaten while in the custody of the morality police, who detained Amini for her alleged “improper hijab.”
IranWire and The Guardian reported that a woman wearing a chador assaulted Armita Geravand, age 16, on a subway train in Tehran on October 1, causing Geravand to fall, hit her head, and lapse into a coma. The assault reportedly occurred after a verbal dispute in which the woman, who some reports claimed was a member of the morality police, criticized Geravand for not wearing the hijab. Geravand died four weeks later. NGO Hengaw reported that authorities pressured Geravand’s family, friends, and classmates to not speak out against the government’s official account that Geravand fainted due to a drop in blood pressure.
During the funeral for Geravand, authorities also beat and detained multiple attendees for protesting or not wearing hijab, including prominent human rights lawyer Nasrin Sotoudeh. Sotoudeh was charged with removing the hijab and acting against society’s psychological security according to the IRGC-affiliated Fars News Agency. She was released from Evin Prison on bail on November 15.
Multiple businesses were closed by authorities for violations of hijab policies by staff.
Laws recognizing a divorced woman’s rights to alimony and part of shared property were not always enforced. A woman could divorce only if her husband signed a contract granting her that right, could not provide for his family, violated the terms of the marriage contract, or was a drug addict, insane, or impotent. A man could divorce his wife without providing any reason.
The law provided divorced women preference in custody for children up to age seven, but fathers maintained legal guardianship rights over the child and had the right to decide upon many legal aspects of the child’s life (such as issuing travel documents, enrolling in school, or filing a police report). Additionally, the civil code stated, “If the mother becomes insane or marries another man during her period of custody, the custody shall devolve upon the father.” After the child reached age seven, the father could gain custody unless he was proven unfit to care for the child.
The law permitted a man to have as many as four wives and an unlimited number of sigheh (temporary wives), based on a Shia custom allowing limited duration civil and religious contracts. The law did not grant women the right to multiple husbands.
Reproductive Rights: There were no reports of coerced abortion, but there were isolated reports of involuntary sterilization on the part of government authorities. In June, Haalvash reported a hospital in Sistan-Balochistan Province, home to the country’s s ethnic minority Balochi population, performed postpartum hysterectomies on several women without their consent. Women who gave birth at Imam Ali hospital in Chabahar reportedly had their uteruses removed without their or their families’ consent.
A 2021 law directed authorities to prioritize population growth. These policies included measures such as outlawing voluntary sterilization and banning the free distribution of contraceptives by the public health-care system. The law also stipulated that content on family planning in university textbooks should be replaced with materials on an “Islamic-Iranian lifestyle,” with a framework drawn up in cooperation with religious seminaries and the Islamic Propaganda Organization.
It was illegal for a single woman to access contraception without a doctor’s prescription, but most single women had access to contraception, particularly in urban areas.
The government did not provide access to sexual and reproductive health services for survivors of sexual violence. Emergency contraception and postexposure prophylaxis were not routinely available as part of the clinical management of rape.