Commission on Human Rights

Date: 07 Apr 2005
The Commission on Human Rights :
General Debate on Integration of the Human Rights of Women and the Gender Perspective: Violence against Women

MARYAM TEHRANI, of National Federation of International Immigrant Women Associations, said that Iran was a country where one of the highest numbers of political executions in the world took place, and of the 120,000 political executions since 1979, a third had been women. In the past year, at least four women had been hanged in public. Eight stood on death row, and six more awaited stoning to death. Government figures released in January showed that more than 12 million Iranians lived in absolute poverty, with women making up 70 per cent of that population. Fifty-four honour killings had been reported in one province last year. By law, women did not have the right to become judges or presidents; no woman had been appointed cabinet minister or provincial governor, nor occupied a seat on the Guardian Council, Assembly of Experts or in the judiciary. A woman could not travel without her husband's written permission, nor work without his permission. Discrimination against women had been institutionalized under the rule of Islamic fundamentalists. Such violence had nothing to do with Iranian culture, tradition, nor with Islam. It was time to help the millions of women being suppressed in Iran. The Commission should restore international monitoring of the human rights situation in that country without delay.