Written by Mehnoush Bakhtiari

These days, women’s rights in Iran are considered valueless and are treated unfairly. The Islamic regime of Iran prevents form women’s active participation in society and suppresses women violently in order to minimize their social role and make them stay at home. However, this compulsory policy has not only encouraged women to participate in society but also has motivated them to take off their hijab in the street and stadiums and more importantly it has raised their confidence in defending human rights as well as women’s rights throughout the society. The voice of their disapproval in symbolic protests in the street, in stadiums and universities, has been heard by all the regime authorities and the rest of the world on social networks. The women living in Iranian society now try to use every single opportunity to defend their elementary rights: freedom and independence which would be displayed in dancing, cycling, driving and pursuing academic studies in Ph.D. level and attentive participation in the job market.

   In Iran, women activists and human right defendants have been violently harassed by the security agents of the regime; interestingly enough, the authorities have never intended to do any research about these issues let alone to punish and penalize the criminal police officers and other agents who have been the main cause of such attacks. Even the few arrested agents were easily acquitted. Moreover, the Iranian authorities have been disregarding enough research about other accusations like human rights violations including restricting individual liberty, physical and mental punishments in prisons, willful arrests and bad behavior with the detainee.

   Nowadays, suppressing and silencing women by the Iranian regime is an inevitable fact. They intend to silence women’s voice in society since any time they hear it, they feel the panic in the regime’s authorities. Imprisoning the women who defend human rights is one of the examples of these reactions. One may refer to the attorney Nasrin Sotoudeh who got arrested due to supporting the girls without hijab on the streets of Tehran. She is now in Evin Prison. Another example is Narges Mohammadi, a brave woman who was also imprisoned and now she even cannot see her own young children. It is reported that she is suffering from severe nerve problems from the time of her investigation sessions and other diseases developed in prison.

   Above all, one of the most painful recent events occurred in Iran was about the bitter death of a young educated girl called Maryam Faraji. It was in winter 2018 and during the public riot and unrest throughout Iran that Maryam was arrested by security agents and then captured by ministry of intelligence for ten days; she was frequently insulted and harassed by the agents there. Afterwards, the court sentenced her to a three-year imprisonment and a two-year ban from foreign travel. During the sessions held in court, Maryam clearly asserted, “I support human, laborers and children’s rights. My father is a simple worker and I can’t act indifferently.”

   It was after her release on bail that one day she left home and never came back. Her family checked out every possible office and prison, but they didn’t find anything about their child; now that they have found their child’s half-burnt body, the regime has threatened them not to put the story into social media. Maryam who was considered helpful and supportive by a family of 7 was both an athlete and international MBA master who was working as a financial director of a company.

   Everybody is certain enough that this murder is done by the Islamic regime and this is part of the scenario performed by them and their ministry of intelligence’s think tank. They brutally murdered Maryam Faraji and threw away her half-burnt body deliberately to scare the young people away. However, this is a completely familiar scenario to Iranian people and they have experienced the same things during this forty-year period; they have always intended to kill the young people who claim for their elementary rights in order to scare the whole society and continue their dictatorship and cruelty.

Yes! These are some of the examples of Islamic principles and foundations by which Islamic governments put them in practice the best. Neglecting social rights as well as disregarding women’s rights and values is few of the priorities of these shameful Islamic principles.