|
The following article is a translated excerpt from Mehrangiz Kar’s book Violence Against Women in Iran published by Roshangaran in 2000 in Tehran, Iran.
Violence against women is in no way particular to underdeveloped societies or Muslim societies. In the most advanced countries of the world, women and children suffer from the effects of violence, and particularly violence in family life. Physical, sexual, and psychological harm not only jeopardize their health, peace of mind, and emotional and psychological balance, but also harm society. A price will be paid for this situation; governments are preoccupied with various economic, cultural, and social problems, and in many cases, the governments are not capable enough to resolve the issue. In the long run, this problem persists, and the phenomenon of violence becomes intensified and strengthened. If precise and insightful plans are implemented for controlling violence against women in the long-term, this cycle of wrongness will be broken.
Violence against women is a world affair because:
--30 to 35 percent of American women are physically abused by their husbands.
--15 to 25 percent of American women are beaten and verbally abused by their husbands while they are pregnant.
--According to the findings of FBA, in ‘92, three out of every ten murdered women were killed by their husbands or boyfriends.
--21 to 30 percent of women in America were attacked and physically abused at least once over the course of living with their partner.
--In Columbia, more than 20 percent of women are verbally or psychologically abused by their husbands.
--In Santiago, Chile, 63 percent of women are physically abused.
--41 percent of women in India kill themselves as a result of physical abuse by their spouses.
--42 percent of women in Kenya are abused by their spouses on a regular basis.
--In the new century, 67 percent of village women and 56 percent of city women have been physically abused.
--62 percent of Canadian women murdered in 1987 were killed by their husbands.
--In Bangladesh, more than 50 percent of murder victims were killed as a result of the violence of men (1).
It is a fact that violence against women is an issue that concerns the world, and the reaction of the global society to violence against women has also been tremendous. At the fourth conference on human rights in Vienna (in ’97), violence against women was recognized as a subject that it was a priority to evaluate, and this important point was emphasized—that violence jeopardizes the physical well-being, psychology, and freedom of women, and men who perpetrate violence have a substantial effect on women.
The participants of the fourth conference on human rights emphasized that judges, police offices, lawyers’ offices, family support centers, teachers, and in general, supporters of the law must evaluate the cultural roots of spousal abuse. Also, they concluded that the attitude of men towards women must change, and women must also help men to reevaluate their understanding of the female gender.
After the laying out of goals of the fourth Human Rights Commission in Vienna (97), the Human Rights Commission, in its fifth sitting, decided in statement 19694/45 of March 4, 1994 that for a period of three years, a special committee would be set up to study acts of violence against women and determine the causes of that violence, and every year the committee would present its findings (2) on this subject to the commission. Ms. Radhikakuma Rasavami (from Sri Lanka) immediately was chosen and began presenting results containing a list of bitter world truths. These findings covered all kinds of acts of violence against women in the household sphere.
These findings on violence against women were described in this way:
“Paragraph 22: The idea that the home is a holy shelter for harmony and rest of the mind has become a myth. Domestic violence, in truth, does not fit into this ideal picture and realistically does not jive with this conception of the home. Violence ruins the image of the peaceful and safe home. In this light, on the basis of available examples, we can understand the nature of violence all throughout the world and in different nations and cultures. Domestic violence is a world phenomenon.
“Paragraph 23: Violence against women is a sort of violence that occurs in the private sphere and generally occurs between individuals in a close relationship, connected to each other through law or through blood. Considering the issue from an unbiased point of view, domestic violence, almost always, is a crime related to a specific gender—men inflict the violence on women. If it occurs in the reverse, and women become violent towards men, this is never in accordance with the relevant statistics on the natural tendencies of the specific gender. In every circumstance, it is more common that a woman tries to defend herself from the physical aggressions of the man. According to witnesses in the courts of justice of the United States, women are eleven times more likely to be victims of domestic violence.
“Paragraph 27: Domestic violence in its most complicated form is a strong tool of oppression. Acts of violence against women generally and domestic violence specifically form basic components of the society and oppress women. Because acts of violence against women comes from the behavior of the prevailing gender in society, this is in the meantime the cause of its continuance and a means of controlling women in the only space that traditional practice can prevail—the home.
“Paragraph 28: In an effort to show the different types and various dimensions of of violence in the home, these findings describe domestic violence in the very violent way that it occurs in the home, and how women, in the role that they play in the home, get affected by this violence. It also attempts to understand the forms of violence that aim to create a direct negative impact on women themselves that exist in the sphere of the home. People and material factors, both general and specific, can explain domestic violence. These findings put aside the explanations of traditional forms of domestic violence—violence between individuals who are mahram to each other or the physical and verbal abuse of women—and gives an explanation of more complicated forms. These findings are mostly based on a statement of the United Nations about eliminating violence against women. The second subject addressed by the statement paints a picture of physical, sexual, and psychological violence that occurs in the home, but this is not limited to the sorts of violence explained before, but also physical and verbal violence, molestation of female children in the home, violence related to dowry and gifts of marriage, aggression within matrimony, mutilation of women and other traditions that are harmful to women, violence out of the home and violence related to exploitation are included.” (3)
From the collection of issues that are in the center of attention of the United Nations, this important point can be understood: violence against women in the home is an age-old universal problem and the seriousness of this matter is of such a magnitude that necessitates that different countries, in proportion with their own capabilities, understand its roots and put to use all of their faculties in order to control and stop it. According to other people, stopping violence against women requires very specific actions and as long as various angles are explored in discussion and analysis of the subject, prevention of violence against women in family life can be accomplished. A model for eliminating acts of violence against women in all societies does not exist. Every plan that is adopted for fighting against acts of violence against women should include common elements, but this solution absolutely must conform to the different cultural and social backgrounds of the various countries.
Violence Against Women in Iran is Often Kept Hidden
One of the characteristics of violence against women all throughout the world is that in most of the instances are hidden from view. Unless absolutely desperate, women don’t speak out against violence committed against them. The reasons for this abstinence are different in every society and depend on the personal and social conditions of women in each country.
In Iran, women are also under the pressure of the vast scope of a thousand years of tradition, and they have gotten accustomed to concealing the violence in their lives from others. In particular, they resist seeking help from courts and public service organizations, and they only begin complaining and asking for help when they have no hope left at all. Battling violence against women in Iran is not easy, as in all other countries of the world. Iranian women are always helpless before the rules of their fathers, brothers, and brothers-in-law, and when they are married, they are helpless before the rules of their husbands and their husband’s relatives; in the workplace, they are under the rulings of their male superiors, and in their social lives, they are helpless before misogynistic traditions. In this climate, facing this sort of way thinking and behaving, they resign themselves to the violence.
In the present time, the individual and social behaviors of women are under the magnifying glass of revolutionary extremists. These segments of political power, under the cover of fighting against evils in society, the invasion of Western culture, and the behavior of sinners and women without hejab, try to control all the individual and social freedoms of women. Fortunately this sort of violence against women is not a hidden affair and is completely visible.
Because women are made victims of campaigns of political violence—campaigns which are excused by the assertion that revolutionary values must be preserved, but which undermine human rights—Iranian women would benefit from discussions about freedom in Iran. Iranian women who in other contexts have accepted and surrendered to violence have in fact reacted to political violence and have made difficult the ploys of powerful political aggressors. This twenty seven years resistance has shown that whenever women take an active stance against those who oppress them, they will reach a position of growth and perfection.
Violence Against Women is not Only Domestic
Violence against women is not only domestic and in fact is committed in both the private and public sphere. But in every society, violence against women assumes a unique form, influenced by the infrastructure of laws, the traditions, the religion and the politics of that particular society.
For example, in the private sphere, Iranian women are faced with unique forms of violence that arise from the practice of laws and traditions which govern divorce and of which there are no examples in Western societies.
Divorced women are not protected by the infrastructure of laws and the traditions of Iran, and as much as they can, in married life, they show themselves to be subservient and flexible so that they don’t become divorced or widowed.
According to the laws of Iran, women who divorce are not given a share of the riches of their husbands and are therefore forced into a state of poverty after their divorce. Also after a divorce, mothers have custody of children up to only seven years, and in later years, the court can separate the children from the mother. Thus, fear of separation from their children also increases women’s acceptance of violence, including among professional women who have financial independence.
In most cases, men in Iran who commit acts of violence against their spouses, further encouraged by the tolerance of women and the laws which instigate violence, become bold and arrive at he incorrect conclusion that perhaps violent behavior is an absolute right that they are granted so that they can use it to oppress women in their position as husbands.
On the other hand, different kinds of violence are also inflicted on women in Iran and complement each other, exacerbating the effects of women’s submissiveness towards violence, such as society’s tendency to look down on divorced women. On the whole, various forms of violence against women collectively oppress women to such an extent that women see suicide as the only means of escape in their state of great distress.
Therefore, the roots of violence against women should be searched for in a collection of mutually-affecting components, which includes forms of violence such as domestic, social , political, and specific interpretations of religion, and one should do one’s best to bring the problem out in the open in cases where it is hidden and then discuss the problem from various angles. In this process of understanding, one should not be solely focused on the physical form of violence, but also forms of violence such as sexual, psychological, financial, and political violence are worthy of intense discussion.
In general, in Iran, women exist under the dominance of a collection of forms of violence that generally include religious and non-religious traditions. In modern times, they have also experienced new forms of violence in the public and private spheres with which there are no parallel forms. These forms can be recognized within the framework of the infrastructure of revolutionary culture and the revolutionary laws of Iran, which are both rooted in the same religious traditions. Emphasis on the value of separation of genders on college campuses, prohibition on the attendance of women as spectators of men’s sports competitions, prevention of the activities of female artists—including singers, and other forms of violence like these which have been imposed on Iranian women. Under both internal and international pressures, some Iranian officials have shown a concern for violence against women. Also, the phenomenon of increasing violence against women has also provoked Iranian professionals, who are now receptive to the problem and the necessity of controlling it. Doctor Davar Sheinkhavandi, one who diagnoses social problems, has said regarding this subject:
“In principle, the relationships between individuals are shaped to a certain extent by fighting. In instances where men fight with women, we must pay attention to the fact that in men, on account of the characteristics of their hormones and their bodies, the instinct to fight and behave violently for defending themselves is stronger, and they perhaps inherit this from animals and primitive humans, who, by nature, use their physical strength for their own survival. But little by little, as humans migrated to cities, this use of strength can be applied more widely and therefore they attack less those who are familiar to them and instead attack strangers. In Iran, we have heard that women disguise their voices so that strangers cannot recognize the true sound of their voices; men have to walk several paces ahead of women; the place of women is in the kitchen; women can’t go outside of their houses without the permission of their spouses. Men call their wives by the names of their children, saying “Hasan’s mother, Ali’s mother, and…”
“This sort of behavior has, of course, changed gradually and become less prominent in society, but there undeniable traces of remnants of these behaviors, and they are used as justification for harming spouses. Such behavior is not particular to either families that are educated or uneducated, poor or well-off, big or small. Of course, the frequency of occurrence of this behavior in each of these different types of families is different, but violence is a phenomenon that is common all over the world.”
“In any event, records of spousal abuse in modern societies are also present, and in the hierarchy of the family, the male bread-winner gives himself permission to administer punishments, and he uses whatever means it takes to create order, even bodily force. In the past, Iranian women would move into their husbands’ homes at a very young age, and the relationship between men and women at that time was analogous to a relationship between a powerful individual and a helpless individual. Spousal abuse is only rarely rooted in psychological abnormalities, unlike child abuse. Today, women are more mature with respect to men in age, thought, and physical strength, at the very least. Psychologists assign the causes of wife-beating and violence to psychological disorders
only in instances when men are addicted to anti-depressant drugs or narcotics that have psychological and neurological effects
From another perspective, spousal abuse is not only physical or bodily harm. Verbal and psychological abuses are also included in forms of spousal abuse. Feelings of contempt towards women, insulting women, committing adultery, not paying enough attention to women, and neglecting women are all forms of abuse that can even be considered more prevalent than physical abuse. In the opinion of psychologists, many instances of suicide result from psychological abuse of women by men.
Humans have to chose between alternatives for escaping torture, and suicide is one of them.
Recently, the effect of time and place in exacerbating violent behavior of Iranian men towards women has captured the attention of specialists. Doctors in Iran say that the days after vacations, the late hours of the night and the summer season are the times at which the most instances of violence against women have been referred to health centers. This means that when men are off of work, are out of work, or even in instances when men work in the home, they have more opportunity for nitpicking and fighting. They believe that spousal abuse in Iran frequently begins in the first years of marriage. In 1375 on the Iranian calendar, out of every 100 women that were referred to a health center, 81 had been in their first year of marriage. (4)
Violence against Women is Often Not Reported in Iran
Violence against women has become a subject of debate in today’s Iranian media. Newspapers make instances of such violence major headlines. In some instances, the press tries to make issues of the family the central focus of public attention for critiquing and discussion, and they explore sources of social problems having to do with violence. But newspapers, in reality, can’t do much to achieve their goal and help the society—they approach the problem with helpless and weak hands and with only a bit of knowledge and statistical information. This lack of information is reflected clearly in press articles, and those who take action to gather reports on violence against women do so with despair and distress, and they say that they are hindered by obstacles and problems. An example of this is the following:
In Iran, unfortunately, precise statistics on the phenomenon of spousal abuse—which is very emotion-stirring—does not exist. We believe that those who are responsible for compiling data related to this phenomenon hide the reality that harsher laws must be instituted for those men who are commit acts of violence against their wives.
The harshest punishments for violent men, even in the most serious instances, when violence makes women unable to work, are a fine or prison sentence. A particular specified punishment for cases where women have been harmed by the men of the family does not exist in the laws of Iran, and punishments for general instances of violence are applied to those cases.
Shelters to protect women do not exist, and the delay of the law enforcement in dealing with the problem also contributes to the instigating men in perpetrating acts of violence. Suicide, especially among women, is one of the results of acts of violence.” (5)
Reporters, after announcing the shortcomings of the law and the lack of shelters, address the lack of cooperation between the service centers and the press, as in the following:
'In the beginning of the preparation of this report, our requests for permission to visit the hospitals “Loqman A-Dawleyeh Hakim” (a hospital for poison victims) and a hospital for victims of accidents and burn victims, called “Tawhid,” were denied. We contacted the public relations offices of Shahid Beheshti University and the Medical University of Iran for permission to visit the poison and burn victim university hospitals. The public relations office of the Medical University of Iran issued a resounding “no”, and the public relations office of the medical school of Shahid Beheshti university explained that since one analysis written upon visitation of this department (the department for poison victims) had created problems, for now visitation is not allowed, and we were obliged to wait.” (6)
Thus, addressing the phenomenon of violence against women, of which the beginning is studying and creating publications on the types and the dimensions of violence, in Iran is difficult work and often impossible. The political atmosphere of the country is influenced by critical struggles for power between governing parties, the difficulty confronting the publication of any type of report in the press, in addition to the judiciary structure which refuses to prepare and regulate the relevant statistics (with the intention of hiding abnormalities and special crimes in the family sphere), and, on the contrary, creates and obstacle for study and illumination. In conclusion, the press, in reporting news of events—without having the opportunity to present all angles of the issue to the audience—makes violence a one-dimensional phenomenon. In these closed circumstances, there is a superficial attitude and a prevalence of empty talk which overshadows the reporting, and the important and complicated topics which have great value, the exciting ups-and-downs of journalism---which are transient and short-lived—are lost and cut off. Under existing conditions, one cannot contain and control violence.
The work of the press, since it is published under unsuitable conditions and cannot include all the details, is not eye-catching and therefore can’t make the news and help to stop violence. The news reports, in most cases, cannot address key points because they are confronted with the aforementioned obstacles. To the present day, this problem persists. In these conditions, reporters have vainly tried to make known the instances of violent behavior against women, which is a serious problem in Iran.
The Iranian Legal and Law Enforcement Systems are Indifferent to Violence against Women
The way in which legal and law enforcement authorities deal with instances of violence against women is an important and complicated subject that in some societies, including Iran, is strangely marked by an indifference to the human rights of women and a turning aside of the problem of violence against women. They don’t take women complainants seriously and believe that family quarrels should be resolved within the limits of the home. On a fundamental level, in Iran, it is considered bad for a woman to go to police or other legal authorities, and when women, in states of helplessness, extend their hands to these authorities, they are reproached by others and are themselves not comfortable with the act. In some instances, the authorities pre-judge and then dismiss their complaints, and even in cases when a woman claims that her life has been threatened by a man, the authorities don’t care. When we evaluate the dismissive attitude of the dignitaries of the state towards abused women and the lack of shelters for women and the deficiencies of the Iranian laws, we understand that the government is not familiar with the responsibility that it has in this area. Therefore the best and most important approach to dealing with the necessity of controlling violence against women in Iran is to remind the government of the duties it has that are necessary to protect the rights of half of the citizens of its state. Creating an understanding of women’s rights and correcting the mistaken belief that women are second-class citizens is a necessary step, and making this step would mark progress. Thus, choosing a suitable approach to changing the mentality of the people of Iran will act in conjunction with other approaches to solving the problem. Although in Iran there is an excess of instances of violence against women that result in physical and sexual abuse, other examples are worth observing that have arisen from revolutionary values. Recently the secretary of the highest council on the youth of the country has paid attention to the violent circumstances in which some women live and have asked the mujtahaids to find a remedy for problems having to do with boy-girl relationships, music, and art. In his explanation, he has said:
“Music is a need of the youth in modern times which must be taken into account. This phenomenon will confront the youth, and if we don’t propose a replacement for music, we will eventually be able to do nothing about it. We mujtahids, in this time stricken with many problems, must figure out how to deal with boy-girl relationships, music, and various kinds of art. With the introduction of Western culture to the youth of this country, because of fear, we imposed unrealistic judgments. We should try to go in the direction of correcting this problem by opening the door of the dialogue of civilizations, because we cannot change the way the West looks to the youth.” (7)
An opinion poll was conducted on the presence of women in sports stadiums, and the results, printed in a newspaper, said that with the creation of agreeable conditions in the stadium, 97 percent of people accepted the presence of women, and only 3 percent were opposed, even if those agreeable conditions were created. 53 percent of those polled were women and 47 percent of them were men. (The conditions were, for example, that a portion of the platform was set aside for women). (8)
Such evidence proves that in today’s Iran, the most elementary human rights for women are under debate and discussion. Approaches for containing violence in such a changing society should be chosen, but of course, these approaches must be particular to this society, with its particular revolutionary, religious, governmental, and cultural backgrounds. Expediting advanced thought in today’s Iran will occur if the political order of Iran would recognize its responsibilities.
Many important events and discoveries occurring within Iran show that Iran is not a static society and is, in fact, becoming less traditionalist and more modernist, and any obstacles which form barriers to this progress are faced with increasing criticism. Groups who safeguard the old traditions are active, but with ease they can be confronted by the roaring waves of modernity. In this confrontation, there will be casualties. But the goal is so valuable that it they the expense is worthwhile.
Controlling Violence against Women in Iran Requires Broad Study and Inquiry
Because of the specific financial and cultural situation in which Iranian women find themselves, a method of combat must be chosen carefully. It is correct that the laws of Iran say that if women can prove in the court that her husband has repeatedly harmed her, she can get a divorce, but for women who are financially dependent on their husbands, divorce is not an appropriate solution. Women, after having separated from their husbands, are not given any portion of the possessions of their husbands; divorce, in truth, represents a low point in the period of their financial security. Furthermore, in Iran, divorce is not a socially-acceptable concept. In many cases, after the divorce and after exiting the cycle of domestic violence, women who have been victims of violence enter into a cycle of social violence which is very tragic. In the period of being divorced, even if they are employed and make good money, women encounter another kind of violence in the social sphere which take way their equal access to opportunities in regards to social activities and in the working atmosphere.
Also, financial rights such as alimony, which, according to the laws of Iran, belong to women, may cause violence against women in the home. In some instances, after signing the marriage contract, a man who has given an appropriate alimony to his spouse will try to convince the woman to give up the alimony under the influence of pressure from his family and friends. Since women show resistance, the husband uses violence as a tool to achieve his purpose, and this cycle of violence—from the point of view of time—ties together engagement and marriage. Also, in instances where the woman wants a divorce and the husband doesn’t agree, the husband can use privileges given to him by the law and make the woman helpless, so that the woman, in the long run, has to give up all of her financial rights in order to complete the divorce.
Thus, the alimony, which apparently is a base of security for Iranian women and the philosophy for their existence, has become the basis of violence against women in the major cities of Iran. That this type of violence is native to Iran should be considered when choosing approaches to solving violence, because in other societies it is possible that instances of violence come in different forms (like in Bangladesh and Pakistan, where women are killed because they are unable to secure money for household supplies). In Iran, inability to secure this money does not cause this extent of violence, and families usually expect a marriage payment only as great as the bride’s family can handle. Thus, the approach that should be chosen to stop violence in Iran necessarily will not be the same as the approach chosen in Bangladesh and Pakistan. In Iran, laws which stipulate punishments for men who physically harm their wives in some cases enforce a fine or a term of imprisonment. But these punishments are not complete resolutions to the problem because numerous women are dependent on the protection of their husbands in all truth, and after complaining about their husbands and causing them to be sentenced for a punishment, they feel guilty. Plus, their kids are punished because imprisonment of a spouse affects the entire family, just as poverty does. Thus, in the Iranian society, stopping violence by issuing general sentences are not effective; instead, broad studies of the various social factors causing violence should be undertaken in order to formulate a variety of approaches which collectively can affect the society. It is natural that approaches which change the infrastructure of laws in the country must be prioritized, but this can’t be the only remedy. A collection of approaches will be effective, which all together can be implemented to control violence.
The superficiality of reporting on instances of violence in the press advances a certain perception of violence in the society, and thus choosing approaches to solve the problem of violence becomes either postponed or impossible. Discriminatory laws and stereotyping and abuse of women generally are rooted in traditions which cannot be easily confronted.
An Effective Struggle with Violence against Women in Iran requires the Formulation of an Effective Approach
It has been demonstrated that for the intellectuals of Iran, the passage from traditionalism towards modernity necessitates a re-evaluation of all of the old values. Therefore, without the benefit of freedom of the press we cannot traverse this difficult road.
Criticizing religious traditions and those traditions not associated with religion is impossible in a vacuum of freedom of expression. It is because of this that Iran has entered into a difficult period of struggle for political development, which is necessary for this criticism to occur. This period is very critical for influencing the lives of women who victims of violence, because until the root of violence in religious and non-religious traditions isn’t eliminated, the cycle of violence will destroy the personal and social lives of women, and even changing the system of government without recognizing these roots of violence against women is not a remedy. Criticizing the traditional points of view in the religious and secular contexts is so necessary that we must conclude that even fear of excommunication and imprisonment and death cannot halt the movement of criticism.
The Iranian press, functioning in the relatively suitable atmosphere which was created after the reform in 1997, has started to work on this important task, and even though they are continuously under the threat of being suspended and shut down, they have steadfastly continued their work.
Many religious researchers, specialists on Islamic law, and religious people have joined the movement of criticizing traditions and especially the religious tradition of violence against women that Islam perpetuates. As long as the Iranian society is not able to make corrective interpretations of and understand religion, it will not be able to make a peaceful transition into making positive and constructive criticism. In other words, a society with the particular characteristics of Iran requires a solution to intricate cultural questions. A change in religious thought in the modern age, which has led to the creation of various movements and ideas which are progressive and reformed, is inevitable in a time not too far ahead and will bring women’s problems under scrutiny and encourage change in the public mind, because the elite thinkers have well understood that the grave task for stopping violence against women in life is strengthened by criticism of religious and non-religious traditions. Meanwhile, people have also boldly appeared who connect their own fights against a culture of violence—a culture which is also destructive in the political sphere—to helping women in their personal and social lives. In the Iran of today, the culture of violence has, from every direction, come under focus, and the necessity of stopping violence and changing it to a culture of dialogue has been perceived.
Any time a civilized society, under the power of strong traditional practices, stops developing and growing, women’s parties can, in the movement of criticizing religious and non-religious traditions, and in coordination with each other, become active and ask intellectual forces, both religious and secular, for their opinions of women’s rights, and propagate those opinions. Women’s parties can not only act in a unified way, but also they can end, in this modern day, the private and silent interventions of the religious schools, and convince them that:
--Religious traditions justify violence against women.
--Non-religious traditions mixed with superstitions prescribe violence against women.
Now the movement of criticism from every direction is confronting the culture of violence, and its purpose is to improve the infrastructure of traditions in Iran. This huge task must be tailored to the regional, political, native, religious and cultural conditions of Iran so that in the long run the gates of the Renaissance will be opened in the face of this society and intervene in the cycle of violence. Democracy is a replacement for the rights of the cycle of violence, and human rights laws are replacements for the rights of religious and non-religious traditions.
“Important and weighty political goals that modern society accomplishes arise from the knowledge, choices, and civic volunteering of individuals. Meaning, people should be free, so that they can volunteer their services to confronting challenges that society faces, especially in the political, social and cultural spheres. The purpose of modern society is to allow people to live better…in our society, women, just like men, must be able to develop their personalities and participate in the fate of society. According to Islamic laws, if we subject to rational thought the two principles of time and place with accuracy and deliberateness, we can see new horizons for the role and place of women in society, and their rights.” (9)
_______________________
Notes:
1- "Why They Harm Their Spouses"; Banafshe Sam Gees; Khordad Newspaper; 8 Day, '77; p. 5.
2- Report of the United Nations Special Rapporteur on Violence Against Women, 1995, (E/CN. 4/1996/53).
3- "Human Rights and Violence Against Women." Farzandeh Magazine; Volume 3; Issue 8; Summer 1375; pp. 79-92.
4- "Why They Harm Their Spouses"; Banafshe Sam Gees; Khordad Newspaper; 8 Day, '77; p. 5.
5- Same source as #5
6- Same source as #5
7- Zan Newspaper; Year 1; Issue 95; 8 Azar '77; pp 1-2.
8- Same source as # 8; p. 1.
9- Resalat Newspaper; 13th Year; Issue 3559; 9 Ordibehesht '77; pp. 1-2
|
