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2002 FACTS AND FIGURES ON

THE SITUATION OF WOMEN IN IRAN

FUNDAMENTAL FREEDOMS AND HUMAN RIGHTS

- Tens of thousands of women have been executed in Iran since 1979, when the mullahs took power. They were executed on political grounds, for their opposition to the policies of the ruling government. Among those executed were tens of pregnant women.

- The worst kinds of torture are inflicted on woman prisoners who oppose the regime. These include repeated sexual assaults, amputation of body parts and...

- Women played a very active role in the 40,000 teachers' demonstrations outside the Majlis on January 12, 2002. In these series of demonstrations, a number of women were arrested and imprisoned on charges of just participating in a demonstration.

VIOLENCE AGAINST WOMEN

- Women are attacked and flogged in public.

In many cases when women are flogged for improper veiling are not announced in the regime' media.

- The state-run daily Abrar on February 20 wrote a 16-year-old runaway girl was sentenced to 55 lashes and three months detention.

- The state-run dailies reported that six women were flogged in public in the city of Roudan and four others were flogged in Tehran. (Kayhan daily, November 20 and Entekhab, November 13.)

- A 16 year old girl was sentenced to 100 lashes. Somaya was arrested and sentenced to flogging for running away from home. (Nowrouz, April 4)

- Female members of the Revolutionary Guards flogged a 20-year-old girl in public in Qom. (Towse’eh daily, April 18) Her crime was that she was wandering in the streets; she was a runaway girl. In addition to the 100 lashes she received in a park, this girl is doomed to stay in prison for four years.

- Woman Sentenced to Death for Self-Defense, March 15:

The clerical regime’s Supreme Court confirmed the death sentence for Afsaneh Norouzi, 32, who has been in jail since 1997 for killing a man who wanted to rape her. The high court upheld the sentence, ignoring all witness accounts indicating that Afsaneh was acting in self-defense against a rapist.

STONING

- One of the most common methods of punishing women in Iran is by stoning.

- At least 14 women have been sentenced to stoning or stoned to death during Khatami's tenure.

- Woman Dies in Prison Before Stoning, March 8:

The clerical regime’s official press reported that a 39-year-old woman prisoner, mother of three children, died in jail a few days before being stoned to death in accordance with a sentence passed by a religious judge.

- Entekhab daily, April 24: A court in Tehran sentenced a woman by the name of Ferdows B. to stoning on April 24.

EDUCATION & GIRL CHILDREN

- 67% of the students deprived of education are girls between 11 and 16 years of age. This is indicative of great inequality.

- Two million girl children between ages 7 and 18 do not have the opportunity of attending classes.

- The number of girl children who drop out of school is on the rise due to negative atttitutde toward women's education, early marriages, shortage of education space and educational facilities.

- Out of a total of 10,712,000 illiterates, 6,600,000 are women.

- In the rural areas, 30.1% of girls between 15 to 17 years of age have to quit school in elementary years, and 18.2% in early high school years.

- Over 76% of nomad girls are deprived of high school education.

- The State Security Forces arrest 50 runaway girls every day in Tehran. This includes only the individuals intercepted by the police. The actual figure is much higher. According to a police report, 2,000 runaway girls are presently missing in Tehran.

- The number of runaway girls has increased 30%.

SOCIAL ILLS

- The suicide rate in Iran is one of the highest in the world. 75% of the victims are women, 81% of whom are between 15 to 31 years of age. The average age of those attempting suicide is 25.

- The number of women committing suicide is 1.5 times greater than men.

- More women burn themselves as a sign of protest:

One of the Iranian regime’s officials acknowledged that a rising number of women and girls in Iran commit suicide by setting themselves ablaze. He said: Self-immolation among women is a symbol of protest against the discriminations they suffer from in the society. There are other ways for committing suicide, but women set themselves ablaze to express their protest. (Towse’eh, April 7)

- General Director of Tehran’s Prisons: 66.2 percent of addicted prisoners in Iran are women, 51.2 percent of whom have families. (Qods daily, February 12, 2002)

EMPLOYMENT

- Only 9% of Iranian women are employed. 72% of these women work in the educational sectors.

- Only 600,000 of the country's 29.5 million women have jobs.

- 65% of women and girls who graduate from colleges and universities, do not find any jobs and are forced to stay at home.

- The reason for nine out of every 10 women who are dragged into prostitution, is poverty. The second most common reason is unemployment.

LAWS

- The legal age for marriage for girls is 9 and for boys is 15.

- Women are not allowed to leave home without the permission of their husbands, even if she wants to attend her father's funeral.

- Women cannot travel on their own without the permission of their husbands.

- Husbands can prevent their wives from working outside, if they realize that a woman's job is interfering with the interests of the family.

- Husbands can divorce their wives whenever they wish and without presenting any reasons.

- Women are banned from teaching boys older than 10 years of age.

- Woman is the inferior sex, whose testimony is worth half the testimony of a man.

- Women inherit half of men.

- Women do not have the right to enter sport stadiums. In the football game between Iran and Ireland in Tehran on November 15, only Irish women were permitted to enter the stadium. This is an absolute violation of the most basic rights of the Iranian women.

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