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January 28, 2025

Dr. Nahid Tousli: There is no hope for the approval of fair laws regarding women’s rights in the parliament / Ali Kalaii.

Despite the increase in the number of female representatives in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, there is still not much hope for the drafting and passing of completely equal and fair laws regarding women’s rights. This is the perspective of Dr. Nahid Tavassoli, a sociologist, researcher, and women’s rights activist, who was interviewed by Khat-e-Solh in relation to the issue of domestic violence.

The editor-in-chief of the literary and artistic magazine, Nafah, also discussed various issues in an interview with the peace line, such as what happened to Aazam as a victim of domestic violence, the criminalization of domestic violence, and solutions to reduce this problem. He also answered questions about the legislative institution and the issue of laws related to women in Iran.

Let’s start from the last incident, which is the greatest one. Ms. Moulaverdi has stated in this regard that “Aazam has repeatedly complained about the physical violence of her husband, but has returned home with the suggestion of judicial authorities.” Why does this happen?

To answer the question “why did this issue happen?”, let me first ask: “which issue and which event?” Here, however, I will only refer to the “why” of this incident in Iran, which has its roots in many components that, although many of them have global roots, are defined differently in our laws.

The greatest woman is a Muslim and Iranian, and as a result, she believes in many traditions and taboos that have shaped her personality within this framework. She is not only obliged to believe in and follow them, but also due to internalizing these traditions and taboos, she cannot even escape from them in her mind. We must also accept all of these options for her husband, who is on the other side of this story. He is a Muslim and Iranian man who believes in all of these traditions and taboos, with the difference that, due to his gender being “male,” he holds a higher position in the patriarchal and paternalistic system of the world, which is much stronger and more effective in the East and in Iran. He has a type of superiority, leadership, management, authority, and power.

This difference in gender allows him (the husband) to engage in any inhumane or unethical behavior, based on the laws defined and formulated in his society regarding his and his wife’s civil and citizenship rights. Similarly, these laws also define and impose this duty on his wife, meaning that she (the wife) is also subject to all the authority that her husband has. Now, this is the only “law” that can and should fairly and justly address the rights and rights of each of these couples. Rights and rights that are defined and meaningful within the framework of “mental health” for each of them.

یا از طریق توهمات خودش را از همسرش دور می‌کند

One of the most significant deficiencies in the relationship between the great wife and her husband is the deficiency of the husband’s mental health. A deficiency that he creates by succumbing to addiction, even in its most subtle form, or by delusions that distance him from his wife.

[… In the beginning, there was tar and after that crystal and glass …]

من به دنبال یافتن یک شغل جدید هستم

I am looking for a new job.

He used to, which of course was enough to make him a different person with a tough, rough and inhuman character. Therefore, as a husband with characteristics defined by traditional society and his beliefs, and with the mental condition of addiction, he took action against his wife Azam, who was practically like a “slave” to him, and also towards his children, whom he considered his right to fatherhood and ownership, he saw it as a just and legitimate act for himself.

چیزی اتفاق نمی‌افتاد

Maybe if it wasn’t for the addiction, nothing would happen.

“The greatest has said: from the beginning of marriage, he has been consuming substances.” Azam’s husband did not have such violent and excessive acts of violence towards his wife and children.

She takes her wife and children to the lower floor of the house, draws the curtains and begins to threaten, harass and torment them….

]

He ties his wife to a gas pipe in the back room and also covers her hands and mouth with a cloth so that no sound can be heard by the neighbors.
I am sorry, but there is no Farsi text provided for translation. Please provide the text and I will be happy to assist you.

نشود]

Her husband would put her inside a metal box and lock it, so she wouldn’t suffocate from lack of oxygen.

“Shod…”

“Will be…”

Under the box, he would turn on the gas stove and burn his feet…

He set fire to a piece of cloth and threw it onto his wife’s naked body; he cut her entire body with a knife and then dragged her onto the concrete of the rooftop until her clothes were torn and she had severe injuries…
من دوست دارم به سفر بروم

I want to go on a trip.

All of these types of violence are related to addiction, which seems so horrifying and unimaginable. Regarding this issue and the conclusion of the main cause of such violence, Ms. Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Deputy of the President for Women and Family Affairs, wrote on her news channel on Telegram:

این یک متن نمونه است»]

“This is a sample text.”

Just one day after Father’s Day, we are faced with this shocking and unbelievable news. Immediately, I will send the news link to the head of the Women and Family Affairs Department of the relevant province and I will be kept informed of the investigations that have been carried out. مارس ٢٠١٤

Read the report sent by the social journalist of ISNA, which was prepared due to the severity and extent of violence against Aazam and his two daughters on March 21, 2014.

Day, I can only continue until half of it and I review the report quickly to find the reason for this unusual haste, and I come to what I suspected: addiction, the scourge of our society!

I’m sorry, there is no Farsi text provided for translation. Please provide the text and I will be happy to assist you. Thank you.

Molaverdi warned about the issue of addiction and the disasters caused by it for families on February 9th, 2016.

The reason for 55% of divorces is “addiction”!

In this regard, Kourosh Shojai, former editor-in-chief of Khorasan newspaper, also says:

In order to access drugs in Mashhad, it takes less than 5 minutes and this is the main cause of violence and social incompatibilities in society.

In examining the reason behind this incident, perhaps we can attribute it to the acceptance of the injustice and violence inflicted upon her by her husband. The behavior that Azam exhibited, according to the beliefs and traditions mentioned, was because she did not see any individual human rights for herself to be able to take any defensive or legal action. Azam did not show any signs of protest, as it was reported in the news by Mrs. Moulaverdi that “Azam has complained several times about the physical violence inflicted by her husband, but has returned home with the suggestion of judicial authorities,” and she did not get any results from her protests.

In conclusion, it can be said that Aazam is responsible for her actions due to her ignorance of her human rights. By accepting all this violence, injustice, and oppression without any protest, she becomes complicit in blocking any path to end the violence towards herself and other women who think and act in the same way. In my opinion, this passive behavior of a woman towards her husband’s behavior, despite all the justifications of societal, psychological, scientific, ethical, and human reasons, cannot be acceptable or tolerable. However, when we look at the statistics, information, and recorded cases, as well as visiting websites and news links, we find that the barriers to protesting against these heinous acts are greater than holding all the blame on the perpetrator and not speaking out or filing a complaint!

In research studies, we find that when a woman wants to protest, her family or friends advise her to forget about the issue and return to her life for the sake of her children and their fate. Many decide to divorce, but due to existing laws regarding divorce, such as the husband’s lack of consent, they endure. Many women endure these acts of violence simply because they do not have financial independence and cannot support themselves alone. Seeking help and filing complaints with legal and judicial institutions also has its own difficulties and challenges, the most important of which is proving the woman’s claim; a proof that requires witnesses. Usually, the violence that women endure, except in cases that occur at home and in front of their children, takes place in private and the woman, who has no witnesses, cannot prove it and must give up on protesting and filing a legal complaint. Testimony from children is usually not accepted due to their young age or because they do not have the courage to testify and confess in front

It seems that before any action, responsible institutions should provide necessary education to girls and women before marriage and familiarize them with various forms of domestic violence, including sexual and non-sexual, and teach them how to cope and respond to it in a logical and humane manner.

The main void that causes the proliferation of this inhuman and unethical power by the husband and also the inhuman and unethical passivity by the wife-spouse, is a legal and cultural void. These voids, which dialectically influence each other, are created by the law, which has been formulated in a male-patriarchal cultural context, and intensifies the cultural void that has been internalized by humans through centuries of traditions and laws. While the male-centric culture, which is based on violence, has also led to the formulation of anti-human/anti-ethical laws.

Why is this issue not limited to the mentioned cases? The root and original source of this “why” is the existence of such incidents within the framework of a male-centric and patriarchal global system; a system in which in today’s world, both men and women are power-driven and “male-female rulers”. A system that has seized control of the global economy, culture, and politics and has taken hold of the “life” of the world with its male-centric power-driven discourse. It is painful that many potential women-mothers have also been included in this discourse and have been made subservient to this power-driven system. The power-driven system of “male-father-female ruler” ruling over our digital and science-driven world has divided the world into two poles and under the sub-categories of inhumane and unethical dualistic male-centric discourse. This dualistic division, in addition to continuing the dualistic division between men and women that emerged after the agricultural era, has also led

Why does this story relate to “poverty” in its general sense? Both material poverty and cultural poverty, which are also due to the establishment and continuation of the same patriarchal system in the bipolar world that has been created. A large part of the problems and difficulties of human beings today, especially women and especially in third world countries, is economic poverty alongside cultural poverty; each of which has a reciprocal effect and is one of the very important goals of the imperialist world system. Economic poverty, and the constant struggle to feed oneself and one’s family, does not leave room for enriching cultural poverty. Cultural poverty also does not allow humans to strive for enriching their economic poverty. This process leads to many conflicts and violence, both at the societal and familial levels.

Recently, there have been whispers among some officials about the necessity of criminalizing domestic violence. Do you think there is any will among the lawmakers in Iran to address this issue?

Violence, in all its forms, is a crime and until a society completely eradicates violence in all areas, it cannot eliminate domestic violence. Domestic violence has its roots in societal violence. The effects and harms of violence, which exist at the level of a city, country, or even at a global level, are seen and recognized by all through the means of global communication. Like a contagious virus, it not only spreads in society, but also within families and affects relationships between family members.

Lawmakers are inherently sensitive to any issue that threatens the safety and security of citizens and society, and they strive to eliminate it. However, an important point for lawmakers is that (in this case, the law for women’s rights) they must adhere to a significant portion of laws and traditions, and in Islamic Iran, they must follow religious laws. There is no doubt that Islam, practically – due to its main foundation and principle of monotheism and justice – uses all its efforts to establish laws based on these two principles. However, an important point is the different interpretations and explanations of some Quranic and religious rulings by scholars and interpreters. In the field of equal and just women’s rights, the formulation of laws must be based on a thorough understanding of strong and similar rulings, but there is still no complete consensus among all clergy and religious scholars on determining which ruling is strong and which is similar. Therefore, if there are any gaps in the approval of a law for equal and just

It seems that according to the interpretation and explanation of the Quran and extracting the meanings and applications of its verses for the compilation of Shia jurisprudence, it is necessary to only rely on “re-reading and contemporary interpretation”. What Imam Khomeini did during his lifetime and based on the society’s needs, which were three cases of changing the rulings on playing chess and backgammon, and eating fish from the outside, was to change them from being forbidden to being permissible or halal.

In this regard, do you think that the future parliament, which will see a significantly higher number of women, will prioritize and address this issue within the framework of the law? How do you fundamentally evaluate the outlook of this matter?

See, the issue of legislation, as I mentioned before, is an important matter within the framework of laws and traditions that exist in our country. A legislator cannot proceed with passing a law without paying attention to the aforementioned matters. Regarding the effectiveness of women’s presence during legislation, I must say that it is crucial for matters that pertain to women themselves, especially for issues related to women’s reproductive health. However, with the very small number of female representatives in the parliament, which has only reached 18 out of approximately 37-38 years in the tenth parliament, I do not have much hope for the drafting and passing of completely equal and fair laws regarding women’s rights. What I mean is that even if women, who are still only a very small percentage of the total number of parliament members in the tenth parliament, believe in their rights and strive for them, it will not result in the desired equal and fair outcome for women. Unless our men come to terms with the Islamic-human

If we accept that the disclosure of domestic violence by women is effective in reducing violence, why is there not a significant effort in Iran to present statistics close to reality? This question arises from the fact that providing accurate statistics in this regard is almost impossible, but in many countries, statistics close to reality are presented. In Iran, however, we are only limited to statistics on social emergency calls, which usually do not include hundreds of cases of abuse…

I know it may seem far-fetched, but I believe that by exposing domestic violence from women’s perspective, it could have a significant impact on reducing violence. Even if a woman decides to speak up, despite all the difficulties she may face, it will not have any effect on reducing violence. The lack of statistics, which should be provided by authorities and official institutions in order to be accepted, can have various reasons. First, even if statistics are provided, they do not reflect the true extent of violence against women. This is because the statistics are obtained from women who are forced to go to relevant institutions for various reasons, sometimes by accident or to save their lives. Furthermore, this exposure from women’s perspective can make many violent individuals aware of the consequences of their actions, such as the lack of legal consequences and punishment, and make them less fearful and more comfortable to continue their violence. Another point is that providing statistics about an inhumane act in a country where there is no punishment for

It is obvious that women are the main culprits in this matter and their silence and passivity only encourages men to continue and repeat these acts of violence. When you commit a wrongdoing and know that there is no institution to punish or hold you accountable, what reason do you have to not continue with your wrongdoing? When society does not have this sensitivity and concern to react and take a stance against these acts of violence that occur every day and in various forms, how can a victim of violence seek justice from the appropriate institutions? How can they save themselves and raise a legal voice?

Of course, I agree with your statement that in many countries, statistics close to reality are presented. However, we must know that not everything that happens there is reported in order to provide accurate statistics. Perhaps with the exception of a few Scandinavian or Icelandic countries, there are fewer Western countries where these acts of violence are reported to legal authorities by the victims. I myself have seen in America, in the large city of Los Angeles, in a neighborhood where I was a guest, a couple fighting and physically assaulting each other for over two hours, to the point where the sound of breaking bottles or dangerous objects being thrown could be heard. But after the fight and violence subsided, it was as if nothing had happened. In the morning, you would see the husband and wife each getting into their own car and going to work. These domestic violence incidents, which are largely caused by economic, cultural, and even ideological issues, unfortunately exist in most societies due to not only the unjust gender structure, but

“Now let’s assume in Iran, we have access to the real statistics of domestic violence, in which women – wives and even children (the most vulnerable and their children) are subjected to such horrific human violence by their addicted husband-father, who has no control over his behavior and is considered mentally ill in a healthy society. Is there no law or solution to prevent its continuation and reform the offending individual? So that the victim of violence and injustice can seek justice?”

In your opinion, what should be the basic approach to addressing domestic violence in our country, considering the lack of protective laws for women?

This question should be answered by experts in sociology, psychology, behavior analysis, etc. In my opinion, as a researcher and activist for women’s rights, who follows several cases of such violence in the news every week, before formulating and approving laws, which alone cannot stop this problem, raising awareness in society about such incidents along with self-defense training and taking immediate action to save the life of the victim of violence can be very effective. I do not believe in directly addressing the issue of violence in society and in the family, but… Encouraging society to interact and be patient in the face of problems, to be friendly, to show love, to behave humanely, and most importantly, to teach children in families to adapt and be compassionate towards each other, is a cultural solution that goes hand in hand with legal solutions.

At the same time, civil institutions and organizations (non-governmental organizations = NGOs) have a heavy responsibility to find legal solutions. One of these solutions is to interact and have dialogue with the Deputy of the President in Women and Family Affairs and propose the drafting of relevant bills to stop these crimes – which are usually committed by men, fathers, husbands, and sometimes even by many women and mothers – in the form of punitive laws and presenting it to the legislative parliament and following up on it until results are achieved. Of course, alongside this, as mentioned, cultural work and raising awareness in society is also one of the most important solutions that can – although it may take a long time – eradicate violence from society!

Can domestic violence often be attributed to women of certain social classes (such as the upper class), or is this perspective incorrect?

Violence is a part of behaviors that humans encounter throughout their lives, especially during childhood and adolescence, both within the family and in society. Violence is essentially a “potential” in humans that can become “actualized” in certain circumstances, which vary greatly. If we consciously and intelligently remove these circumstances and factors from society, without a doubt, both the level of violence will decrease and the amount of violence seen will decrease as well. Therefore, violence is more prevalent in unhealthy, underdeveloped, sick, afflicted, and impoverished societies.

The division of upper and lower classes, especially in the past three decades in Iran, has completely changed and transformed compared to the class divisions that existed in our society before. First, we must define upper and lower class in current Iranian society! Are we referring to economic or cultural upper and lower class?!

The first and foremost economic issue is the lack of resources that individuals face, both in terms of feeding themselves and their families, and providing financial means for their livelihood. This very issue, which plays a significant role in the emotional and psychological relationships within a family, provides relatively justifiable excuses for, for example, the head of the household, who carries the heavy burden of providing for the family, to resort to violence.

If we think that there is no violence in upper-class families, we are mistaken. The only difference between the two is that the type of violence may be different due to economic conditions. The most important factor in violence is the upbringing and cultural mindset of individuals. Economic conditions are usually changing and fluctuating due to political, economic, cultural, and other changes. However, cultural conditions are more stable and have a greater impact.

If cultural institutions provide necessary education for peaceful and faithful behavior and encourage citizens to increase their patience, without a doubt, it will create the possibility of a peaceful atmosphere in families and decrease the likelihood of violence. Therefore, cultural richness, both in upper and lower class families, can elevate the behavior of violence.

In your opinion, to what extent can victims of violence help reduce violent behavior?

This depends on the circumstances and the current situation of the victim of violence. Many victims are in a very good mental state due to the realistic awareness and psychological training they have received. They can play a very important role in raising awareness in society and showing examples of compassionate behavior instead of violence, by sharing their experiences of violence inflicted upon them. Violence, just as it harms the victim, also harms the perpetrator. Any action that occurs and takes place is from the perpetrator to the victim, in other words, until the perpetrator does not harbor and revive “violence” within themselves, they cannot transfer it to the victim of violence.

Thank you for the opportunity you have given us to be featured in the monthly magazine of “Khat-e-Solh” (Line of Peace).

 

Explanation:

All quotes inside [] are from ISNA news agency.

Created By: Ali Kalaei
May 24, 2016

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