Iranian government submits ‘violence against women’ bill to parliament

January 15, 2021 - 11:57

TEHRAN – The Iranian government has submitted a long-awaited bill for the protection of women against violence to the parliament.

The bill titled, Protection, Dignity, and Security of Women against Violence, had been under review since September 2019. It criminalizes any act or behavior that causes “physical or mental harm” to women “as a vulnerable gender”.

In line with principles and goals of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s Constitution and in order to protect the dignity and security of women against kinds of violent behaviors, the bill has been submitted to the parliament, IRNA quoted Vice President for Parliamentary Affairs, Hossein-Ali Amiri, as saying on Thursday.

It recommends a fund for safeguarding women’s rights with provisions for providing medical expenses of the victims of violence, and imparting skill development training to them, he explained.

Special support for women

Vice President Masoumeh Ebtekar said in October 2020 that the government has taken major steps for the advancement of women and families in Iran. “Through an inter-sectoral process, we developed national indicators for gender equity, which laid the ground for the first result based Plan for Women and Family Advancement in 31 provinces and we recently launched the dashboard for monitoring indicators on gender equity and family prosperity.”

Meanwhile, the national budget bill for the next [Iranian calendar] year (March 2021-March 2022) has been prepared in a way to support and pay special attention to women, especially female heads of households, rural women, and artisans.

Ebtekar noted that the budget for women’s and family affairs has increased by 33 percent, reaching up to 320 billion rials (nearly $7.6 million), with remarks suggesting special support for women.

She went on to highlight that the family is the cornerstone of human development, through the National Family Dialogue scheme. “We have taken an initiative to empower civil society in dialogue skills to enable family and social cohesiveness. The International Center for Family Dialogue has been recently launched in Tehran.”

MG

Comments

  • 2021-01-17 04:52
    Will be nice to actually mention what the bill entails. Iran has discriminatory laws against women. Doesn't Iran, for example, have no age limit on marriage of a girl?
  • 2021-01-17 08:53
    Well deserved but nothing is enough to thank Iranian women who are not just mothers and sisters of Iranian men but those who brought them to this world, raised them, cared for them, protected them, and nourished them in their loving laps.No wonder if men are in search of haven must bent before the

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