TEHRAN – The 3rd International Event on Women, Sustainability, Peace, and Security was held in Tehran on Monday, attended by representatives from Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Palestine, and Afghanistan.

Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President for Women’s and Family Affairs, stated that in Iran, domestic and social violence against women is not high, and compared to other countries, Iran is in a better situation, but even one case of violence against women is condemned.

There must be justice and security in Islamic society. Hence, the government approved the bill “preservation of dignity and protection of women against violence”, she noted.

The bill addresses various aspects of domestic violence and other aggressive behaviors and will be an important step towards increasing security and observing women's rights, she added, ISNA reported on Monday.

There are strong civic organizations in Iran, 2,700 of which are active in the field of women, she further concluded.

Women’s share of national budget

The budget proposed for women and family affairs has increased by 61 percent in the national budget bill for the next calendar year (starting on March 20).

The budget, which directly covers women and family affairs, is equivalent to 37 trillion rials (nearly $880 million at the official rate of 42,000 rials), which increased by 61 percent compared to the current year’s budget.

Steps taken toward women’s empowerment

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.”

“Based on our review of legislation on women and family, we have proposed 10 new bills including the bill on the Protection of Women's Security Against Violence and several new laws,” the vice president added.

“At least 2700 women-focused NGOs are active in Iran and we have plans for the empowerment of civil society activities, we have successfully implemented schemes like enhancing social resiliency, also the economic empowerment of thousands of women heads of the household through micro-credit Funds and Cooperatives,” she added.

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.”

In the field of legislation, finalizing the bill to ensure the security of women against violence, which can play an important role in combating domestic violence, the implementation of the plan granting Iranian citizenship to children born to Iranian women and non-Iranian men, and the bill banning the marriage of girls under 13, has been among the government's efforts, she concluded.

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