What was the fate of the bill to prevent Violence Against Women in Iran?
A misogynist tyrannical government is a precise definition of the current ruling regime in Iran. When a state or rulers of a country think of nothing but their own power and survival, and will stop at nothing to preserve it, you have a dictatorship; combine this with institutionalized discrimination and brutality against women and we will have a misogynist tyrannical regime. This means that the regime, with its fundamentalist ideology, is empowering its forces by brutalizing women, and consolidating its power by suppressing any opposition. It is clear that in such a system, violence, and in particular violence against women, is firstly state-sponsored, and secondly, is embedded in the governing laws.
The bill to Prevent Violence Against Women does not initially provide any definitions or frameworks of violence against women that would criminalize and establish a deterrent mechanism and then a punishment. Rather, in general, some of the criminal provisions of the Penal Code have been repeated in the bill.
Most of the text of the bill to Prevent Violence Against Women includes names of various organs to assist with propaganda tasks such as culture-building, and such that none have a time limit, no executive guarantees, and no credible audit authority. There is also no financial investment to prevent or organize violence and to shelter victims of violence.
Members of the National Committee responsible for the Protection, Dignity and Security of Women which include five well-known regime officials, are all men, except for Massoumeh Ebtekar, Director of Women and Family Affairs directorate. In addition to these officials, five members of the Qom Islamic Seminary are also on the committee, representing the most reactionary and anti-feminist sector of the religious dictatorship.
