Statement of groups of Iranian Women Supporting Afghan Women

Some of the feminist movements in Iran have issued a statement addressing Afghan women thus: Your ceaseless and courageous struggle against discriminatory laws could contribute to our strength as well just as we decided today to stand up in your support and express our concern about the approval of this new discriminatory law in Afghanistan.

Women activists in Iran have addressed Afghan women as their suffering sisters and written that: “If you have followed the activities of Iranian women, you must know that last year a bill entitled The Law Supporting the Family that seriously threatened the rights of Iranian women was on the threshold of approval at the Iranian parliament. Women activists and advocates of equal rights in Iran from all groups, ideologies, ethnicities, and genders were united and eventually managed to stand up against the approval of this law that violated women’s rights and stopped its debate at the parliament.” 

The full text of this statement is as follows:

Suffering Afghan sisters,

We, the women activists in Iran have always tried to closely and responsibly follow the activities, achievements, and failures of women in regional countries because we believe that any accomplishment or failure facing women in the countries of the region can affect women in Iran. Experience has shown that we can advance our movements toward equality by taking advantage of one another’s experiences. Therefore when we learned that a new law called Family Law has been recently approved in Afghanistan, we decided to join you in protesting against this anti women law. In this law, women particularly Shiia women are severely restricted. This law covers about 20 percent of Afghan citizens and increases the powers of men and limits the human rights of women. Article 133 of this law grants men the right to prevent his wife from having a job and in another article, women are not allowed to leave their house without the permission of their husband unless it is an emergency. The age of marriage has also been reduced from 18 to 16 for Shiia girls. The law legalizes “marital rape” that is at odds with human rights and the convention on elimination of discrimination against women and paves the way for further suppression of women. Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, says that “This article has been misinterpreted.” Our question is, what other meaning except for sexual slavery could be derived from this law? Is it anything but ignoring the humanity and dignity of women and replacing it with their sexual functions and services to men?

Unfortunately, most of the discriminatory cases that are included in the Shiia Family Law in Afghanistan are more or less present in Family Laws in Iran as well but thanks to the 100-year old movement for the equality of women in Iran, such discriminatory laws are faced with serious challenges from a considerable number of women in Iran. If you have followed the activities of Iranian women, you must know that last year a bill entitled The Law Supporting the Family that seriously threatened the rights of Iranian women was on the threshold of approval at the Iranian parliament. Women activists and equal rights advocates in Iran from all groups, ideologies, ethnicities, and genders were united and eventually managed to stand up against the approval of this law that violated women’s rights and stopped its debate at the parliament. Although this represents an important victory for women movement in Iran but it is not tantamount to the removal of all discriminatory laws against women in Iran.

We must be aware that the approval of such laws besides their negative impact on the increase of violence against women among Shias of Afghanistan could contribute to the emergence of similarly anti-women and male-dominated laws for Sunni women and those of other religions as well. We are pleased to know that you, the women of Afghanistan, both Shiite and Sunni, have united in removing its root.

Undoubtedly, your ceaseless and courageous struggle against discriminatory laws could contribute to our strength as well just as we decided today to stand up in your support and express our concern about the approval of this new discriminatory law in Afghanistan.

Besides welcoming the decree by the president to review the Shiia Law, we hope that the amended law may base all human relations in Afghan families including ethnic and religions minorities, on equality, non-discrimination, justice and human dignity.