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Teachers have been protesting continuously over the past seven weeks in cities across Iran. On Tuesday, October 17, a group of female literacy teachers, staged a protest outside the governor’s office in Soldouz, West Azerbaijan Province, in northwest Iran. On Monday, October 16, a group of teachers and staff working for the Department of Education in Kerman, staged their second consecutive day of protest outside the Department of Education. They are protesting the process of their own employment, saying their positions do not correspond with their work experience.
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Associated France Press reported on
Sat. Oct. 21, that an attack on Imam Zaman mosque in Kabul- Afghanistan killed
56 and wounded 55 others. Another suicide bomber also killed 20 people and
wounded 10 at a mosque in the impoverished and remote central province of Ghor غورon Friday, the
interior ministry said. The death toll for the week now
stands at more than 200.
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Three more women have been named as
state ministers, bringing the total number of women in the United Arab Emirates
cabinet to 9. During a cabinet reshuffle
on Thursday, October 19, 30-year-old Sara Al Amiri was named Minister of State
for Advanced Sciences, Mariam Al Muhairi as Minister of State for Food
Security, and Hessa Eisa Bu Humaid as Minister of Community Development.
Al Amiri, who holds a
master's degree in computer engineering, has served as Chairperson for the UAE
Council of Scientists and is associated with the Mohammad bin Rashid Space
Centre. She is also the UAE Mars Mission Deputy Project Manager — Science Team
Leader at the Mohammad Bin Rashid Space Centre (MBRSC). Prior to this, Al Amiri
was the director for the Department of Research and Development at the Emirates
Institution for Advanced Science and Technology, which is now the MBRSC.
According to Baloch
Campaign, Sara Amiri is an Iranian born Baloch woman who emigrated to UAE.
Mariam Al Muhairi, 38,
the new Minister of State for Food Security, has served as the assistant
undersecretary for Water Resources and Nature Conservation Affairs at the
Ministry of Climate Change and Environment.
She began her career soon
after graduating from one of Europe’s leading engineering universities, with
specialisation in Development and Design Engineering. She received her
bachelor’s and master’s degrees in Mechanical Engineering from the
Rheinish-Westphalian Technical University (RWTH) in Aachen, Germany.
Al Muhairi has paid great
attention to the issue of groundwater depletion in the UAE.
Hessa Eisa Bu Humaid,
appointed Minister of Community Development, is a graduate of the Programme for
Leadership Development and served as the executive director of the Government
Services Sector, Prime Minister’s Office, and had been overseeing the
development of government services in the UAE through the Emirates Government
Service Excellence Programme. She has a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Science
and Focus Marketing from Zayed University and Master’s in Business
Administration from American University of Sharjah, an Executive Diploma in
Public Administration and Polices from Lee Kuan Yew School, Singapore.
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The Iranian regime does not support
women athletes and by doing so attempts to marginalize them as it has done so
in politics and economics. Atousa Abbasi, a
bronze medal winner in the Asian Bicycling Race and a record holder in women’s
speed cycling in Iran, is a street vendor now due to financial problems. She
has been deprived of participating in cycling tournaments due to breaches made
by her husband who is a cycling coach, according to the state-run Mashreq
website - October 18.
At the same time, Sousan Rashidi,
who has been the champion of women’s kick boxing for eleven terms, is now
training under difficult conditions for foreign tournaments. She is a nomad
girl living in Kermanshah, western Iran. Due to poverty and the special
conditions of her family, she has to work in the village from early in the
morning, including baking bread, taking the sheep for grazing, bringing woods,
etc. She does not even have her own birth certificate and uses her deceased
sister’s birth certificate.
Ms. Rashidi said, “Some days, I did
not have my transportation fare to go for training. Sometimes, if I were given
some money to buy an egg to eat, I saved the money to pay for my
transportation.”
She told the state-run ISNA on Dec.
26, 2016: “I became a champion for nine terms, but I did not receive any prize
for these wins”.
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October has been studded by
protests to the state-backed companies in Iran which have looted people’s
properties and deposits with women playing an active part in them. In the
capital Tehran, people whose deposits have been plundered by Padideh and
Caspian institutes rallied at 7 pm, October 19, in Keshavarz Blvd. and chanted,
“Citizens’ rights are gone, people are oppressed”, “Shame, shame, on the
Judiciary.”
In Ahwaz, capital of the oil-rich
province of Khuzistan in southwest Iran, people protested against the
government-backed Arman institute, by gathering at 5 pm in front of the
governor’s office upon a previous call.
The protesters got furious when
they faced closed doors of the governor’s office and attempted to break them
open, which forced the guards to open the doors.
The State Security Force attacked
the protesters by batons, taking away or breaking their cellphones to prevent
them from filming the scenes. According to eyewitnesse accounts a large number
of guards surrounded the protesters who chanted, “Death to the irresponsible
government”, “We are fighters, fight and we will fight back.”
One of the women participating in
the protest, furiously cried out, “Iran is the only country whose wealth goes
everywhere except to her own people.
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Women of Deyr staged a protest on Monday, October 16, at the Governor’s
Office in this southern Iranian city of Boushehr Province against frequent
water cut-offs in their town. The women entered the governor’s office and said
part of their town’s water has been diverted to a factory but officials have
not solved the problem and just ordered rationing of water.
One of the women participating in the protest said, “The frequent water
cut-offs have frustrated us. We do not know when we can wash the dishes or
clothes. We have referred to the water company a number of times, but they have
not undertaken any effective measures.”
Another protester said, “We do not have water in our village from morning
till night.”
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Iranian officials warn elderliness has become a feminine phenomenon. The
state-run ISNA reported on Oct. 18 that, Farahnaz Mohammadi, member of the
Center for Elderliness Research, said, “The number of elderly women in Iran is
more than the number of men. A large number of elderly people in Iran are
illiterate and as a consequence, they have had a low chance of getting employed
in young age and have little property.” In light of women’s economic
participation of under 12% in Iran, the feminine face of poverty, and the
general poverty in Iran, it is conceivable how horrible the situation of
elderly women in the country is.
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The Iranian regime’s judiciary issued a total of 8 years of suspended
prison sentences for 4 women activists of Cosmic Mysticism Group (Erfan-e
Halgheh).
Zahra Shafii Dahaghani, Melika Kavandi, Zahra Sadat Ebrahimi and Raha
Davoudian were tried on October 11, and each sentenced to 1 year in prison and
lashes at the first stage, but their verdicts were later commuted to 2 years of
suspended jail after their appeal. The four women were arrested on August 28, of
this year. Two of them, Raha Davoudian and Zahra Sadat Ebrahimi were released
last week after the court session. The wave of arrests of the activists of the
Cosmic Mysticism Group has mounted since a month ago following their protests
against the new death penalty sentence issued for their leader, prisoner of
conscience, Mohammad Ali Taheri.
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22,000 women have been dealt with over a year in the city of Tonekabon,
northern Iran, in line with the constant crackdown on women for imposing the
compulsory veil. “The State Security Force in Tonekabon gave verbal warnings to
22,163 women over the past year and impounded 410 vehicles whose passengers had
not observed the veil,” announced Tonekabon’s SSF commander, Ramin Shams, in
his speech on the occasion of the SSF Day. He also admitted that his agents
have sealed 310 businesses for not implementing gender segregation at the
workplace. state-run Tonekabon city’s website reported October 16, 2017.
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“Some 1000 run-away girls were admitted to welfare centers over the past
year,” the Iranian regime’s deputy for social affairs in the Welfare
Organization announced. “The time limit of keeping run-away girls and women in
the centers is about 3 to 4 months. Women whose families do not accept them
would be kept until 8 months,” Habibollah Masoudi Farid added. He failed to
explain though what happens to these women after eight months, and did not say
anything about the number of women who never refer to such centers.
(The state-run Mehr news agency – October 16, 2017)
At the same time, Anoushirvan Mohseni Bandpay, director of the Welfare
Organization, revealed that 37.9% of women in the capital, Tehran, are prone to
mental disorders. Being a woman was among the reasons he mentioned for mental
disorders in women. The women committee of the Iranian resistance NCRI, says:
The lack of opportunity for social and economic participation accompanied by
misogynous laws and policies have caused numerous problems for women in Iran.
******
One of the Iranian regime’s high ranking religious scholars admitted that
the mullahs have failed to impose the compulsory veil on Iranian women despite all
their suppressive measures. “Despite all the various emphases in recent years,
we have not been able to achieve our goals regarding mal-veiling. For this
reason, we have to think of some solution for mal-veiling,” Mullah Jafar
Sobhani said after admiring the suppressive State Security Force in a meeting
with the SSF Commander, Hossein Ashtari, on October 8. It’s worth noting that
27 state agencies and 301 cultural organizations in Iran have been busy with
the tasks of promoting and enforcing compulsory veil on Iranian women for the
past 38 years.
