Iran: Adopt Draft Law to Protect Women

(Beirut) – Iran should address gaps in its long-awaited draft law on violence against women that offers limited protections for survivors of domestic violence, and put it before the parliament for a vote, Human Rights Watch said today. Over the past year alone, several widely publicized instances of violence against women in Iran have drawn national attention and outrage. The authorities should also undertake to repeal discriminatory laws that leave women at risk of domestic violence. Iranian women’s rights activists have campaigned for such a law for 16 years and President Hassan Rouhani’s administration has been working on the draft law since the 2013 election. The cabinet has been reviewing the draft “Protection, Dignity and Security of Women against Violence” bill since September 17, 2019, after the judiciary announced that it had completed its review and submitted the bill back to the cabinet. Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family affairs, told the Iranian Student News Agency in August that the submission of the bill to the parliament was imminent. Authorities should act now, during the international 16 Days of Activism Against Gender-Based Violence.