Memorandum from Dr Phyllis Starkey MP
1. In October 2002, I led a delegation of
women parliamentarians on a five-day visit to Iran as guests of
the Women's Faction of the Majles. The members of the delegation
were Dr Phyllis Starkey MP (Labour), Sandra Gidley MP (Lib Dem),
Julie Morgan MP (Labour), Angela Watkinson MP (Conservative) and
Baroness Pola Uddin (Labour) from the House of Lords. The focus
of our visit was to meet with our homologues in the Majles, and
with a variety of women and women's organisations, to understand
more about the actual situation of women in Iran today. Since
it will be difficult for the Select Committee to give the same
attention to this issue, or to have the same access that we had
to women's groups, this submission summarises the main conclusions
from our visit.
2. Our general impression from the range
of people, both men and women, that we met in government, the
Majles, business, education, NGOs and journalism was of a society
in transition; seeking a solution that would reconcile Shia Islamic
tradition and practice with a modern democracy and market economy.
Iran is still a very socially conservative society and this itself
puts a brake on the speed of some reforms, particularly in relation
to crime and punishment. In addition, the conservative religious
authorities often use their powers under the constitution to obstruct
the process of reform.
3. Women are disadvantaged by the current
legal system, particularly in relation to divorce, and in court
a woman's testimony is valued at half that of a man. Economically
women are at a disadvantage compared with men. However, issues
affecting women's position in society have a high profile in government
and in the Majles, and have a high priority with reformist Parliamentarians.
The women members of the Majles (13, or 5.5% of the total) were
proud of the fact that this session of the Majles has been dominated
by legislation to improve the legal and economic status of women,
including legislation to improve women's economic position after
divorce or being widowed. The leader of the Women's Faction, Mrs
Moussavari Salman Manesh, has been given the task of going through
all existing legislation to ensure it does not discriminate against
women. The government is keen to ratify the UN Convention on the
Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, but the Council of
Guardians was delaying this because of concerns that the convention
might require all education to be co-educational.
4. President Khatami has set up a Centre
for Women's Participation under Mrs Zahra Shojaie, his women's
advisor. The Centre has a budget 60-fold greater than previously
allocated to women's policies. Its annual report documents the
current participation of women and girls in Iranian society, which
is impressive. Education is free but girls and boys are educated
separately. Girls have good access to education including in the
rural areas; the percentage of girls receiving primary education
has increased from 80% to 96% in the last five years; 63% of university
students are women and 34% of university lecturers. There is a
problem of graduate unemployment but this affects men as well
as women. The number of women business executives has increased
5.5% in the last five years, and the Association of Iranian Women
Journalists is headed by the very impressive Dr Jamileh Kadivar
who is a member of the Majles. There are a number of women in
high positions in the government including Mrs Masoumeh Ebtekar,
Vice-President and Head of the Department of the Environment and
Mrs Hastei, Head of Human Rights at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
5. The forward programme of the Centre for
Women's Participation sets out a range of targets for improving
women's situation across the board; in education and training,
health, economic activity, and power and decision-making. It includes
an extensive anti-poverty strategy with encouragement for women's
co-operatives and start-up small business grants targeted at women.
The Centre is beginning to tackle the difficult topic of violence
against women through education of the general public, the police
and the courts and establishment of women's refuges.
6. We visited a number of NGOs concerned
with women and children. Amongst the services provided was a home
for abandoned children that had an impressive success rate at
placing the children for adoption. Other organisations provided
training and small loans to help women breadwinners to support
their families (the women were mainly widows or had husbands who
were in prison, unable to work or who had disappeared). We visited
a charity providing therapy for children with disabilities and
campaigning to change public attitudes to the disabled, the Society
for the Protection of the Socially Disadvantaged (SPSD). It was
clear that current state provision leaves many people and many
needs unmet. Most of these NGOs were providing services that in
the UK would be provided by the state. For example we saw a five-year-old
girl on her first visit to the SPSD who could barely walk, she
had been handicapped since birth and her parents appeared to have
been unable to access any help for her from other sources, until
now.
7. What was very impressive about the NGOs
we visited was the quality and drive of the people leading them,
the readiness of volunteers to staff them and the significant
sums of private money raised. Levels of donations for charitable
work, in line with the Islamic tradition of the obligation to
give to charity, can be very significant. Ex-patriate Iranian
communities are an additional source of charitable funds.
8. A major area of concern for us was human
rights abuses, and in particular the use of capital punishment
including in cases of adultery. We had very useful discussions
with officials in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Human Rights
Division, and with the Secretary General of the Islamic Human
Rights Commission, Mr Ziafar. Elements within the judiciary have
been attempting to extend the range of physical punishments but
these have been overturned on appeal. Arguments are being developed
in the Majles and the Human Rights Commission against certain
punishments on the grounds that they are contrary to Islamic law
and not effective in deterring crime. This approach has led to
a moratorium on stoning for adultery, and moves to legislate to
outlaw stoning altogether. Although there is debate in Iran about
public executions, there is no domestic public pressure to end
capital punishment for murder and other serious crimes.
9. Overall, we retained concerns about abuses
of human rights and the crab-like progress towards real democracy,
because the conservative religious authorities frequently obstruct
reform. However, our delegation returned convinced that Iran was
moving in the right direction and that the British policy of constructive
engagement was connect. British Parliamentarians can contribute
to this through establishing and maintaining links with the Iranian
counterparts.
Dr Phyllis Starkey MP
27 January 2003
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