Even though violence against women, with much regret, is not an unheard of

phenomenon even in the most democratic countries, it is seldom that you will

find a country where there are laws supporting and promoting this savagery.

Iran, under the rule of the mullahs' is the prime example of such county.

A complete report on the nature of the mallah's laws against women, will

require volumes of books, and I will only have time today to briefly touch

on a few major areas of concern. Before we get to the specifics of the

mullahs' laws, allow me to explain that I refer to the current regime in

Iran as the "mullahs' regime," for I can not allow myself to call them the

"Iranian regime." The nation of Iran, with it's rich culture and kind

people, should in no way be considered affiliated with the treachery and

crimes committed by the ruling regime. I can neither refer to them as the

Islamic regime, for as far as I have come to comprehend, Islam is a religion

of mercy and compassion.
 

Rafsanjani, who is now in his second term as the President of the mullahs'

regime, in an interview in the daily Ettela'at, on the 7th of June, 1986,

describes the philosophy of the mullahs' on the issue of gender equality. He

mentions that: "Equality does not take precedence over justice... Justice

does not mean that all laws must be the same for the men and women." He

continues saying that: "The difference in the height, vitality, voice,

development, muscular quality and physical strength of men and women shows

that men are stronger and more capable in all fields..." And to make things

more idiotic, he adds: "Men's brains are larger... Men incline toward

reasoning and rationalism while women basically tend to be emotional...

These differences affect the delegation of responsibilities, duties and

rights."
 

These comments are in fact the essence of the barbarous philosophy behind

the anti-women laws of the mullahs'.

In the "Preamble" of the mullah's Constitution, women are defined as the

"care takers of the family", which translates to "the ones without any

social rights." In Articles of the Constitution and in the Penal codes of

the regime, this gender discrimination has been clearly stated.

In Article 21 of the Constitution, the mullahs write that "The government

must ensure the rights of women in all respect, in conformity with Islamic

criteria...". What this means is that the clergy will have the right to

interpret the laws pertaining to women, and of course men and anything else.

And just to make sure that there is no misunderstanding on how far the

clergy can take this, in Article 167 of the Constitution, it is explained

that: "The Judge is bound to attempt to rule on each case, on the basis of

the codified law. In case of the absence of any such law, he has to deliver

his judgment on the basis of official Islamic sources and authentic fatawa.

(which are the sayings of the prophet)" What this really translate to is

that the "real" judge, is the clergy, and the real law is not the letter of

the law, but what the clergy sees as "authoritative" or "authentic" source

of his religion. To make sure that there are no buts and ifs in the

superiority of these religious beliefs over the law, Article 167 continues

that the judge, "on the pretext of the silence of or deficiency of the law

in the matter, or its brevity or contradictory nature, cannot refrain from

admitting and examining cases and delivering his judgment." The message to

the judge: "never mind the law, use your religious opinions."
 

Mullahs, who are the embodiment of fundamentalism, have since created a

"judicial" system that is among the most barbaric, if not the most barbaric,

system in the world. The main victims, of course are the women. What follows

are a few example of these laws:

Stoning Women to death
 

This vicious and barbaric form of punishment does not exist anywhere in the

world but in Mullah's Iran. Under Article 83 of the penal code, called the

Law of Hodoud, the penalty for adultery is flogging, 100 strikes of the

lash, for unmarried male and female offenders. Article 102, however, states

that married offenders are liable to stoning regardless of their gender, but

the method laid down for a man involves his burial up to his waist, and for

a women up to her neck. The law also provides that if a person who is to be

stoned manages to escape, he or she will be allowed to go free. Since it is

easier for man to escape, this discrimination literally becomes a matter of

life and death for a woman. In practice, even in cases when a woman who is

being stoned escapes, she is often recaptured and either stoned again or

shot on the spot.
 

Article 104 of the Law of Hodoud provides that, when stoning an offender,

the stones should not be so large that the person dies after being hit with

two of them, nor so small as to be defined as pebbles, but must cause severe

injury. This makes it clear that the purpose of stoning is to inflict

grievous pain on the victim, in a process leading to his or her slow death.

Anecdotes of this brutal process reveal ever more dimensions of cruelty.

Most of the time, the regime's authorities force the victim's family

members, including children, to watch the stoning to death of their loved one.

The latest reported case of stoning to death was in July of 1996, by Agence

France presse, carrying a news article from the daily "Hamshahri," published

in Iran. There are naturally no accurate count of stoning cases, but there

are all indications that it is routine sentence for "sexual offenders."

Legal age for girls
 

Girl children suffer from the worst conditions in Iran today. According to

the clerical regime's rules and regulations, a girl child can virtually be

bought or sold with the consent of her male guardian.

Note (1) of article 1210 of the Civil Code states: "Age of puberty for a boy

is at 15 full lunar years and for a girl is at nine full lunar years."

Article 1041 of the Civil Code provides that "Marriage before puberty is

prohibited. Marriage contracted before reaching puberty with the permission

of the guardian is valid provided that the interest of the child are duly

observed." This "permission of the guardian," often means a "cash payment."
 

The result of this law is that "selling" or forcing very young girls to

marry much older husbands has become a common "source of Income" for poor

families.
 

Adineh magazine, in Summer of 1991: "An eleven-year-old girl was married off

to a 27-year-old man. The father, who had seven daughters, received $300 for

his consent. The morning after the marriage ceremonies, the girl was taken

to hospital suffering from severe mutilation of her genitals."

The state-controlled daily, Ressalat, reported on December 15, 1991, that

due to extreme poverty and the absence of the most basic facilities, the

deprived people of northern Khorassan sell their young girls for up to

100,000 rials ($33). The buyers, who are mostly from Gonabad, northeast

Iran, take the girls away and put them to work on farms and in workshops. In

the province of Sistan/Balouchestan, southeastern Iran, girls eight to 10

years old are sold by their addicted parents for 12,000 rials ($4).

Article 48 of the Penal Code of 1991 provides that children are free from

penal responsibility. Note (1) of the same article defines a child as a

person who has not reached the age of legal puberty. When you consider that

according to the laws of the mullahs', "Age of puberty for a girl is at nine

full lunar years," the meaning becomes that a nine-year- old girl can be

punished as an adult by flogging, execution and even stoning. The U.N.

Special Reporter on Summary Executions indicated in his 1992 report that

four minors, 16 and 17 years of age, who were accused of taking part in an

anti-government demonstration, had been executed.
 
 

As stated in Note one of Article 102 of Penal Code, "Women who appear on

streets and in public without the (prescribed) "Islamic Hejab" will be

condemned to 74 strikes of the lash." As reported by the state-controlled

newspaper Kayhan on March 30, 1983, the regime's Prosecutor General

announced that if an improperly veiled women is arrested, their is no need

for a court, since the crime is established. Public floggings of women in

the streets are common. Once again, the clergy establishing the law!

On May 9, 1995, Agence France Presse reported that the regime's security

forces had arrested 100 female foreign nationals visiting Iran from the

Central Asian Republics for ignoring strict dress regulations. According to

The New York Times, on June 23, 1993, "More than 800 women were arrested for

dress code violations, with many being detained for wearing sunglasses,

witnesses said..."
 

Remarks by Commander of the Greater Tehran eastern security district,

published in the daily Kayhan, August 29, 1991 includes that: "Over the past

month, 1,100 improperly veiled women were arrested and turned over the

judicial authorities." 1,100 women arrested in only one month, that is over

13,000 women in a year, and since the reported items by the mullahs are

always a fraction of the true numbers, we are really speaking of arrests in

the range of hundreds of thousands in a year for the "crime" of improper

veiling!
 

The harassment is not limited to arrests. The regime's officials also send

motorcycle gangs of club wielders into the streets to attack women,

sometimes slashing their faces with razor bladed or throwing acid into their

faces.
 

Hopefully this brief report on the Constitutional violence against women in

Iran, has shed some light on the scope of the catastrophic situation of

women in Iran.
 

I thank you very much for your time and interest.