Is There Even One Woman in the Imam's Office or in the Revolutionary Comité?
Our fighting mothers and sisters are still wearing black, and the water on their loved ones’ graves has not yet dried, when, suddenly, the Law for the Protection of Families is abrogated, causing them much pain and an even greater grief than the loss of their loved ones.
According to an Ayandegan newspaper article (issue number 3298 dated February 26, 1979), the story went like this: A man named Haj Zarkub, a retired Ministry of Justice employee, wrote a letter to the Imam Khomeini’s Office and asked for an opinion regarding the Law for the Protection of Families. In response to this personal letter, Imam Khomeini’s Office issued a general response addressed to the Head of the Family Protection Court, as follows:
“To the Honorable Head of the Family Protection Court, may you be successful,
The Law for the Protection of Families, as enacted [and as it stands] is contrary to Holy Shari’a, and the Grand Ayatollah [Khomeini] has so stated expressly. We hereby request that no action be taken based on said law until such time as its [official] abrogation is announced by the Ministry.”
The Law for the Protection of Families, as enacted [and as it stands] is contrary to Holy Shari’a, and the Grand Ayatollah [Khomeini] has so stated expressly
Setting aside the fact that the Law for the Protection of Families is not contrary to Holy Shari’a and the same has been stated and clarified by Islamic scholars;
And setting aside the fact that Imam Khomeini has not announced such a thing, since in addition to being the leader of the Islamic Society, he is personally a believer and a man of faith; and as a devoted Moslem he will not state that thousands of innocent children born under the Law are illegitimate and their parents adulterers, [since that is the result] once the Law is abrogated;
And setting aside the fact that it is not clear why Imam Khomeini’s Office has issued the response to a letter from a man named Haj Zarkub – whose very existence is in doubt, and assuming that he does exist, what the purpose of posing such a question is at all – to the Head of the Family Protection Court;
The question is, why is it that in the immediate aftermath of the glorious Iranian Revolution where men and women fought side by side, and in spite of the promises made by the great Islamic scholars and Grand Ayatollahs to women regarding their freedoms and their equal rights, there is such a sudden attack on the law for the Protection of Families, and said Law is declared contrary to the Holy Islamic Shari’a, without devising a substitute therefor? Is this declaration not a sign that, unfortunately, in spite of Imam Khomeini and Ayatollah Taleghani’s statements and their repeated emphasis, the idea of violating women’s rights and disregarding their equality with men, still lurks in the thoughts and minds of certain religious fanatics? And is it not an indication that there is not even one woman at the Imam’s Office and the Revolutionary Committee to defend the rights of women and pay attention to the legal, social, and economic rights of half of the country’s population, rights that would even have a special place in the ideal unified monotheistic Islamic society?
Is this declaration not a sign that... the idea of violating women’s rights and disregarding their equality with men, still lurks in the thoughts and minds of certain religious fanatics?
A number of women’s rights defenders pursued the matter. Dr. Matin Daftari, a Bar Association Board member, called Mr. Bani Sadr, the Deputy Justice Minister, in their presence. Mr. Bani Sadr denied the issuance of such an order. Nevertheless, they went to the Office of the Minister of Justice. The Minister of Justice expressly stated that there is no truth to such a thing.
A call was made to a Civil Law Professor at the University of Tehran Faculty of Law, whose words are the definitive truth because of his conduct over the years and because he has never been known to tell a lie. He stated that there is no truth to such a thing. Imam Khomeini issued an order to one of the judges [to the effect] that Family Protection Court judges are to implement the law as before. This order was not, however, either broadcast on state radio and television, nor was it printed in newspapers and the press. Why is that?
In this Spring of Revolution, it is an appropriate question to ask whose interests are being protected at the expense of the interests of Iranian women and children.
The Rule of Taghut [meaning “the Devil”, a derogatory term to make reference to the Monarchy] came to an end through the fight led by the men and women of Iran. Iranian mothers celebrated the Spring of Freedom from the bottom of their hearts even though their children’s blood was still on the ground and their bodies had not yet been buried. Why did they do that? Because they had hope for freedom, hope for equality; they had hope that their daughters would live freer in the world of tomorrow, hope that their children would not have to suffer the harm and pain they suffered. Mothers whose daughters were killed in this revolution did not even blink, because they hoped that in the future, another Iranian daughter, who could very well be theirs, would live free. Mothers and fathers whose daughters had been raped, withstood the pain with the hope that in the future, a woman would not simply be a doll, a toy in the hands of men, and a play thing for their fun and entertainment. The abrogation of this Law, however, and in the manner described above, citing its contradiction with Holy Shari’a, and the fact that the news was not denied in all mass media, destroyed all those hopes. If an Islamic government or a government that is to be established based on Islam looks at women as slaves; if an Islamic government is one that would force a 14-year-old girl (who isn’t even allowed to buy a couple of ounces of cheese on her own) to live an entire lifetime with an unwanted and abusive husband (the examples of which are unfortunately not few in today’s society) simply because she said yes [to a marriage proposal]; if in an Islamic government a man can divorce his wife at any moment he wishes; if in an Islamic government a man is allowed to take four permanent wives and enter into an infinite number of temporary marriages; if in an Islamic government, a woman is to endure pregnancy, the pain of childbirth, and her infant’s sleepless nights, and then, turn her new toddler over to the man by the simple fact of divorce, a divorce willed by the man at that; if in an Islamic government, a woman must obtain her husband’s consent in order to just hold an honorable profession; then it begs the question: To what extent is such a government the rule of Islamic Justice? To what extent is such a government the harbinger of the freedoms it has promised? To what extent would such a government be acceptable to millions of enlightened Iranian men and women?
Mothers and fathers whose daughters had been raped, withstood the pain with the hope that in the future, a woman would not simply be a doll, a toy in the hands of men, and a play thing for their fun and entertainment
Given what has been discussed above, we, the defenders of women’s rights [demand] that, in order to avoid the enslavement of Iranian women, the binding nature of the Law for the Protection of the Family – which has not yet been modified and which ensures a minimum of women’s rights – be announced in all mass media as soon as possible, and that the public be informed of the same, so that every Iranian, from the Arass [River in the northern border] to the Persian Gulf, can understand [and believe] that a woman’s freedom and equality is respected in post-revolutionary Iran.