Mahsa Amini, Iranian women and the Western media By Yasmeen Khan

Mahsa Amini, Iranian women and the Western media

The death of 22-year-old Kurdish woman Mahsa Amini after being arrested by Iran’s morality police sparked protests in Islamic Republic with women groups and rights advocate demanding withdrawal of the ‘enforcement’ clause with regard to female dressing.

On the other hand, the Guidance Patrol, the morality police, claimed that the deceased did not wear hijab as per the government’s standards. Further, the Law Enforcement Command of the Islamic Republic stated that she had a cardiac arrest at a police station where she collapsed and subsequently fell into a coma before being transferred to a hospital. The eyewitnesses, including several other women who were detained with Amini, reported that she was harshly beaten up, leading to her death

This was a highly condemnable incident but certainly an isolated one which ought not to be generalized by the media outlets, mostly backed by western nations, said Iran repeatedly and resolved its commitment to empowerment of women. Countering the narrative of the western media, the government claimed that women are excelling in every walk of life and doing batter compared to any western country.

But western media assault continued unabated. The 24X7 news channels started flagging rights violation and gender disparity concerns in the Iran. On the other hand, Iran kept boasting off its democracy and claiming its rights to safeguard the interest of its people.

Women in Iran

To understand the western propaganda led by Zionist sponsored media we need to look into the presence of Iranian women in different walks of life. Despite the inhumane sanctions of the United States, which clearly have the effects of financing and implementing programs planned by the government, civil society and private sectors with the aim of advancing and empowering women, Iran has made significant achievements in this filed.

Women’s Education: As per a Literacy Movement Organization report ninety percent of women can read and write in Iran

Women are making up to 34% of faculty members at medical universities, 56% of state university are female students in the country. There are 9500 female authors and 840 female publishers in Iran.

Women’s Health: So far as women are the health condition is a concerned, Iranian women rank 10th in the world for the lowest cervical cancer mortality rate. There is increase of women’s life expectancy to 78 years and reduction in neonatal mortality rate per 100,000 births by 8.2 percent.

Women in Iran make 40% of all specialist physicians and 30% of all specialty physicians while 98% of all gynecological surgeons are women in the country while 95% cases of deliveries are handled by female obstetricians.

Women Entrepreneurship: Women are contributing as entrepreneurs to the national economy hugely and a large number of women are employed in private and public sectors.

Over 735 women are working as managing directors in knowledge based companies and more than 250 women are founder directors of such organizations. Apart from this over 2390 women are serving on the board of directors of knowledge-based companies.

Government is implementing the National Employment Empowerment Plan with a particular focus on rural and nomadic women. There is social security insurance coverage for all rural and nomad women and girls. There is provision of over 4200 Micro-credit funds with 1200 billion Rials of governmental credit for rural women. There is also Social Security Insurance Coverage for housewives.

Women in Media: Iranian women have excelled in media and film industry and had won 114 national and 128 international awards at prestigious festivals by female film makers. They had been in jury at 45 international film festivals. There are 903 female film makers in film industry with over 2000 female specialists behind the cameras.

Women in Sport:  Apart from earning several Olympic and Paralympic quotas, Iranian women have won 3302 medals at international sporting events. Iranian women possess 97 international seats in sport federations worldwide. There are 51 female presidents and vice presidents of different sports federations in Iran and 70 women are serving as head of sports delegations across provinces.Women get access to over 16111 gyms.

Women in decision making bodies: There is increase in number of female candidates to enter parliament by 227%  in the 11th term and increase of female members in parliament by 16.5 times since the first term. Apart from this women in Iran hols 25.2% of all government positions at all levels including highest, middle and executive positions and over 1000 women are working as judges in the country. Likewise women hold 25% of top environmental executive positions.