Iran

In-Country Activities
- One Million Signatures Campaign
- eCourse
- Leadership Workshops
- Curriculum development in Persian

Activities in Iran

Curriculum Development:

WLP has worked in partnership with Iranian activists and scholars to develop a Persian edition of the Leading to Choices training manual and of Leading to Choices: A Multimedia Curriculum for Leadership Learning, which consists of three videos and interactive guides on participatory facilitation, effective communication, and strategic advocacy.

Learning Institutes and Training of Trainers:

In 2005, WLP convened a National Learning Institute for Women's Leadership and Training of Trainers with a group of Iranian activists, NGO leaders, and academics to enable participants to develop skills in participatory leadership and to strengthen women's networks in Iran. Participants plan to hold workshops on violence against women and other important challenges facing women in Iran in follow-up from the training.

eCourses for Women's Leadership:

In 2004-5, WLP developed a prototype Persian interactive online distance learning course (eCourse) to develop women's participatory leadership skills. One short test eCourse and one full ten-week eCourse were held with 18 women participants from Afghanistan and Iran. eCourses are designed to provide training opportunities for women whose ability to attend workshops in person may be constrained by security considerations or socio-cultural factors.

Women's Status at a Glance

Country Overview

Government type: Theocratic republic
Total population: 68.2 million
Population under age 15: 31.0%
GDP per capita: $6,995 (purchasing power parity)
Life expectancy: 70.4 years
Ethnic groups: Persian 51%, Azeri 24%, Gilaki and Mazandarani 8%, Kurd 7%, Arab 3%, Lur 2%, Baloch 2%, Turkmen 2%, other 1%
Religions: Shi'a Muslim 89%, Sunni Muslim 9%, Zoroastrian, Jewish, Christian, and Baha'i 2%
Internet users: 72 per 1,000 people

Education and Health

Adult literacy rate
Female rate: 70.4%
Male rate: 83.5%
Maternal mortality rate: 76 per 100,000 live births
Total fertility rate: 2.1 births per woman

Political Participation

Year women received right to
Vote: 1963
Stand for election: 1963
Seats in parliament held by women
Lower house: 4.1% of total
Upper house: --
Women in govt. at ministerial level: 6.7% of total
Quotas: --

Stories and Reports

Islamic Republic of Iran: Penal Code Excerpts Relating to Women

Source: Afkhami, Mahnaz and Erika Friedl, eds. In the Eye of the Storm: Women in Post-Revolutionary Iran. Syracuse, New York: Syracuse University Press, 1994.

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Iranian Women’s Rights Activist, Hana Abdi, Sentenced to Five Years in Prison

June 20, 2008

SUPPORT IRANIAN WOMEN
Sign the petition and help them reach their goal of one million signatures to end discriminatory laws against women.
  • English petition
  • Persian petition
  • Hana Abdi, a 21 year-old student and women’s rights activist, has been sentenced to a five year prison term in the West Azarbaijan Province. A member of Azar Mehr Women’s NGO and One Million Signatures campaign activist in Kurdistan, Ms. Abdi has been in detention since her November 2007 arrest in Sanandaj, Kurdistan for her peaceful activities in support of women’s rights and the One Million Signatures campaign.

    Zanan, Iran’s Leading Women’s Magazine, Shut Down by Government

    February 8, 2008

    In a significant setback for the women’s movement in Iran, the Press Supervisory Board of Iran backed by the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance, revoked the license of Zanan, the country’s most prominent and important women’s magazine. Zanan, which means “women” in Persian, is a monthly magazine dedicated to the reporting and analysis of women’s issues, problems, and achievements.

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    Persian Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb Published

    In November, WLP published the Persian edition of the Guide to Equality in the Family in the Maghreb for use by Iranian women’s rights activists in the "One Million Signatures" campaign for equal legal rights and family law reform. The campaign, launched in August 2006, aims to collect one million signatures and spread grassroots awareness of discriminatory laws such as those related to marriage, divorce, and child custody.

    The arguments for family law reform presented in the Guide will help provide support to the legal reform efforts of the One Million Signatures campaign. The Guide is a unique advocacy tool developed by Collectif 95 Maghreb-Egalité, a coalition of women’s organizations from Algeria, Morocco, and Tunisia, that presents the current state of the family law in the Maghreb, and proposes religious, human rights, sociological, and legal arguments for reform, well-supported by relevant data.

    ~The book is available for order ($24.95) or free download.~

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    Support Iranian Women on their National Day of Solidarity

    June 2, 2008

    Iranian women's rights activists are calling for international support in observance of the June 12, 2006 demonstrations. Two years ago on this day, activists organized a peaceful protest demanding the revision of discriminatory laws against women in Iran. Seventy people were arrested during the gathering and continue to this day to be summoned, charged, arrested and sentenced for peaceful activism. June 12th has since been chosen by Iranian women’s rights activists as their national day of solidarity to object harmful actions which attempt to silence Iranian women.

    SUPPORT IRANIAN WOMEN
    Sign the "One Million Signatures" campaign petition calling for an end to discriminatory laws against women such as men's uncontested right to divorce, polygamy, and child custody.

    Please read the following "Statement in Support of Iranian Women" and send your personal or organizational support for the women’s rights activists who are fighting for their basic human rights against all odds. Please send emails to wlp@learningpartnership.org and hadighaemi@iranhumanrights.org. For more information about the campaign efforts, please read below or visit the One Million Signatures website.

    Prototype Persian Course with Participants from Iran and Afghanistan

    IT Institute in AfghanistanFrom January-March 2004, four leading Afghan and Iranian participants worked together over a ten-week period to develop, test and adapt the curriculum for the Persian eCourse.

    Two Iranian women with strong backgrounds in women's rights education and advocacy were trained as facilitators for the future eCourse in Iran.

    You Can't Judge An Iranian Woman by Her Cover

    By Diane Sawyer
    ABC News, Good Morning America
    February 12, 2007

    Diane Sawyer Discovers Women's Rights in Iran Are More Complicated Than Many in West Believe

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    Challenging the Mullahs, One Signature at a Time

    By Maura J. Casey, Editorial Observer
    The New York Times
    February 7, 2007

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    Iranian Women's Rights Organizations Gather during Multimedia Leadership Workshop

    September 2006: Twelve women leaders from seven Iranian women’s rights organizations gathered together from August 30 – September 1, 2006 to take part in a leadership training workshop using the Persian Leading to Choices multimedia curriculum.

    During the workshop, participants explored ways of raising issues pertaining to women’s rights that cannot be openly discussed. One scenario involved two women waiting for a bus during which an older woman activist opens a conversation with a young girl and gradually goes on to discuss reproductive rights and the unfairness of divorce laws.

    Participants also learned about the use of technology for advocacy and enacted role play scenarios to hone their negotiation skills.

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