The atrocities committed against women in Iran are shocking but are no surprise to the educated American public. President Ahmadinejad has perpetrated horrific human rights abuses since he came to power and his despicable treatment of his own people, especially women, has generated international outrage. Ahmadinejad has argued that women in Iran, in fact, enjoy a great deal of freedom, more than they would in most of the world. But his parochial conception of women's rights is fundamentally flawed, as evidenced by his statement today that women in Iran are free and honored by being "exempt from the legal responsibility of men." If this view stands unchallenged, there is little hope for much-needed improvement in the policies of the Iranian government.
The treatment of women in Iran has been reprehensible in a number of ways. Public executions, punishment for rape victims, draconian restrictions on public dress, and many other oppressive and downright abusive regulations have kept women in their antiquated place of inferiority to the male population. In 2004, Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh was executed after being tried for crimes against chastity. Her crime was falling victim to a brutal rape, and the punishment for this "crime" was a public hanging. This type of medieval brutality can be expected in a place where women are considered naturally inferior and are subject to a system in which men must necessarily come out on top.
Despite these and more disgusting violations, Iran does grant women certain important rights. They are allowed to vote and to stand for election, valuable rights that are still denied to many women in the Middle East. While such electoral empowerment may be seen as allowing the potential for greater reform and expansion of women's rights, these freedoms unfortunately exist within a rigid legal and ideological system that nevertheless undermines women's rights at their most fundamental basis.
Revisiting the theme mentioned above later in his speech, President Ahmadinejad said today that "women are respected in Iran," and followed it up with this astonishing comment:
They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect, culturally given, to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, respect for women. And we are proud of this culture.
We can only understand that Ahmadinejad's concept of women's rights is fundamentally stuck in another century. Women have the privilege not to have rights and responsibilities. There is no comprehension of these women's desire for rights that confer both greater freedom and greater responsibility on the "the best creatures created by God".
In reality, Ahmadinejad surely understands that responsibility is power and that in giving women that power, they could begin to have a much greater impact on the Iranian society that now holds them hostage beneath the weight of an oppressive interpretation of religious traditions. This would undermine the social order of a country that does not equate women's rights and equal rights and could even lead to agitation for a genuine expression of respect for women -- the potentiality that truly frightens reactionaries like Ahmadinejad.
