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On this March 8th, I declare my solidarity with my fellow Iranian sisters
and women all over the world subject to various forms of violence. As I
write these words, I remember one incidence in particular showcasing the
general permissive attitude towards wife-beating greatly harming women in
Iran as in other corners of the world.
I went to "Pezeshki Ghanooni" this summer as part of a project to get a closer,
albeit brief, look into the issue of domestic violence in Iran. There was a
male physician in the room, who was in fact the main facilitator for my entry
into this center. After a few unrelated cases, a woman came in with a black
eye. The doctor inquired about the person who had beaten her. She
indicated that her husband was the culprit. He asked if this was
his first time and heard a negative response. Then he continued on, in his
confident and self-assured voice, "Well, I am sure that you yourself
provoked him." I was shocked. She was in fact being blamed for the
severe beating she had received. I could not believe that I was hearing
this from a highly educated person, a physician supposedly trained to
treat women subjected to domestic violence, who are already in a highly
shattered psychological state. All I could think was that he as well as
all other physicians encountering domestic violence survivors were in need
of some serious training on domestic violence issues. If this was the
outlook of the supposedly sensitized physician, I did not even want to
imagine what reaction she would receive from the judge, most probably a
highly conservative male, when she attempted to seek redress. The doctor
said, in a joking voice now, but still probably manifesting views held by
him and many others in the society, "Doesn't your husband have the right
to beat you?" As manifested by this rhetorical question and the positive
response he received, this kind of thinking seems to be very much
established, at least in social mores and commonly held beliefs.
May this March 8th and the project on violence against women be a
definitive start to the end of these attitudes.
In solidarity, Azadeh
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