On September 16, 2022, the death of a 22-year-old Iranian woman Mahsa Aminisparked one of the biggest women’s rights protests the Islamic Republic of Iran has ever encountered. Mahsa Amini died in hospital following her arrest by the guidance patrol, the religious morality police of Iran’s government for not wearing her hijab. Countless women across the world came forward and protested the death of Mahsa at the hands of the Iranian government. Her death highlighted the continuous oppression of women in the Islamic state. However, what stood out for me were the actions of leaders across the world. In a news release the Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Foreign Affairs, imposed new sanctions on the government of Iran following the actions of their guidance patrol. She states, “These sanctions are in response to gross human rights violations that have been committed in Iran, including its systematic persecution of women and in particular, the egregious actions committed by Iran’s so-called ‘Morality Police,’ which led to the death of Mahsa Amini while under their custody.”[1] The Honourable Mélanie Joly was not the only government official to come forward and condemn the actions of Iran. The UK’s foreign office minister, Lord Tariq Ahmad of Wimbledon released a statement on behalf of the UK stating;
The death of Mahsa Amini in Iran following her arrest for alleged dress code violations is shocking. We are extremely concerned at reports of serious mistreatment of Ms Amini, and many others, by the security forces. We urge the Iranian government to investigate the circumstances of her death with rigour and transparency, and to hold to account anyone responsible.[2]
This is where the controversy sparks as just last year in March of 2021, a young woman named Sarah Everard was kidnapped on her way home and murdered by British law enforcement. Here we have two countries with contrasting ideals facing the same crisis. Global powerhouses like Canada, the US and the UK came forward and condemned the actions of Iran yet pay little attention to the fact that the respect of women is being undermined within their own jurisdictions, presenting the question, are women’s rights a global rights issue, not just a Middle Eastern issue?
While it can be assumed Western societies have progressed in such a manner that they have inevitably become the proposed norm, there is a presence of negligence as many ignore countless Western regimes still have traditional oppressive views of women, which continue to enable a culture of anti-progressiveness. Most recently the world learnt of the force of Andrew Tate, an internet sensation from the UK, who found prominence in discussing gender relations. Tate’s perception of the role of women in society would gain the attention of millions, which saw the likes of Meta, previously known as Facebook, as well as TikTok, ban him from their platforms.[3] Tate had a history of violence against women and had routinely spoken of women as property in society. Many found this to be extremely worrisome; however, where the debate was animated, there was a surprising amount of positive engagement from men in relation to Tate’s views.
Gender-based violence is currently one of the biggest issues women in modern society face. Situations like Mahsa Amini’s death and Andrew Tate’s fame, while different, both have oppressive views of women at the core. In 1993, the United Nations general assembly created a declaration on “The Elimination of Violence against Women.” In the declaration, the assembly noted “the urgent need for the universal application to women of the rights and principles with regard to equality, security, liberty, integrity and dignity of all human beings.”[4] It has been nearly thirty years since world leaders recognised violence against women to be one of the most prevalent societal issues in society. However, today the issue still remains, most especially in Western countries. In his publication On Men: Masculinity in Crisis, Irish author Anthony Clare states, “In the developing world violence against women accounts for only about 5 per cent of the total disease burden among women aged between 15 and 44… but in the developed world, the proportion made up by violence against women is 19 per cent and still rising.”[5] Deaths like Sarah Everard and Mahsa Amini start and facilitate the dialogue on violence against women. Currently across the EU and North America, violence against women is one of the biggest threats to society. As we materially evolve and technology advances, so do societal issues. Violence against women is no longer just physical, as is evident with Andrew Tate; it can now be understood as harmful projections against women. Suzie Dunn addresses this in her work, “Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence,” as she states, “As people’s lives become increasingly digitally mediated, gender-based violence has likewise shifted to the digital realm. Perpetrators of Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence (TFGBV) have adopted the tools of technology to broaden the scope of violence they enact against their victims.”[6] Technology within this scope has provided us with two new consequences; one, being a microphone to express oppressive views that further enable a culture of abuse against women; number two, a medium to actually inflict violence on women. While we justly condemn the violence in Iran, we must understand that this violence, while not as explicit, happens within our glasshouse.
As more light has been shed on Iran following the devastating death of Mahsa Amini, it has brought more focus to the experiences of women in Iran. Most especially the sexual violence women within Iran and other middle eastern countries face. CNN sat down with multiple Iranian women and documented their harrowing experiences at the hands of Iranian law enforcement. One woman stated she both witnessed and suffered sexual violence while detained. She further stated, “There were girls who were sexually assaulted and then transferred to other cities… They are scared to talk about these things.”[7] There is no lack of experiences relating to sexual violence for women in the Middle East. Before situations like Mahsa, women have remained oppressed and abused within the Middle East. David Ghaim bests addresses this in his publication, “Violence Against Women In The Middle East,” as he states, “‘Violence against women and girls is a problem of pandemic proportions. At least one out of every three women has been beaten, coerced into sex, or otherwise abused in her lifetime.”[8] The experiences women face are not uncommon and studies prove that they are almost inevitable. However, this does not only pertain to women in the Middle Eastern world; the West faces the issues of sexual violence against women. Studies show that in the US, “a history of rape or assault was a stronger predictor of how many times a woman sought medical care and of the severity of her health problems than was smoking or other unhealthy habits.”[9] Women remain victims across the world, therefore it is a necessity that we work to uphold their rights. However, most recently Canadian legislatures have decided to neglect this. In May of 2022, the Canadian Supreme Court ruled that “Extreme intoxication that produces a psychotic state can be a defence to violent crime such as sexual assaults.”[10] Through this ruling, the Canadian Supreme Court has enabled the perpetrators of these acts of sexual violence to defend their actions. Many are justly under the supposition that women’s rights in the Middle East are consistently being violated, whereas the situation in developed countries does not remain all that better.
When addressing women’s rights within countries like Iran and other Islamic states, many call to the current political sphere within these Middle Eastern countries. In the defence of those condemning these nations, their points show validity. A UN report stated, “women remain largely underrepresented at all levels of governance in the Arab region…Many governments still include only one or two female ministers, if any, and they are typically confined to portfolios associated with women’s traditional roles in society (e.g. health or education).”[11] Political representation of women is a focal part of advancing rights for women and combatting the issues presented to them. Middle eastern countries continue to remain behind the benchmark of this.
Marwa Shalaby, a professor at the University of Wisconsin states, “increasing the number of women in legislative assemblies is crucial for fostering greater responsiveness to citizen needs—in particular, the needs of women.”[12] The demand for more women in politics is paramount to the progression of women’s rights; however, within the Western world, political parity still remains an issue. The Council on Foreign Relations best illustrates this in their ‘Women’s Power Index” with a political parity score, an aggregate measure of the representation of women in a country’s government. A score of a hundred represents women having at least fifty per cent representation. The U.S. and Germany achieved scores in the low forties while the U.K. achieved a lower score of thirty-six.[13] Countries that we envision as leaders and progressives in the fight for women’s rights neglect the fact that political representation for women is unaddressed. Saskia Brechenmacher of Carnegie Endowment of International Peace emphasises the lack of awareness within this statistic, as she states, “Women currently hold 19.3 percent of seats in the House of Representatives and 21.0 percent in the Senate. Over the past decade, these percentages have barely increased. At the current rate of progress, women will not achieve full legislative parity in the U.S. Congress for another hundred years.”[14] Despite our misconceptions of the western world being a more progressive state (in context it is), we still have mountains to climb in the push for equality.
However, it should be acknowledged that it must not only be those who hold a resemblance to different demographics to uphold and advocate for their interests. It should not only be women within the political sphere who have to fight for women. In a representative democracy, women’s rights should remain a pertinent issue, regardless of how many cabinet seats are occupied by women. Many condemn the laws and customs in place in the Middle East for their oppressive nature toward women. In 2011, former US president Barrack Obama gave a speech regarding US policy in the Middle East and North Africa. He addressed the concern of women’s rights within the Middle East and how a US approach may favour them better as he states, “History shows that countries are more prosperous and more peaceful when women are empowered. And that’s why we will continue to insist that universal rights apply to women as well as men.”[15] Here president Obama uses the US as an example for the Middle East in upholding women’s rights; while the US is significantly more progressive than countries in the Middle East, women’s rights are still being violated there. Most recently the issue of women’s reproductive rights have found the limelight in US political issues.
In June of 2022, the U.S Supreme Court ruled in favour of banning abortion within the US by overturning Roe v Wade,meaning there is no constitutional right to abortion. This ruling directly impacts the rights of millions of women in America. Rebecca Cook best encapsulates this in her work, Studies in Family Planning, as she states, “Neglect of women’s reproductive health, perpetuated by law, is part of a larger, systematic discrimination against women. Laws obstruct women’s access to reproductive health services. Laws protective of women’s reproductive health are rarely or inadequately implemented.”[16] While abortion is a heavily contested issue within modern society, it must be noted that it comes at the expense of women. Laws and customs are put in place to regulate the individual rights of women. Four of the five justices who voted to overturn the ruling were men; this is just another example of the rights of women being ignored not just in the Middle East but in the Western world as well.
It must also be noted that not much respect is also paid towards the religious rights of women within the Western world. Despite our perception of being a more open society when compared to Middle Eastern nations, we still hold laws in place that directly undermine the rights of women of different faiths. Most recently in the province of Quebec in Canada, the legislative court ruled “that the province may bar government workers in ‘positions of authority,’ such as police officers and judges, from wearing religious symbols such as Muslim hijabs.”[17] Canada is often remembered for its diversity and openness to different cultures, yet it is visibly obstructing the rights of Muslim women. However, Canada is not the only Western force oppressing women of different religions. In 2004, the French government opted to ban hijabs being worn in French public schools and further went on to ban full-face veils in all public spaces.[18] This is just another Western force opting to disregard the rights of women. It should also be noted that within France 70% of all Islamophobia is directed towards women.[19] Through the French government’s decision to violate the rights of Muslim women in France, they are further enabling violence towards them.
Situations like Mahsa Amini, while devastating, are very important in forwarding and engaging society in the dialogue of reinforcing women’s rights within the Middle East. The situation in which women within these nations are succumbed to are direct violations to the UNDHR. However, it must also be acknowledged that women across the world, while not nearing their extremities, are still vulnerable to situations like this. Offering the same level of focus and demand of action by global organisations to these situations is needed across the globe, not just in certain parts. Women face a multitude of barriers and injustices in nearly every avenue of the world, and prioritising and identifying the management these issues is a global effort.
[1] The Honourable Mélanie Joly, “Canada Imposes Sanctions on Iran for Systematic Human Rights Violations,” Government of Canada (Global Affairs Canada, 2022), https://www.canada.ca/en/global-affairs/news/2022/10/canada-imposes-sanctions-on-iran-for-systematic-human-rights-violations.html.
[2] Lord Tariq Ahmad, “Death of Mahsa Amini in Iran: Lord Ahmad of Wimbledon’s Statement,” Government of the UK (Foreign, Commonwealth & Development Office, 2022), https://www.gov.uk/government/news/death-of-mahsa-amini-in-iran-lord-ahmad-of-wimbledons-statement.
[3] Marianna Spring, “YouTube Joins Facebook in Banning Andrew Tate,” BBC News (BBC, August 23, 2022), https://www.bbc.com/news/technology-62602913.
[4] General Assembly Resolution 48/104 “Declaration on the Elimination of Violence against Women”, United Nations (December 20, 1993).
[5] Anthony W. Clare, On Men: Masculinity in Crisis (London: Arrow, 2001).
[6] Dunn, Suzie. “Gender-Based Violence.” Technology-Facilitated Gender-Based Violence: An Overview. Centre for International Governance Innovation, 2020. http://www.jstor.org/stable/resrep27513.8.
[7] Tamara Qiblawi and Barbara Arvanitidis, “CNN Investigates Female and Male Protesters’ Accounts of Sexual Assault in Iranian Detention Centers,” CNN (Cable News Network, November 21, 2022), https://www.cnn.com/interactive/2022/11/middleeast/iran-protests-sexual-assault/index.html.
[8] Ghanim, David. 2012. ‘Violence against women: The Middle East,’ in Violence and Abuse in
Society: Understanding a Global Crisis. Angela Browne-Miller, ed., Santa Barbara, CA:
Praeger, vol. 2, 361-376
[9] Anthony W. Clare. Op. Cit. 43
[10] Sean Fine, “Extreme Intoxication Can Be Used as a Defence for Violent Crime, Supreme Court Rules,” The Globe and Mail (The Globe and Mail, May 13, 2022), https://www.theglobeandmail.com/canada/article-extreme-intoxication-can-be-used-as-a-defence-for-violent-crime-rules/.
[11] Mehrinaz El Awady, “Women’s Political Representation in the Arab Region” (Beirut, Lebanon: UN, 2017).
[12] Marwa M. Shalaby, “Women’s Representation in the Middle East and North Africa,” Oxford Bibliographies Online Datasets, 2018, https://doi.org/10.1093/obo/9780199756223-0252, 2.
[13] Rachel B Vogelstein and Alexandra Bro, “Women’s Power Index” (New York, NY: Council on Foreign Relations, 2021), 2.
[14] Saskia Brechenmacher, “Tackling Women’s Underrepresentation In U.S. Politics: Comparative Perspectives From Europe ”(Washington, DC: Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, 2018), pp. 1-42, 3.
[15] The White House, “Remarks by the President on the Middle East and North Africa” (The White House: President Barack Obama), accessed November 21, 2022, https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/the-press-office/2011/05/19/remarks-president-middle-east-and-north-africa.
[16] Cook, Rebecca J. “International Human Rights and Women’s Reproductive Health.” Studies in Family Planning 24, no. 2 (1993): 73–86. https://doi.org/10.2307/2939201.
[17] Amanda Coletta, “Court Rules Quebec Can Bar Government Workers from Wearing Hijabs, Turbans, Other Religious Items,” The Washington Post (WP Company, April 20, 2021),
[18] Cady Lang, “Where France’s Possible New Hijab Ban Fits into History,” Time (Time, May 19, 2021), https://time.com/6049226/france-hijab-ban/.
[19] “Report 2020: Islamophobia in France” (Paris: Collectif Contre L’Islamaphobie en France, 2020), pp. 1-103.