Islamic Republic of Iran’s most important achievements in the field of women and family

(up to year 2021)

In the Name of God

 

Islamic Republic of Iran’s most important achievements in the field of women and family (up to year 2021)

 

A- Women and Family

• A-1) Legislative and Regulatory Domain:
• Adoption of specific articles in the Constitution in order to protect women’s rights and prevent discrimination against them, including Clause 14 of Article Three of the Constitution, which emphasizes on provision of the comprehensive rights of individuals, both men and women, and creating fair judicial protection for all individuals and equality of all before the law. Furthermore, Articles 20 and 21 respectively emphasize the equality of all before the law and the government’s duty to guarantee women’s rights in all aspects.
• Articles 20, 21 and 28 of the Constitution, Articles 38 and 75 to 78 of the Labor Law, Article 67 of the Social Security Act, Articles 83 and 90 of the Charter of Citizenship Rights and the Law on Organization and Protection of Home Businesses, are some of the most important laws protecting women’s rights in their workplace.
• Approval of the law to reduce the working hours of female employees with special conditions, as a result of which, female employees with special conditions including women with disabilities or those with disabled or sick children or spouses, as well as women with children under 6 years of age, just like female heads of household, shall be able to work thirty-six hours a week but receive full salary based on forty-four hours of work per week.
• Approval by the Government’s Cabinet of Ministers on May 6, 2021 to add a note to Clause 1 of the resolution on the length of maternity leave; and the subsequent increase of maternity leave for women working in the public and non-governmental sectors from 6 months to 9 months with payment of salaries and benefits; Furthermore and in order to help fathers participate more actively in childcare, fathers may also receive 14 days of leave for the birth of their child.
• Approval of Clause D of Article 80 of the Sixth Five-year Development Plan, where the government is tasked with preparing and endorsing a comprehensive plan for empowering female heads of household and submitting it to the Islamic Consultative Assembly.
• Approval of a support package to provide housing for female heads households with financial needs, approved by the Government’s Cabinet of Ministers on July 25, 2021.
• Approval of Article 101 of the Sixth Five-Year Development Plan focused on tasking executive agencies to promote women’s participation in decision-making and management as one of the indicators of gender justice.
• The task of creating a “special job promotion system for women working in the judiciary” by July 2022.
• Resolution by the Supreme Council of Cultural Revolution on July 12, 2021, on the organization of higher education institutions which stipulates strict planning with regards to reinforcement of higher education institutions dedicated to women, as well as recruitment of female members of faculties in these institutions.
• Approval of the law amending the law on determining the nationality of children born from marriages between Iranian women and foreign men
• Approval of the law on equality of blood money for men and women in cases of murder and bodily injuries.
• Drafting of the bill criminalizing all forms of violence against women in all domestic and social domains, under the title of “Safeguarding the dignity of women and protecting them against violence,” which is currently under consideration by the parliament.
• Serving notice of the Judicial Security Document in 2020 with emphasis on matters such as:
• The principle of equality before the law and the right to fair trial and litigation, without discrimination on any ground such as gender, race, color, language, religion, political belief, etc.; and facilitating the access of the elderly and individuals with special needs to judicial venues of all kinds
• Categorical prohibition of torture and degrading treatment, verbal or physical abuse, sexual harassment or defamation and injury to the good name of suspects, defendants, witnesses and informants
• Prohibition of unlawful and arbitrary detention
• Entitlement of convicts to all basic rights and special rights of prisoners
• Rehabilitation and resocialization of convicts and their entitlement to all civil rights, in particular employment and empowerment of released prisoners
• Approval of the law on Support for Family and Population Youth on October 16, 2021, and adoption of supportive measures for mothers, and pregnant and lactating women.
• Drafting of the bill amending Article 612 of the Islamic Penal Code (Discretionary and Deterrent Punishments) approved on 22/05/1996, with the subject of increasing the punishment for the father in cases of child murder and limiting his right of guardianship and custody over his other children.
• Drafting of the bill to combat trafficking of humans (both men and women) and body organs and punishment for those facilitating illegal crossing of the borders of the country (This bill was introduced to the Islamic Consultative Assembly on 18/6/2021).
• Amendment to the Anti-Human Trafficking Law (concerning both men and women), and introduction of a bill to the Islamic Consultative Assembly on combatting trafficking of humans, migrants and body organs, and punishment for illegally leaving the country (2021).
• Approval of the Children and Adolescents Protection Act on 12/05/2020 centered around protecting all children under the age of 18, including female children; the Act criminalizes human trafficking in its Articles 12 and 13, and in Article 15 defines punishment for economically exploiting and taking advantage of children and adolescents.
• Creation of the Anti-Human Trafficking National Commission by the Ministry of Interior, joint cooperation with countries of origin and destination of human trafficking to counter this phenomenon, as well as cooperation with Interpol on eliminating human trafficking gangs.
• Creation and establishment of a national system for observation and monitoring of the affairs of women and families in order to observe and monitor gender justice indicators and plans and structures and organizations concerned with women and families in executive agencies; within the framework of this national system the performance report of each agency towards improvement of the condition of women and families can be observed by the officials and supervising authorities.

 

❖ A-2) Executive domain

A-2-1) Empowerment of women:

• Implementation of economic and social policies for the economic empowerment of women, especially during the Coronavirus pandemic, including:
• Allocation of unemployment insurance for those men and women who have lost their jobs due to the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Approving the allocation of a $10 billion budget, in the form of employer loans, to revitalize an economy hit by the Coronavirus crisis.
• Doubling the Coronavirus loans for female heads of household.
• Allocating 100 million Tomans, from Clause B of Note 16, in employment loans for State Welfare Organization care-seekers, in the form of an interest-free loan to create sustainable employment.
• COVID-19 Emergency Response Project for the purpose of establishing and strengthening the socio-economic flexibility of rural and nomadic women, especially female heads of household, by providing health packages, as well as training and utilization of financial aid providers and facilitators, in an effort to support businesses affected by COVID-19.
• Dedicated websites and hotlines available to rural and non-rural female victims and survivors of violence during the Coronavirus pandemic.
• The “Women of the Sanctions Generation” campaign, created by the Office of the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs, has identified and introduced about 500 of the most successful and capable female entrepreneurs of the past three years, especially those located in small towns and villages. The Campaign has diligently put supporting, training and reinforcing of entrepreneurship for women on its agenda.
• More than 4,000 female entrepreneurs are active in the country and 20% of entrepreneurship centers and 20% of knowledge-based companies are managed by women.
• Creation of 2,403 jobs by female entrepreneurs.
• Of the 172,911 clothing distribution facilities in the country, 77,450 facilities (45%) belong to women.
• Activity of 735 women as CEOs of knowledge-based companies.
• 250 knowledge-based companies have been established by women.
• Female employers comprise 1.2% of working women.
• Reducing the unemployment rate of women (15 years and over) to 13.7%.
• Establishing permanent centers to supply and sell products produced by women.
• Facilitating the process of granting licenses to women-related non-governmental organizations.
• Creating a portal for registration of home business applicants throughout the country.
• Currently, women make up more than 32% of the members of companies active in the country and more than 12,000 companies in various fields such as agriculture, handicrafts, architecture, pharmaceuticals, etc., belong to women. Also, more than 2,500 women are members of the Chamber of Commerce, operating on national, regional and international levels.
• Establishment of empowerment headquarters for female heads of household in municipalities throughout the country.
• Providing job preparation training including job skills and life skills to 13,000 female heads of household and their family members, on an annual basis.
• Providing 1,000 families with female heads of household with business capital grants to help them launch their sustainable businesses.
• Transferring land from national and state lands to people without land, or not enough land, as well as applicants for various agricultural, industrial and service projects, etc., especially villagers, nomads and female heads of household.
• Empowerment and self-sufficiency of 1,187,108 female (women and girls) heads of household.
• Launching a center for acceleration and growth of women’s businesses, development of women’s employment and entrepreneurship, support for job creation in the domain of women’s rural cooperatives.
• Supporting job creation and continuation of the activities of 20 cooperatives for women, with the priority on depressed areas and low income deciles; as well as laying the groundwork for creation of 40 new jobs and sustainability of 60 existing jobs in 10 provinces in the country.
• Upward trend in the economic participation rate of women, increasing from 12.4% in 2013 to 16.4% in 2018.
• Formation and launch of more than 1,200 support groups for female heads of household across the country recruiting more than 7,000 female heads of household; as well as revival and reinforcement of 300 existing support groups (translating to more than 2,000 people).
• Participation of 255,000 female heads of household in social and economic empowerment programs.
• Currently, 3,200 microfinance funds for rural women are active across the country.
• Since 2012, about 30% of the government’s facilities and resources have been allocated to projects introduced by women in an effort to support women’s employment.
• Of the 3,200,000 female heads of household, a total of nearly 700,000 have been covered by insurance.
• Allocation of 20 billion Rials for implementation of a program to improve the condition of women and families, with an emphasize on creating home businesses in 31 provinces to support those female heads of household who are not covered by the country’s governmental/public support organizations and institutions.
• Implementation of the economic empowerment plan for female heads of household based on the new model of home business development, by way of creating sustainable employment for 1,100 female heads of household in 28 provinces.
• From 2015 up to the first 6 months of 2018, the number of women receiving training for entrepreneurship skills and home businesses has been 25,999 and 271,150, respectively.
• According to the 2020 performance report on the plan to organize and support home businesses, of the 33,740 licenses issued for these occupations, 26,158 were for women, and of the 18,933 recipients of facilities, 15,273 were women;
• Providing aid to approximately 80,000 female university graduates, female entrepreneurs, women heads of household, never-married girls, and rural women, with the goal of promoting home-based entrepreneurship, setting up micro, small and value-creating businesses, and working out their business problems and meeting their essential needs by granting facilities to women of the target communities.
• Payment of about 6,000 billion Rials of banking facilities to household businesses in the year 2020.
• Promoting women’s self-employment by supplying them with job-creating funds and supporting their technical and vocational trainings, as well as covering their vocational training expenses all the way to the sale of their products; by implementing this national plan, so far, 2,645 brands of various products have been created.
• At the moment, women produce 40% of agricultural products, 80% of handwoven carpets and 75% of handicrafts.
• Management of technological and digital change to empower women, so much so that at the moment, of all the technology users at the access level, 52% are men and 48% women, and women constitute 23% of the mobile software developers.
• The main part of the engine driving the digital transformation, that is, “creativity,” belongs to women; therefore, when it comes to digital growth and transformation, this group plays an important 50%-role.
• 26 million people, accounting for 45 percent of all mobile phone users, 14.5 million people, accounting for 48 percent of all computer users, and 18.7 million people, accounting for 48 percent of all Internet users, are women.
• Creation of virtual markets, with 63 startups and 10 community-oriented facilitator groups, by the Office of Vice Presidency for Science and Technology in collaboration with the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology in order to empower women with the objective of penetrating virtual markets.
• The launching of the project entitled “Formulation of a national plan and policy package for the priorities of the ICT sector on empowerment of women” by the ICT Research Institute in collaboration with the Office of Women’s Affairs of the Ministry of Communications and Information Technology, with the goal of creating employment for women, promoting women’s economic livelihood and reducing the digital gender gap.
• Expanding the scope of Women’s Empowerment National Initiative through IT/ICT from 50 villages in 2018 to 270 villages in 2019.
• Increasing the participation rate of women active in the field of information technology to 31.5%.

 

A-2-2) Supporting women in the field of management and decision-making:

• Strengthening women’s collective voice and their leadership and decision-making, in such a way that in the last four years, from 2018 to 2021, the selection of female managers has grown by 98.4 percent; and the number of female managers at all levels has increased from 12.7 percent in 2017 to 25.2 percent in 2021.
• Appointment of female managers in the governorates has increased by 89.8% in the last three years.
• Women have constantly assumed the position of Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs.
• 1,121 female judges are active in the judiciary. From 2011 to 2017, recruitment of female judges has grown by an average of 3% annually. The number of female judges has increased from 33 before the revolution to 1,121 in recent years.
• 21% increase in the past 40 years in the number of women applying for candidacy in the Islamic Consultative Assembly elections.
• Improvement in women’s participation in the Islamic Consultative Assembly by 5.59%.
• 5-fold increase in the presence of women in the Islamic Consultative Assembly since its first period.
• 111 seats in the Islamic Consultative Assembly have been won by women during its 11 periods.
• There are currently 6 female representatives in the 11th period of the Islamic Consultative Assembly (2019-2023).
• During the sixth election for the country’s Islamic Councils, 20,594 female candidates registered, of whom 11,307 were qualified as candidates for this round of Islamic City and Village Councils elections (the share of female candidates in this round was 8% which compared to the previous election has increased by more than 2%); of those candidates, 5,990 were elected as members of City and Village Councils, a number which has increased by 50% compared to the previous election. Additionally, in this round, of the 27,903,568 voters 49% were women.
• Currently, 14 parties have been specifically established by women and have received registration licenses. The number of female members of political groups and parties is more than 15,000.
• 50% of managerial positions in the Ministry of Health are held by women.
• The share of women working in the government has increased from 34.64% in 2009 to 41.67% in 2018, indicating an upward trend in the presence of women in government employment.
• Improvement in appointment of women from 13.6% in 2017 to 25% in 2021. The total number of female managers reached 19.597 in 2020.
• Currently, there are 4 female ambassadors, 3 female governors, 8 female mayors, 62 female deputy governor generals, 15 female deputy governors, 52 female deputy lieutenant governors and 2,393 female chiefs of rural municipalities and 1,116 female judges.

 

A-2-3) Supporting women in the field of healthcare:

• For every 100,000 women, 60 midwives and 2.8 obstetrics and gynecology specialists are active in the country.
• 95% of births in the country are performed by obstetrics and gynecology specialists.
• Implementation of Public Health Coverage Network for 100% of urban residents and 99% of villagers and nomads.
• 98% of obstetricians and gynecologists in the country are women.
• Iran is ranked #10 in the world in terms of lowest death rate from cervical cancer.
• Drop in maternal mortality rates from 91 deaths per 100,000 live births in 1988 to 16 deaths in 2021.
• Drop in infant mortality rates to 8.8% per 100,000 live births.
• Drop in the mortality rate of children under the age of 5 to 14.2% per 100,000 births.
• Increase in life expectancy for women from 56.2 years in 1976 to 79.4 years in 2018 .
• Increase in safe childbirth to more than 98% by 2016.
• Establishment of the country’s human ovarian tissue bank in 2017.
• In 2019, the first human ovarian tissue transplant on women with cancer was performed in the country.
• Improvement in the level of health and well-being of female refugees by establishing 7 medical centers in refugee-hosting provinces and providing medical centers in guest cities with medicine and equipment.
• At the moment, women constitute 70% of the country’s treatment and medical staff.
• 73% of health professionals and 49% of physicians are women; their active presence during the Coronavirus pandemic has been quite evident.
• Increase in the number of GPs from 3,500 women in 1977 to 60,000 in 2016.
• 40% of specialist physicians and 30% of subspecialty physicians are women.
• Increase in the number of specialist doctors from 597 women to 30,000 women by 2016.
• During the pandemic, 7 podcasts were produced in collaboration with NGOs entitled “Our Home” which was an audio series aimed at raising awareness about quarantine-related social problems.
• Supporting the implementation of an initiative called, “Women Vanguards of Healing,” whose aim was to launch a social health promotion network with an approach towards social guidance during the coronavirus outbreak by producing the required educational content in collaboration with the Ministry of Health; 10 million interested women signed up and participated in the virtual classes as health narrators.
• Activating a virtual group with the membership of general directors of women and family affairs in provinces all across the country, with the goal of exchanging information and facilitating service provision to people during the Coronavirus pandemic;
• The Office of Vice Presidency for Women’s Affairs providing support to social activists by producing 6 audio files entitled “MARHAM” with the aim of answering the questions and resolving the social problems of survivors struggling with the death of their COVID-19 patients.

 

A-2-4) Tackling violence against women:

• Implementing the Social Emergency program with more than 350 centers across the country and a dedicated social emergency hotline (123) for crisis intervention.
• Activities of the Committee for Prevention of Violence on national level in the office of the Deputy of Judiciary on Social and Crime Prevention Affairs, with the aim of tackling violence including domestic violence, and conducting specialized interventions in safe houses to support women and children.
• Establishing the Domestic Violence Prevention Committee in the Central Bar Association since July 2018, in line with the legal and civil fight against domestic violence and with the goal of creating justice-oriented paths to redress the rights of the victims and the abused, and conducting activities such as holding numerous workshops for various groups including NGOs, as well as providing free counseling to the affected individuals, and free legal representation in relevant cases, etc.
• Dedicating a hotline (1480) to provide psychiatric counseling to women and girls in order to help them deal with child abuse and spousal abuse (by employing 400 senior experts and PhDs in psychology).
• Dedicating a hotline (129) to provide legal counseling to citizens, including women.
• Launching an online/phone counseling service for addiction in the Social Welfare Organization (09622).
• Establishing 31 intervention centers for individual, family and social crises.
• Establishing 28 Safe House Centers, operating around the clock and free of charge, to provide female victims of domestic violence and their children with psychological, psychiatric, legal, etc. advice. The length of stay in these houses is limited to 4 months, which can be extended for another four months.
• In line with formulation of an action plan for prevention of violence, a comprehensive bank of prevention watchdogs of the judiciary has been established with the long-term objective of recruiting 1,500,000 members across the country and organizing 51,026 male prevention watchdogs and 10,692 female prevention watchdogs, along with compilation of training booklets.
• Launching 15 divorce systems in the provinces, in order to provide divorced women and their children with psycho-social support.
• Launching 21 psychosocial support centers for girls and families, in collaboration with the private sector.
• Setting up 3 rehabilitation centers for socially disadvantaged women and girls.
• Providing counseling at the State Welfare Organization of Iran during the coronavirus pandemic, available free of charge and 24 hours a day, to deal with the phenomenon of child and spousal abuse.
• Raising public awareness and sensitivity, and sharing information about the phenomenon of domestic violence against women, children, the disabled and the elderly in the form of SMS and media alerts, during the Coronavirus pandemic.
• Uploading the “Spring at Home” window on the website of Imam Musa Sadr Dialogue Center in collaboration with the Office of Vice-Presidency for Women Affairs, for weekly training sessions in order to recreate the three basic skills of dialogue, namely: listening, respect and expression.

 

A-2-5) Supporting women in sports:

• The launch of women’s sports radio channel in July of 2022, as a new revolution in the field of women’s sports and national media.
• Increase in the number of women’s sports federations from 1 federation in 1979 to 49 in 2018 .
• Existence of 273 types of women’s sports active in the country.
• Existence of 164 types of women’s sports with license to participate in international events.
• Setting up 5,200 workout stations to promote health and vitality.
• 411 dedicated sports centers for people with disabilities.
• Increase in the number of female coaches from 32 coaches in 1978 to 121,000 in 2021.
• Growth in participation of women in championship events from 76,952 individuals at the end of 1988, reaching the current number of 1,400,000 individuals as representatives of the organized population of female athletes (in 2020, 377,251 individuals and in the first six months of 2021, 441,150 individuals actively participated in championship events).
• Existence of 4,737 women’s sports clubs in the country in 2020.
• Active participation of 88,366 female referees in national and international competitions.
• Presence of national and international female referees in various sports has grown by 25% compared to forty years ago.
• Iranian women hold 97 international seats in various sports federations in the world.
• Increase in women’s participation in Olympic Games from zero in 1992 to 9 in 2016.
• Increase in women's participation in Paralympic Games from 4 in 1992 to 22 in 2016.
• 3,302 medals have been won by female athletes in recent world events.
• Increase in the number of medals won at the Asian Championships from 2 medals in 2002 to 18 medals in 2018.
• In the 2010, 2014, 2018 editions of the Para-Asian Games, 14, 27 and 41 medals have been won respectively.
• Female athletes have managed to secure the Olympic and Paralympic quotas, at the same time.
• Increase in the number of female participants in Paralympic Games from 4 in 1992 to 22 in 2016.
• Securing 11 quotas in 7 Olympic disciplines, and 9 quotas in 5 Paralympic disciplines, in their respective 2020 editions.
• 9 female athletes participated in the 2020 Olympic Games and won 3 medals.
• In 2020, 3 female athletes with disabilities took part in international competitions and won 11 medals (9 golds, 2 silvers);
• Winning 91 medals in international competitions in 2021 (28 gold, 37 silver and 26 bronze medals) and 210 medals in 2020 (69 gold, 69 silver and 72 bronze medals) in 2020.
• Farzaneh Fasihi, member of women’s athletics national team of the Islamic Republic of Iran, achieved the runner-up position in the Islamic Solidarity Games.
• Seyedeh Elham Hosseini, captain of women’s weightlifting team of the Islamic Republic of Iran won the gold medal in weightlifting at the Islamic Solidarity Games - First gold medal in the history of Iranian women’s weightlifting.

 

A-2-6) Supporting women in the fields of culture and education:

• About 80% of literacy initiatives have been dedicated to girls and women, especially in rural areas. As a result, the difference in literacy rates between men and women has decreased from 23.4% in 1976 to less than 6.3% in 2020; according to the latest census, the number of female literates has been 29,753,843.
• From 2018 to 2020, more than 16,859 nomadic women and girls enrolled in literacy classes and were covered by literacy programs.
• In the 2018-2019 academic year, the total number of higher education students was 3,182,989, of which 51.5% were men and 48.5% women. While in 1978 the penetration rate of higher education among women was only 281 per 100,000 (0.28% of the population), in 2020 this figure showed a more than 20-fold increase and reached 4,747 individuals per 100,000 (4.7 of the country’s population.) Also, the rate of women’s access to and participation in higher education has gone from 2.1% in 1978 to 41.2% in 2020. At the time of this reporting, women’s share of membership in university faculties has increased by more than 33.3%.
• 40% of the editors in chief of publications are women, and at least 25 women’s publications and 1,051 female publishers are active.
• 5,457 women work as chief editors in advertising and publicity agencies.
• Overall, 51 news sites, 3 news agencies and 33 wide circulation newspapers are managed by women.
• Increase in the number of female authors from 11 women in 1978 to 23,543 in 2021.
• Increase in the number of women winning awards in the field of architecture from 2 in 2006 to 12 in 2015.
• Increase in the number of women winning Fajr Film Festival awards from 5 in 2001 to 17 in 2020.
• 114 women have received awards in prominent national art festivals.
• 128 women have received awards in prominent international art festivals.
• 45 women filmmakers and actresses have served as the head of the jury.
• Activity of 903 women filmmakers in the field of cinema.
• Activity of 2,000 female professionals behind the scenes in the movie industry.
• Female filmmakers have won 114 national awards and 128 international awards in prominent festivals.
• Female filmmakers and actresses have been present in 45 international festivals as head of the jury.
• Increase in women’s access to education in 784 technical and engineering fields.
• Women constitute 27% of the university professors.
• 4% of girls attend primary school.
• 115% growth in primary school enrollment for female students.
• 84% growth in high school enrollment for female students.
• Currently, only 3% of girls in remote areas are deprived of primary school education, whereas in 1979, 38.6% were left out of school.
• Eradication of illiteracy among women and girls with literacy percentage reaching 99.30%.
• Women make up 34% of the faculty members of the country’s medical sciences universities.
• Complete elimination of gender gap in education in the country at primary and secondary school levels.
• Women constitute 56% of the students of public universities in the country.
• 48% growth in the ratio of female to male students.

 

A-2-7) Women and the Environment:

• 4-term tenure of women as the Head of the Environment Organization.
• Allocation of a quarter of the country’s environmental macro management positions to women.
• Women constitute 40% of the deputy heads of the Environment Organization.

It is worth noting that the Islamic Republic of Iran’s success in the recent Commission on Status of Women elections (April 2021) and our country’s election to this commission for the 2022-2026 term is a valuable achievement and a very important opportunity to protect the image and improve the position of the country in the field of women’s rights.