IRAN/ Following up the plans and programmes of the 13th government of the Islamic Republic of Iran in upgrading more the status of the women population of this country; on June the 27th, a group of women rights researchers had a meeting with the new Iranian presidential assistant in pursuing “Freedom & Social Rights” Dr. Sakine Sadat Pad, to express their views and concerns regarding women and family’s rights in Iran.
Furthermore, in this meeting they presented their ideas and suggestions on how to solve different issues and problems that women face in this country everyday.
Dr. Sakinepad, said in this meeting: “One of my missions is to monitor, remind, and report to Ayatollah Raisi, and if necessary, we will intervene in some issues. For example, in discussions such as the Seventh Development Plan, our office provided its supplementary opinions to the President, and this is one of the examples of the follow-up of women’s material and spiritual rights because the macro-plan and policies have been somewhat abandoned and a certain harmony has not defined for it.”
Main Issue in Helping Women Of Iran
By stating that she has closely felt the issues related to women in society due to her profession, she stated: “Although there are good documents, there is no proper understanding of the issue, so one of the ways to solve women’s issues is the pursuit of material and moral rights is the beginning of sitting and listening and talking with those who have understood the issues and have ideas on how to resolve them. So, hopefully this meeting won’t be the last and we will reach a common understanding and plan between our talks.”
Dr. Pad considered problem-solving in the field of women as one of the important points and added: “We intend that the outcome of these meetings will lead to the final strategy and go further than charters, declarations, and talks. If necessary, we will do the work in the form of a law. Of course, the problems and issues will be prioritized after identification and statistics, and we will provide a suitable solution to solve the issues.”
In response to the question of one of the attendees in the meeting, the assistant of the president emphasized that in the 7th development plan, the clauses of gender justice have been submitted. She claimed: “We also saw this problem, we expected that this issue would be followed up by the custodians sooner, but because it is the duty I am in charge of monitoring and following up the material and spiritual rights of women; I said that gender justice was not achieved in the 6th development plan and so it should be considered in the 7th plan.”
7th Development Plan
The 7th Development Program is a five-year economic, social and cultural development program of the Islamic Republic of Iran. The bill was compiled in 22 chapters and seven different sections, which include new plans and ideas for the economic, infrastructure, cultural & social, scientific, technological & educational, foreign policy, defense & security, administrative, legal& judicial sectors of the country. For more info click here.
This Iranian politician added: “A letter today regarding the needs of rural women and discussing the improvement of the structure and position of women’s affairs in executive bodies as well as the needs of single women above the age of 35 and how to use the capacity of elite women in major decision-making positions according to the leadership’s order; was prepared in this program on December 22nd, 2022 and sent to the president.”
Regarding the custody and guardianship of children, Dr. Pad said to one of the activists in the women’s field: “We consider the revision of the Women’s Jurisprudence Council to be a fundamental problem and we have a plan in this regard. Earlier, I wrote a note regarding women’s issues. I said that Baharestan, Pastor, Qom, and civil activists (she means places in Iran that have high political ranking in Iran) should come to a common understanding with each other so that some issues in the field of women can be resolved.”
In the continuation of this meeting, the attendees of this meeting expressed and shared their concerns in the field of “Women & Family” rights.
