In part one, we looked the statement that Maryam Rajavi made and how women are the driving force behind much of the anti-regime protest movement, which is the main reason that the Regime suppresses women so violently. In part two, we looked at how the Iranian Regime suppresses women.

In this part, we will be looking at how Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance would seek to eliminate violence against women in Iran after the mullahs have fallen, including how Maryam Rajavi’s 10-point-plan for a free Iran fits in.

Iran is a horrific place to be a woman, from forced early marriages to acid attacks by state security forces for improper veiling to the systematic use of rape as a method of torture in prison, but it doesn’t have to be this way.

Maryam Rajavi and the Iranian Resistance have a 10-point plan for a free Iran that enshrines women’s equality across all areas of life. The fifth point is a commitment to gender equality, a pledge to ban discrimination against women, and states that Maryam Rajavi wants equal participation of women in political leadership.

This was greatly expanded upon during Maryam Rajavi’s most recent speech, where she highlighted that discrimination and violence against women in Iran is a “significant” part of the Resistance’s struggle.

Maryam Rajavi said: “The Iranian Resistance will strongly advocate the elimination of all factors contributing to women’s inferiority at work and in education, and preventing women’s free choice. Irrespective of their ethnicity, religion, social class or demographics, women must have the same rights as men in all economic, social and political spheres. Discrimination against women must be abolished in all its forms.”

Here are some the changes that Maryam Rajavi would make to ensure gender equality in Iran.
Justice System reform
• Ensure women receive “guaranteed judicial recourse” for all crimes committed against them
• Increase the legal age for girls to 18
• Repeal the mullahs’ Sharia laws, which heavily discriminate against women
• Remove all brutal punishments, like stoning, which are often levied against women
• Repeal the forced veiling law
• Ban on violence, intimidation, or deprivation of freedoms against women
• End the sex trade, by clamping down of the trafficking of women and forced prostitution

Employment
• Ensure equal opportunities for women in the workplace, with job security and complete benefits
• Ban employment for girls under 18
Family Life
• Allow women to freely choose to marry or divorce
• Ban polygamy
• End child marriage
• Remove any familial defence for a crime, i.e. spousal abuse because a woman did not obey her husband
• Remove any law that allows a woman’s relatives to give her away to someone for sexual pleasure or exploitation under the pretext of marriage

Maryam Rajavi is steadfast in her belief that gender equality is the backbone of a democracy and should, therefore, be the cornerstone of a new Iran. Feminists, human rights activists, and politicians should stand with her to achieve this vision.