ژورنال سایت خبری سیاسی ژورنال
English Journal is published on Fridays
PDF-English Journal-17 October 2025-No34
According to a report in Shargh newspaper, “While domestic violence in Iran has increased, safe houses for abused women are now facing security threats.” Zahra Eftekharzadeh, founder of the Atina Safe House, pointed to the lack of official statistics and the weakness of deterrent laws. Fatemeh Babakhani spoke of women’s growing awareness of their rights, but emphasised that the absence of legal, economic and cultural support prevents effective resistance to violence. She warned that without clear policies and support for civil organisations, the cycle of violence will persist.
Domestic violence in Iran is not merely a social problem; it is woven into the very structure of power under the Islamic regime. For more than four decades, women in Iran have resisted and fought against a patriarchal and religious system that, through Islamic law, has institutionalised and legitimised violence against them. The existing laws are not protective tools but instruments of oppression.
There is no doubt that the Islamic regime itself is the source of this violence—from the denial of women’s basic rights in law to the obstruction and persecution of organisations created to support them. The regime’s mediaeval religious codes are in direct conflict with gender equality and use the oppression of women as a means of intimidating society as a whole.
Safe houses come under security pressure precisely because the state fears any challenge to its patriarchal and theocratic power. Confronting domestic violence therefore means confronting the regime itself. At the same time, helping women who face abuse through grassroots and international organisations is an urgent human responsibility.
Widespread social pressure on the government is needed to establish large-scale state-funded safe houses and to recognise those created by independent women’s rights groups. Building nationwide anti-violence networks, providing legal aid and sustained cultural work – especially with economic and social support – can challenge discrimination at its roots and open the way to a freer future for women. Abroad, too, the political, legal and economic plight of women in Iran must be brought to global attention, with concrete demands such as sanctions on all judicial and government officials responsible for oppression. Yet as long as the Islamic regime endures, the question of women in Iran will remain political – and central.
Editor: Patty Debonitas
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