Council President Opposes Bill for Women's Security Against Violence

Review of newspapers on Tuesday, December 26, 2017: The Jam-e-Farda newspaper reported on the opposition of the President of the Cultural and Social Council of Women to the bill "Ensuring Women's Security Against Violence" and wrote that Zahra Ayatollahi emphasized in a note in one of the media that "the best kind of support for women, as Islam has guided, is to entrust the support of women to the men of the family." According to this newspaper, the President of the Cultural and Social Council of Women, affiliated with the Cultural Revolution Council, stressed that if the bill for ensuring women's security against violence is passed, "a woman, who is a symbol of delicacy, love, and tranquility, will become a being that is capricious, fault-finding, and spoiled, who can interpret any action of a man as violence against herself," and "God knows which son, even if he is 40 or 50 years old, will dare to marry, even if he is Rostam Dastan." The newspaper reminded that "the bill for ensuring women's security is a topic that Hassan Rouhani firmly mentioned in all his speeches to support women, and the Women's Vice Presidency has also promised daily that it will soon be approved. A bill that has been pending for five years and is now awaiting approval from the judiciary." The Khorasan newspaper reported, quoting the head of the Joint Commission of the tenth parliament, about "whispers of amending the government's subsidy-benzene proposal." According to this newspaper, Gholamreza Tajgardoon, in a television program about energy carrier prices for the coming year, pointed out that "increasing energy carrier prices will have consequences such as about a one percent increase in inflation and also a decrease in employment," and "we must think of a combined reform regarding energy carriers and this should be discussed." He said, "Certainly, we cannot suddenly raise the prices of carriers to the FOB price of the Persian Gulf; there are other models; for example, limited gasoline supply with cards and unlimited without cards at a higher price or approving a lower price, for instance, 1200 tomans, all of which need to be examined." The head of the Budget Consolidation Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly also spoke about the fate of cash subsidies in 2018, saying, "Among the methods proposed for targeting subsidies, from identifying the needy or paying subsidies to the beneficiaries of the Imam Khomeini Relief Foundation and Welfare Organization, the government has chosen the elimination method, which the parliament will not approve of what the government has proposed." Simultaneously, Kayhan in its Tuesday issue advised the government to instead of offering 1500 tomans gasoline next year, to "implement a tiered gasoline price through the monthly supply of 80 liters of 1000 tomans gasoline to each household and supply gasoline at 2000 tomans for consumption above 80 liters per month," and to once again "ration" gasoline in 2018. The Aftab Yazd newspaper highlighted the increase in food prices, including "eggs," by publishing a plan on its front page and wrote about "8 factors for recent price increases": the outbreak of bird flu in some poultry farms, the rise in animal feed prices, demand problems, changes in customs tariffs, insufficient support for production, the possibility of gasoline price increases, the rise in currency prices, and the growth of liquidity volume are among the factors for recent price increases. The Jahane Sanat newspaper also reported on the latest statistics from the Statistical Center of Iran regarding the difference in inflation rates for high-income and low-income deciles, emphasizing that "the low-income groups are more affected by the increase in inflation." According to this newspaper, "for the first time, the Statistical Center on Tuesday examined the inflation of income deciles," which shows that "the inflation rate for the first income decile is 8.8 percent and for the tenth income decile is 4.7 percent," indicating a greater share of low-income earners in the inflation rate. Jahane Sanat wrote: "What has been published by the Statistical Center shows that the increase in prices in the food, beverage, and tobacco group, which constitutes a major share of the consumption basket of low-income households, has led to greater inflationary pressure in this decile compared to higher deciles," and "the share of food items in inflation calculation has decreased while these items make up a major share of the consumption basket of low-income households." Hadi Haqshenas, an economic expert, in a note in this newspaper stated that "when a 9 percent inflation rate is announced, this inflation rate for low-income deciles may be more than twice and for high-income deciles may be less than half or a third." He wrote: "The reason for this is that for low-income deciles, the most important expenses are housing rent, transportation, healthcare, education, and similar issues, but for high-income deciles, who own housing and vehicles, even healthcare costs are less due to preventive expenses; therefore, inflation can always be more painful for low-income deciles and less impactful for high-income deciles." The Iran newspaper, close to the government, also reported that according to a report from the Statistical Center on "differentiated effects of inflation," the inflation rate for "low-income groups is 19 percent higher than for high-income groups." Javad Hosseinzadeh, the Deputy for Economic and National Accounts of the Statistical Center, referred to the change of the base year for the consumer price index from 2011 to 2016 as a significant event in the Statistical Center of Iran and stated: "In the consumption basket of households, the year 2016 in terms of technology, demographic composition, and consumption items changes, which can lead to a change in the base year," adding that "the importance coefficient of some food and beverage items has decreased with the change of the base year, including the importance coefficient of bread and cereals, red and white meat, dairy products, and eggs." The Iran newspaper quoted this official from the Statistical Center emphasizing that "when the share of food items in the consumption basket decreases, it means that the needs of households have decreased, and it can be said that households are foregoing their food needs." The Shargh newspaper reported with the headline "Seventh Meeting with Mehdi Karroubi" that "Ismail Doosti, a member of the National Trust Party, visited Sheikh Mehdi Karroubi again. According to news that has been published so far, the recent meeting of Doosti with Mehdi Karroubi, along with the meetings of Mojtaba Zolnoor and Mohammad Reza Abbasi Fard, is the seventh meeting of this candidate who protested the 2009 elections and has been under house arrest since February 14, 2011. Shargh noted the statements of Ali Shamkhani, Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council, about the fact that "the decision made regarding creating openings in the situation of Mr. Karroubi, Mousavi, and Mrs. Rahnavard is gradually being implemented, and certainly media maneuvering will not help this process," writing: "What is clear is that the meetings have only taken place with Sheikh Mehdi Karroubi. Although Hossein Karroubi has said that a request for a meeting with Mousavi has also been made, which the response to that is likely still unclear." The Shahrvand newspaper, in its incident page, reported with the title "The Tragedy of a Family's Fall" that on Tuesday, December 25, a young woman "ended her life by throwing her young daughter and son from the fifth floor of a commercial complex." According to this newspaper, "At 11 AM on Tuesday, December 25, a tragic incident occurred on Basij Street in Rezvanshahr, where a 40-year-old woman, along with her 5-month-old son and 10-year-old daughter, entered a newly established commercial complex. The complex was empty, and no one was working there yet. She went upstairs with her children. Standing behind the window on the fifth floor, at that moment, the little girl cried out, begging her mother not to throw her down. She was crying and saying: 'Mom, please don't throw me.' But her pleas could not soften the mother's heart. The little girl was thrown from the window. At that moment, her younger brother was also thrown by their mother, and after that, the young woman threw herself down." This newspaper attributed "family disputes" and "psychological problems" as the cause of this incident, stating that this woman, who "was working at the Anzali hospital," lost her life in the tragic incident on Tuesday and of her two children, the "baby boy" was killed, but the ten-year-old girl survived after falling on the roof of a parked Samand car in front of the residential complex, and according to doctors, despite having fractures in both legs, she was saved from death. The Hamdeli newspaper, on the anniversary of the earthquake of December 26, 2003, wrote: "When Bam collapsed, Iran suddenly became tears and pain and then hands to rebuild this precious land and this house of hope. Bam is still wounded, but hands are trying to reconstruct its sorrowful face and historical stature. Bam today is slowly experiencing life alongside ancient Bam." The Shahrvand newspaper, with the title "The Walls of Anxiety," reported on the return of students to container schools or "non-destructive schools" in earthquake-affected areas and quoted one of the teachers at the Adab School in Sarpol-e Zahab as saying: "The children's spirits are not good; in class, they talk about their family members who died in the earthquake, some cry, and we have to comfort them." The reporter of this newspaper also mentioned about the container schools that "the containers have no desks, students have to sit on carpets. The containers have no boards, there is one chair on which the board is placed," quoting family members of students in this area as saying: "We are not afraid to send our children to school; the containers are installed under cracked walls; we just want security." The director of education in Sarpol-e Zahab told the Shahrvand newspaper: "In the recent earthquake, 2 teachers and 78 students were killed." In this context, reports from Japanese researchers about the power of Tehran's faults, "Tehran trembled," "1500 tomans gasoline, fuel for 800,000 jobs," "the choking winter solstice," "changing the playing field of proxies; war against the people in the streets of Iran," "Iran's crisis; the responsibility of opponents and the possibility of radicalizing Iranian society," "the death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid Iran's crisis," "internet shutdown in Iran has exceeded 300 hours; report on 'evidence' of the killing of injured under treatment," "the death of the last Mossad representative in Tehran amid Iran's crisis," "three witnesses recount the situation in Isfahan province; 'like war-torn areas,'" "Trump emphasizes 'stop executions in Iran': we don't know what will happen in the future," "Trump announced an agreement to hold a meeting about Greenland in Davos."