Over 28,000 Women Visited Tehran Forensic Medicine in the Past Eight Months

On Sunday, January 6, the director of the forensic medicine department of Tehran province announced that over 74,000 individuals visited the forensic centers in the province due to injuries from "fights" in the first eight months of the year 1403 (2024). According to the government news agency ILNA, Omidreza Kargarbideh stated that "the number of visits to forensic medicine from the beginning of the year 1403 until the end of Aban month has reached 74,845." He added that this statistic reflects a "2.5% increase" compared to the same period last year, which had 73,001 visits. Kargarbideh detailed the gender breakdown of the visitors, announcing that "of these visitors due to fights, 46,528 were men and 28,317 were women." The visit of 28,000 women to forensic medicine over the past eight months, with one of the most common cases being "domestic violence" according to experts, has increased compared to similar data in 1402 (2023). It is noteworthy that despite obtaining forensic medical certificates, harassment of women, as one of the most significant manifestations of domestic violence against women, is not considered a crime in the courts of the Islamic Republic and faces legal gaps. Meanwhile, Zahra Behrouzazar, the deputy for women's and family affairs, announced on her social media account that "the bill for preserving the dignity and security of women against violence, which has been drafted in collaboration with the government and the judiciary, is on the agenda of the Women and Family Committee of the Social Commission of the Parliament." This bill, which was initially intended to address violence against women during the eleventh government of the Islamic Republic, has undergone significant content changes in favor of the Islamic Republic's Sharia laws and has been dormant in Parliament for a long time. The initial text of the bill, known as "Preserving the Dignity and Security of Women Against Violence," has faced criticism from women's rights activists since its publication. Criticism from Mohammad Bahrinayan, a researcher, regarding the "shameful" statistics of job creation and poverty in Iran, half of the provinces lack "safe houses" for women victims of domestic violence, the Iranian Statistics Center reports that the number of dropouts has reached nearly one million, and a 48% increase in tenant households facing poverty in Iran.