Rouhani's Assistant Announces Efforts to Draft Comprehensive Law on Acid Attacks

Following the occurrence of the second acid attack in Tabriz, Shahindokht Molaverdi, special assistant to Hassan Rouhani on citizen rights, announced efforts to draft a "comprehensive and complete law" regarding the punishment of acid attackers. On Saturday night, April 1, in Tabriz, a 37-year-old woman was attacked with acid by her husband. This was the second acid attack in recent weeks in Tabriz; on March 19, a 24-year-old woman was also attacked with acid in the street. The Tabriz City Council took on the cost of treatment for this woman. In this context, Molaverdi emphasized in an interview with ILNA that acid attack incidents are recurring, stating: "We aim to create a comprehensive and complete law through collaboration and interaction with female representatives of the Islamic Consultative Assembly." While Molaverdi spoke of drafting a new law regarding the punishment for acid attacks, the punishment for such crimes has so far been determined based on clause "a" of Article 290 of the Islamic Penal Code ratified in 2013. Some legal experts believe that based on clauses "b" and "p" of Articles 393 and 394 of the same code, there is no possibility of retribution for the crime of acid attacks. These two clauses emphasize the need for equality between the injured member and the member that is subjected to retribution. The special assistant to Rouhani further stressed that existing laws are ineffective and that new laws must be enacted to have the "necessary deterrence." Molaverdi also referred to the bill to prohibit violence against women, stating: "In the security bill, we tried to consider all aspects of the issue, and we need to see what has happened in the legal department of the judiciary in practice." Previously, Zahra Ayatollahy, head of the Cultural and Social Council of Women, announced that the judiciary had reduced the women's security bill from 92 articles to 51 articles. Nevertheless, according to ISNA, Masoumeh Ebtekar, the vice president for women and family affairs, stated that "the legal and necessary articles of the bill have been preserved in terms of content and quality, and the bill retains its essence." The primary targets of acid attacks in Iran are young women who are chosen and attacked for various personal motivations or other reasons by the perpetrators. Family disputes have also been reported as another factor in some acid attacks in Iran. The head of the specialized hospital for burns and injuries in Isfahan stated that "personal and family animosities cause physical and psychological harm to individuals that can sometimes be irreparable and irreversible." In the third week of Esfand 1395, the police in Bandar Mahshahr reported an acid attack on two women in this city in Khuzestan province, with no reports yet on the identification and arrest of the perpetrators of these attacks. Acid attacks on women in Iran have gained special sensitivity in society since the incident in Mehr 1393, when six women were attacked with acid in Isfahan. This sensitivity increased when reports emerged regarding the "religious" motivations of the perpetrators of the acid attacks on these six women, and to date, none of the perpetrators have been identified or arrested.