Spokesman of the Social Commission of Parliament: The 'Women’s Protection Bill' will not return to the Parliament until issues are resolved

Hosseini Goudarzi, spokesman for the Social Commission of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, stated on Sunday to IRNA that the 'Women’s Protection Bill against Misconduct' has issues that the Social Commission must resolve before returning it for review to the Parliament. He mentioned that there is no specific timeline for this bill and that 'it depends on whether the issues are resolved in the commission and prioritized by the leadership.' The 'Women’s Protection Bill against Violence' was approved in principle by the Parliament earlier this year after a decade of negotiations across different parliamentary and judicial terms, under the name 'Enhancing Women's Security Against Misconduct.' It was expected that after the approval of the bill's principles, changes in laws regarding what is termed 'violence against women' would be seen; however, nine months after its approval, due to some 'issues and ambiguities,' the details of the bill have not yet been on the Parliament's agenda. The spokesman described this bill as one of the 'noble and significant works of the eleventh Parliament' and also 'one of the demands of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic,' expressing hope that the problems would be resolved 'as soon as possible' and that it would return to the Parliament. After several years of discussions regarding this bill, which has been passed back and forth between the government, judiciary, and Parliament, and has undergone fundamental changes multiple times, Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, the Speaker of the Parliament, on Sunday, December 3, described the approval of the 'Women’s Security Enhancement Law' as a serious need for women and a 20-year demand of the 'Leader of the Revolution.' He also defended the performance of the eleventh Parliament, stating that the 'Law Promoting Hijab and Chastity,' which is currently being exchanged between the Parliament and the Guardian Council, is 'wise and courageous despite its political and media burden' that has been placed 'before the country’s officials.' The 'Women’s Protection Bill against Violence,' later renamed 'Women’s Security Enhancement Bill against Misconduct,' is one of the most challenging bills in the past 12 years. This bill has been passed back and forth among various governments, the Parliament, and the judiciary, and even after the approval of its principles in the Parliament, it remains in limbo. Recently, Fatemeh Qasempoor, head of the Social Commission, in response to the 'murder of a 17-year-old girl from Ahvaz by her father,' stated that in reviewing the 'Preservation of Dignity and Protection of Women against Violence' bill in the Social Commission, 'amendment and intensification of punishment' of Article 612 of the Penal Code has been considered. For years, the Islamic Consultative Assembly has aimed to pass a law related to the prohibition of violence against women, but in the past decade, the drafting and final approval of this bill have repeatedly been removed from the agenda and it has merely been announced that it is still 'under review.' The 'Etemad' newspaper, close to the traditional conservatives of the Islamic Republic, recently wrote about the negligence of the Islamic Consultative Assembly in passing the 'Women’s Security Enhancement Bill': the Parliament is engaged in presenting a 'punishment plan for keeping pets' such as dogs and cats instead of women's rights, and the city council is busy 'studying the separation of women and men in parks.' Shahla Shafigh, a sociologist and researcher, recently told Voice of America in response to whether the Islamic Republic recognizes anything called 'denial of violence against women': 'The government in Iran has sanctified violence through 'ideological coding of Islam.' The controversies and side issues surrounding the content of this bill arise while the current version that the Parliament is reviewing has been revised multiple times by various thoughts in the Islamic Republic over the years. Shahindokht Molaverdi, who pursued the preparation of this bill during Hassan Rouhani's government, later protested the removal of many points of this bill by the judiciary, which she considered 'positive.' Human Rights Watch has called for the passage of a law to ensure the security of Iranian women.