From Iran, Solidarity With American Women

9/26/2022
by NASRIN SOTOUDEH

Editor’s note: For almost two weeks, protests have been raging across Iran, triggered by the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who was in custody of the morality police at the time of her death. Her alleged crime: not abiding by the country’s hijab rules. Iranian human rights lawyer and long-time friend of Ms. magazine, Nasrin Sotoudeh has spent her career fighting for the rights of women and minorities in the Middle East. In a letter to Ms. (below), Sotoudeh connected what’s happening with Iran to the global fight for women’s rights.

My warmest greetings from Iran. I would like to express my deep and sincere solidarity with the staff and readers of Ms. magazine.

This bond is rooted in my appreciation for your unreserved support for me and my husband during the harsh days of my imprisonment. With pressure that tightened like a noose around our family on a daily basis, your coverage of human rights abuses in and out of Iran’s prisons, along with your clear personal concern, brought us (and others) much-needed hope.

Continued: https://msmagazine.com/2022/09/26/nasrin-sotoudeh-iran-us-women-abortion-rights/

26.09.2022

Iran Moves To Tighten Abortion Restrictions

July 04, 2022
By Golnaz Esfandiari

Maryam ended her pregnancy two years ago
using abortion pills. Her husband supported her. The couple already have a boy
and a girl, and they decided they did not want a third child.

Abortion pills are not easily accessible in Iran due to government
restrictions. Maryam obtained misoprostol through a pharmacist who was
recommended by a friend.

Continued: https://www.rferl.org/a/iran-moves-to-tighten-abortion-restrictions/31928363.html

04.07.2022

Iran Association of Midwives

Iran – Tasnim News Agency Raises Alarm Over Abortion Numbers

5/26/2022

In an attack on abortion in Iran, the Tasnim news agency, which is affiliated with Iran’s Revolutionary Guard, proclaimed Thursday that 1,000 “Shiite children are murdered by their parents every day.”

Tasnim cited data from the health ministry dating back five years. The agency claimed that only ten of 1,000 abortions had been legal, with 93 percent of the women married and 7 percent single. A daily figure of 1,000 is half the 2,000 – or around 700,000 a year – claimed last year by Amirhossein Bankipour, head of the parliament’s population committee.

Continued: https://www.iranintl.com/en/202205265655

26.05.2022

Ali Khamenei

Amirhossein Bankipour

Iran Revolutionary Guard

Iran doubles down on abortion and contraception restrictions

By Miriam Berger
Dec 1, 2021

Iranians long had degrees of access to free contraception at public health facilities, part of family planning policies aimed at limiting population growth.

In recent years, policy shifts have whittled away such programs. The changes have culminated under a new law — meant to address an emergent demographic shift — which critics have decried as a major setback for women’s and reproductive rights.

Continued: https://www.washingtonpost.com/world/2021/12/01/iran-doubles-down-abortion-contraception-restrictions/

Iran death penalty threat for abortion unlawful: UN rights experts

16 November 2021
United Nations

A new Iranian law that raises the prospect of the death penalty for abortion has been condemned by independent human rights experts, who have declared that is in “clear contravention of international law”.

In a statement released on Tuesday, the experts called on the Iranian authorities to repeal the ‘Youthful Population and Protection of the Family’ law, which was ratified by Iran’s Guardian Council on the first of November.

Continued: https://news.un.org/en/story/2021/11/1105922

16.11.2021

cruel and degrading treatment

death penalty for abortion

Youthful Population and Protection of the Family

Women’s bodies have become a battleground in the fight for Iran’s future

Women’s bodies have become a battleground in the fight for Iran’s future
A regressive law to boost the population has restricted the reproductive choices and rights of all Iranian women. Though some suffer more than others.

Zaynab H
29 August 2018

In the early 1990s, Iran had one of best family planning programmes in the developing world. From 1980 to 2010, it managed to cut the average number of children each woman bore from six and a half to two. But these gains have since been reversed and all Iranian women are suffering under regressive legislation passed in 2015. Though, of course, some are suffering more than others.

As a sexual and reproductive health and rights advocate, I have been working with marginalised women's collectives in underserved districts of Tehran for five years. I have seen how laws like The Comprehensive Population and Exaltation of Family Bill (or Bill 315, as it is known) most directly and severely affect the poorest women: sex workers, those with drug abuse issues, rural, migrant and ethnic minority women – those who were highly dependent on state provision of contraception.

Continued: https://www.opendemocracy.net/5050/zaynab-h/womens-bodies-battleground-fight-for-iran-future

1968: a revolutionary year – also for reproduction

1968: a revolutionary year – also for reproduction

14.05.2018
By: Nikolai Astrup, Minister of International Development, Norway;- Isabella Lövin, Minister for International Development Cooperation and Climate and Deputy Prime Minister, Sweden; Ulla Tørnæs, Minister for Development Cooperation, Denmark; and Anne-Mari Virolainen, Minister for Foreign Trade and Development, Finland.

This year, in 2018, it is 50 years since reproductive rights – including the right to decide whether to have children and how many children to have – were first formally recognised.

More than 200 million women in developing countries are still denied these rights.

1968 gave its name to a generation known for its ambition to change the world for the better. And a historic decision was made that year, a decision with the potential to fundamentally change the lives of all people – and of women in particular.

Continued: http://um.dk/en/news/newsdisplaypage/?newsid=c37e4a26-76ea-4256-82c6-00bd29def796

Iran: Rise in MTP Rates

Rise in MTP Rates
Monday, August 28, 2017

According to data released by the Health Ministry, last year (ended in March), 12,281 women put in applications for the medical termination of their pregnancies. The figure was 23.4% higher compared to the preceding year.

“Permission was granted to 8,537 applicants, which indicates that the number of permits increased by 19.8% compared to the preceding year,” said Ahmad Shojaee, head of the Legal Medicine Organization, ILNA reported.

Continued at source: Financial Tribune: https://financialtribune.com/articles/people/71222/rise-in-mtp-rates

28.08.2017

Iranian Society of Embryology and Reproductive Biology

Legal Medicine Organization

Mohammad Mahdi Akhundi

Iran: Warning on Unsafe Abortions

Warning on Unsafe Abortions
Saturday, January 28, 2017

From among the 1.7 million pregnancies in a year, 1.5 million lead to live births while 200,000 end in termination of pregnancy, said Muhammad Esmael Motlaq, director general of the Office for Population, Families, and Schools at the Health Ministry.

“This number is the official estimate since illegal abortions are not registered. However, the rate of illegal abortions has tripled over the past 15 years,” he said on the sidelines of the conference ‘Population Policies and Maternal and Child Health’, at Dezful University of Medical Sciences, Khuzestan Province, Wednesday.

According to the Health Ministry, the annual number of legal medical termination of pregnancies (MTP) is around 6,000. During the first half of the current year, 5,720 women sought MTP of which 4,019 were granted approval.

[continued at link]
Source, Financial Tribune: https://financialtribune.com/articles/people/58292/warning-on-unsafe-abortions

28.01.2017