LONDON – Iranian ski coach Samira Zargari was unable to join her team for the world championships in Italy last week.
The reason? Her husband prevented her from leaving the country.
The reaction on social media was rapid, and many Iranians vented their anger by demanding that the government change the law to give women back their right to travel internationally, along with other rights taken away from them. is married.
Based on domestic family law in the Islamic Republic, women waive the right to leave the country, pursue education or even choose where they want to live and work after signing a marriage document. The only exception is if a woman’s husband waives these rights, which rarely happens.
The only rights that married women retain are limited custody of children and the right to divorce.
However, Zargari’s case went viral and various hashtags about women’s rights began to appear on social media, including the ‘right to leave the country’ and ‘no to discrimination against women’.
When asked by the International Ski Federation to comment on Zargari’s case, he provided a statement to ABC News, but did not name Zargari.
“FIS sympathizes with any team member who is unable to travel to our world championships,” the statement read. “However, FIS is also unable to challenge the laws of a given country.”
Zahra Abdi, an Iranian poet, wrote on Twitter: “It is impossible for a society to move to the future when the hands and feet of half the people are bound. This is well understood by the developed countries. And therefore they fight discriminatory laws against women. Wherever there is a sign of development, this struggle is taken more seriously. “
An online campaign reviewing the regulations regarding women leaving the country has been signed by nearly 50,000 people in less than a week.
“The basis of family law in Iran is that the man has all the rights,” an Iranian lawyer, who requested anonymity for fear of retaliation, told ABC News. “Every woman who wants to get the rights back must swim against the river and prove it in court.”
Despite the shouting, the Iranian government did not emerge.
In response to the social media campaign, Masoumeh Ebtekar, vice president for women and family affairs, tweeted that in an emergency, women can ask the court to review a man’s decision, but this can only happen after a judge convinced that the trip was “necessary,” and even then the woman would be allowed to leave only “on bail.”
The Iranian lawyer said that a bill addressing the travel issue was being passed by the government, but that it should first be passed by parliament, and the language, as it currently stands, is very “vague” when addressed. exactly what judges would deem necessary travel. The lack of clarity can also slow down any movement on the bill.
“Basically,” the lawyer told ABC News, “the ‘necessity’ mentioned in the bill is based on the need for medical treatment from the country, attending scientific conferences and, more recently, attending sporting events such as international championships. “
In one of the first reactions to the issue, Zargari wrote in a story on her Instagram page that her husband was born in the United States and did not grow up in Iran, and apparently implies that discriminatory laws remain in force regardless of citizenship of a person.
However, when she later said in an interview with the Iranian Student News Agency that government officials “should at least remove this law for women champions and those active in international fields”, a major setback arose, this time against Zargari. Many who supported her during her ordeal on social media began to criticize her for not standing up for all women – not just those who work internationally.
“Unfortunately, Ms Zargari said she hoped the law requiring men’s permission to leave the country would be removed for women working internationally. The right thing to say is that this law is cruel and humiliating and medieval. , and no wife needs her husband’s’ permission ‘to travel,’ tweeted journalist Yosra Bakhakh.
The Iranian lawyer explained how such social media campaigns can help give these rights back to women, and referred to the ambiguities of the law that could lead to minimal reforms.
“It depends, for example, on common sense in court which means ‘necessity’ for a woman’s demand to leave the country. In the past, traveling abroad to attend sporting events would not have been a necessity. But “Thanks to all these years, it has become so. It’s important that people will not stop asking,” she said.
However, it is clear that women’s rights activists are paying a huge price to bring about equality.
Just last week, Najmeh Vahedi, a sociologist, and Hoda Amid, a lawyer, who held workshops to tell women how to preserve their rights after marriage, were sentenced to seven and eight years in prison, respectively.