According to The Guardian, the Iranian women’s Alpine skiing team was scheduled to go to Cortina d’Ampezzo in February 2021 to compete for a championship. The coach of the skiing team, Samira Zargari, was unable to attend due to her husband’s refusal. According to the current regulations, “..under Iranian law, a married woman cannot obtain a passport or travel outside of the country without her husband’s permission” (The Guardian). This Iranian law places an incredible limitation on married women’s rights. Regardless, the Iranian government is similarly structured to the government of the United States. The following link lays out the foundation of the Iranian government:
https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/tehran/inside/govt.html
Among this traveling limitation placed on women, there are many other regulations Iranian women face such as strict dress code and the inability to watch men’s sporting events (The Guardian). The laws placed by Iran’s government have an immense impact on women’s lives, such as not having the freedom to dress how they want and not being able to live the way they desire. I believe such regulations clearly identify the population of women as the ‘Other’ in Iran’s society in comparison to men. Furthermore, the Iranian government has composed heavily restricting laws on women only which is a form of Othering. Therefore, systemic injustice is clearly at play because the implementation of these limitations is done so through the Iranian government where civilians have little power over controlling such regulations.
The emotions of women in Iran can be explained through the several years of protesting by women and men about civil rights and socioeconomic instability. Most protests have been carried out peacefully and yet, there have been many instances of the government detaining protesters. The following link displays a video of protesters in Iran being ambushed by Iranian enforcement along with the text explaining the situation in further detail:
https://iranprimer.usip.org/blog/2020/dec/14/iran-human-rights-2020
There has been a long-standing conflict in Iran centered around these issues for many years now, so I feel the only way for things to start turning around for the better would have to include new laws and regulations set by the Iranian government. However, with religion having such a critical role in Iranian society, I believe this adds an increasingly large obstacle for women to achieve basic civil rights in Iran. For instance, religion could be used as an argument to limit the rights of women which has been done in the past.
Work Cited
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/feb/18/iranian-womens-ski-coach-barred-from-going-to-world-championships-by-husband