More Babies, Less Rights!

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In the United States, there has been an ongoing debate on whether there should be laws enacted to ensure the reproductive rights of women--the choice of having a pregnancy or preventing one.  In this debate, politicians have systematically denied women their choice of parenthood. For instance, women are challenging an Alaskan law that withholds almost all Medicaid coverage for abortion from those that are qualified. In addition, the U.S. Supreme Court declined to halt a Texas law that has forced 1/3 of the state’s women’s health centers, such as Planned Parenthood, to stop providing abortion care. Although these cases are public knowledge, the United States government sneakily denies women's rights. They will say "We're closing down these Planned Parenthood locations because we've recently had major cutbacks on the amount of doctors on staff" or as used in the Texas case, "Doctors took the Hippocratic Oath, in which they swore to do no harm, yet abortions result in unnecessary health risks for mothers." Recently however, the government of Iran has taken strides to make its actions against women's reproductive rights more overt than those of which we are familiar with in the United States.

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Due to the negative impact on the economy from the Iranian Revolution, in 1989, Iran made extreme efforts to lower the population because the government felt that there were more people than the country could afford to support with food, housing, education, etc. However, a country cannot flourish without people. Now, in an effort to undo the significant decline in their population, the government of Iran has targeted women's reproductive rights in order to boost the amount of births. In the article titled, Proposed Laws Reduce Iranian Women to ‘Baby Making Machines’ in Misguided Attempts to Boost Population, a recent bill, The Bill to Increase Fertility Rates and Prevent Population Decline (Bill 446), is discussed. This bill outlaws voluntary sterilization (e.g. vasectomies), the second most common method of modern contraception in Iran. In addition, the bill limits women's knowledge of available contraception, denying women the opportunity to make informed decisions about having children. In the article titled, Iran Blocks Access to Birth Control, ideas presented show that this bill attacks both men and women--men cannot choose to not be fathers, and as Amnesty International reported, "Women will be changed to baby-making machines"

In the United States, companies refuse to cover contraception for female employees because of religious beliefs and the thought that women are supposed to procreate. And in states where having an abortion is legal, protestors yell outside Planned Parenthood locations, making it harder for women to fully express their rights. It just goes to show that the phrase, "The apple doesn't fall too far from the tree," can be applied to nations. Our country is always quick to show how bad another country's actions and political views are, but we aren't much different.

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This bill reminds me of a 1908 case, Muller v. Oregon, in which attorney for Oregon, Louis D. Brandeis, argued that women should have limited working hours because a country could not be productive if women were unable to give birth. These women were fighting for maximum working hours to avoid exploitation from employers, but the state turned their cry for help against them, saying that long working hours resulted in unhealthy pregnancies and increased health risks. This case set a precedent for the state to have control over a woman's body. In addition, this bill reminds me of the many issues women faced during the Revolutionary Period. The Republican Mother was only encouraged to be educated because if she were educated, she could be a better mother and wife, not necessarily a better person. In Iran, women can create more citizens, but not have the liberties that real citizens should have. According to Amnesty International, "Iran already has a poor record on gender rights—between 2013 and 2014, 41,226 girls aged 10 to 14 and 201 girls under 10 were married—and despite being the majority of university graduates, women make up just 17 percent of the Iranian workforce." Women are graduating at higher rates than men, and instead of being encouraged to use their education to improve the country's condition, they are told to put aside their hard-earned degrees and bear children. Middle-eastern women have been fighting for access to quality education (Does Malala ring a bell?) and when a country like Iran makes that possible, there is always another condition that makes it unobtainable. Women in Iran are already required to cover themselves and when a law is created for them, it is one that brings about limitations. When female factories workers got the opportunity to have their voices heard, the verdict worked against them.

Reading about the current issues facing women in Iran inspired a great deal of emotion within me.  How can our world make any progress if we are always defining groups as superior and inferior? Women in Iran, as in many other places, have been mentally conditioned in what is appropriate attire, have lower legal statuses than those of men, and do not have established laws protecting voting rights. I remember reading that many Islamic nations consider the protection of a woman's life as less than that of a full human being. This is just like when Black slaves were counted as 3/5 of a human being. Ironically, these women are slaves to their government. Women's rights have been trampled on and politicized for far too long. The articles I have referenced are evidence that those of us in the United States need to be more concerned with women's rights globally. People in the United States are not engaged in the worldwide concern for women. It is as if we are only concerned with our own well-being and insensitive to that of others unless intervening proves economically advantageous. This issue does not affect only women in Iran, but all the feminists and female activists who have ever been told that they are not good enough for society. Women are far more than "baby-making machines"; we are important members of society, and should be treated as such. Thank you for reading my blog post and I want to hear your opinion on how you feel the United States or the American people should respond to these developments in Iran? Do you agree that the actions of the United States against the reproductive rights of women are similar?

Legislation of the Islamic Penal Code according to which women's right to live is not protected as the right of a full human being and in which young girls of nine years of age (but not boys) are considered of age of criminal responsibility, and the decision that testimony of women is not the equivalent of the testimony of men; - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/legal_status_iranian_women.php#sthash.0gqcH6Iy.dpuf

Legislation of the Islamic Penal Code according to which women's right to live is not protected as the right of a full human being and in which young girls of nine years of age (but not boys) are considered of age of criminal responsibility, and the decision that testimony of women is not the equivalent of the testimony of men; - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/legal_status_iranian_women.php#sthash.0gqcH6Iy.dpuf

Legislation of the Islamic Penal Code according to which women's right to live is not protected as the right of a full human being and in which young girls of nine years of age (but not boys) are considered of age of criminal responsibility, and the decision that testimony of women is not the equivalent of the testimony of men; - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/legal_status_iranian_women.php#sthash.0gqcH6Iy.dpuf

Enforcement of compulsory hejab (or veil) or the Islamic code of dress, which deprived women of the right to choose their own attire;

- Repeal of reforms in family laws;

- A ban on appointment of women as judges and expulsion or change of the employment status of female judges;

- Forbidding women employed by the armed forces from receiving military ranks and reducing their employment status to that of office employees;

- Stoppage of the family planning and population control policy;

- Legislation of the Islamic Penal Code according to which women's right to live is not protected as the right of a full human being and in which young girls of nine years of age (but not boys) are considered of age of criminal responsibility, and the decision that testimony of women is not the equivalent of the testimony of men;

- Emphasis on the absolute right of custody for the father or the paternal grandfather in the matter of matrimony of female children to the extent that the father or the grandfather can marry a child of nine years of age to any man he intends. - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/legal_status_iranian_women.php#sthash.0gqcH6Iy.dpuf

Enforcement of compulsory hejab (or veil) or the Islamic code of dress, which deprived women of the right to choose their own attire;

- Repeal of reforms in family laws;

- A ban on appointment of women as judges and expulsion or change of the employment status of female judges;

- Forbidding women employed by the armed forces from receiving military ranks and reducing their employment status to that of office employees;

- Stoppage of the family planning and population control policy;

- Legislation of the Islamic Penal Code according to which women's right to live is not protected as the right of a full human being and in which young girls of nine years of age (but not boys) are considered of age of criminal responsibility, and the decision that testimony of women is not the equivalent of the testimony of men;

- Emphasis on the absolute right of custody for the father or the paternal grandfather in the matter of matrimony of female children to the extent that the father or the grandfather can marry a child of nine years of age to any man he intends. - See more at: http://www.iranchamber.com/society/articles/legal_status_iranian_women.php#sthash.0gqcH6Iy.dpuf