Iran (MNN) — The lives of women and girls continue to be systemically devalued in Iran today.
A new report is out from a UN fact-finding mission. It adds more evidence to the documentations of human rights violations surrounding Iran’s 2022 “Women, Life, Freedom” protests, some of which carry through even to today.
Among the concerns it highlights are gender-based violence, executions and imprisonments of women, men and even children in Iran. Some of the evidence, the Mission affirms, amounts to crimes against humanity.
Also noted in the report is the Iranian regime’s increasing surveillance and criminal prosecution of women who defy the mandatory hijab laws. (More on that here — an ominous warning text to the woman’s personal cell phone is the least worrisome thing in this scenario.)
The sobering reality
“[Women in Iran are] more treated as possessions, tools to get what men want from them. For that reason, women go through a vicious cycle of despair from the beginning,” says Lily Meschi from Iran Alive Ministries.
(Image courtesy of Mostafa Meraji on Unsplash)
Education and marriage offer no escape.
“Education is very important for women in general in Iran, in the Middle East. That’s why Iranian women are among the most educated in the Middle East. So they pursue education to find their identity. Then after they land a job or they start their career and whatnot, they’re mistreated by men,” Meschi says. “Most superiors are men, and most do not shy away from making advances and doing things like that to women.”
For middle- or lower-income families, education may be less attainable. For these girls, “they’re usually given into marriage [to] the first person that shows interests in the women. They usually get into toxic situations because of that,” Meschi says.
These toxic realities include abuse, divorce, and temporary marriages. Child marriages and “honor killings” are also present in modern-day Iran.
“It’s a vicious cycle. Women generally depend on men for provision, and so they’re emotionally abused, verbally abused and they’re physically abused,” Meschi says.
The only way out
The political and cultural climate of Iran appears hopeless for women, doesn’t it? But that’s exactly where Meschi says the gospel is a counter-cultural light.
“When they find Christ, when the gospel is shared with them, they find true freedom. They find true identity, and they cling to that,” Meschi says.
(Photo courtesy of Mostafa Meraji via Unsplash)
“That’s why women that are Muslim-background believers are so on fire for the Lord. They’re so bold. They are at the frontlines of the protests that are happening in Iran, and they want change for others as well. They want the identity that they have found in Christ, as daughters of the Most High God, for others to experience the same thing.
“They’re saying that, you know, to live in Iran under such oppression is to die every single day. Why not die for the sake of the gospel? To a new believer and to a woman that came to Christ in Iran, to live is Christ and to die is gain.”
Please pray for women in Iran. Pray for the good news of God’s LOVE for them to penetrate their worlds. Pray for political and cultural reversals to open Iran up to the gospel!
You can join Iran Alive Ministries to share gospel hope. Their team ministers to underground and online churches in Iran. They also broadcast gospel hope into Iran via satellite TV.
“We basically let people know, and especially women, that you’re not enslaved to God. You are a child. You are a daughter [or son] of the Most High God. You are crowned with a crown of life,” Meschi says.
Visit Iran Alive’s website here. You can also sign up to receive updates and testimonies from inside of Iran — simply text “Iran” to 85789.
Header photo courtesy of Hasan Almasi via Unsplash.
