With that in mind, we wanted to look at how Maryam Rajavi, leader of the Iranian Resistance, would support women’s rights in a Free Iran. In our previous piece, we will look at the freedoms, rights, and equality that Maryam Rajavi believes all women should enjoy.

In this piece, we will discuss equality in the family sphere, the prohibition of violence against women, and how the government should be helping women through social benefits.

Women’s rights in the family
Maryam Rajavi believes that in terms of marriage, women should be free to choose whether to marry or divorce a spouse, that women should not be married before they reach legal age, and that polygamy should be banned. She would also remove all laws that excuse violence against women in the family sphere.

Maryam Rajavi would ban any coercion or compulsion of women in the family sphere and give women equal rights to obtain custody over their children. Maryam Rajavi would also seek to make the division of family responsibilities, i.e. housekeeping, raising children, employment, and educating children, shared equally between spouses.

For young girls, Maryam Rajavi would ensure they stayed in education by barring underage marriage and underage employment.
Maryam Rajavi would also end government inquisition meddling in women private lives, i.e. what clothes they wear, whether they have children, what jobs they do.

Ending violence against women
Maryam Rajavi would stop violence against women by actually criminalising various forms of violence against women, as well as intimidation or forcible deprivation of their freedoms. She would also make rape a crime in all circumstances, including in marriage.

In order to end the government’s violence against women, Maryam Rajavi will ban the death penalty, torture, flogging, stoning, and other inhuman punishments that the mullahs’ carry out and repeal all laws that sanction that violence.

A ban on sexual exploitation
Maryam Rajavi would immediately ban the sex trade and make the trafficking of women or any other attempts to force them into prostitution a crime. She would also ban all forms of sexual exploitation of women and remove any customs, laws and regulations that allow a parent/guardian to give a girl or woman away for sex, under the pretext of marriage or anything else.
Additionally, Maryam Rajavi would ensure that anyone who sexually abused a child is prosecuted.

Social benefits
Maryam Rajavi believes that the government must help women to succeed and that they can do some of this through social benefits for the retired, unemployed, disabled, and pregnant.
Maryam Rajavi believes that the government should help Iranian mothers by providing nursery and day care for working women and removing their employer’s ability to dismiss them from work because of pregnancy or force them to do harmful jobs during pregnancy. She also believes that women employed under temporary contracts should not be deprived of social benefits and that the government should provide additional help for single women who provide for their families.

In our next piece, we will look at Maryam Rajavi’s plan for more women in the political sphere.