Women affairs VP: Child marriage among social ills
Ebtekar said although very few cases of child marriage are reported across the country, even this small number should be brought down to nil as marriage in childhood can be harmful to girls’ physical and psychological health.
Commenting on the meeting between the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs and the Judiciary to discuss a bill to ensure women’s security and protection against violence, she said, “It was a very good session. We will hold another meeting with the Judiciary to ¿nalize the text of the bill and ensure coordination between the executive and judiciary branches [of the government].”
In this meeting, technical issues pertinent to the bill and its various dimensions were discussed, Ebtekar added.
She said the Judiciary maintains that taking strong criminal actions against people in such cases should be refrained from, which is a valid point.
“This bill will also have educational and cultural aspects. Ending violence against women in families will lead to an improvement and transformation in families’ culture and vice versa.”
She hoped that the bill would be ¿nalized and submitted to the Parliament within a month for approval.
Ebtekar said, “We [the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs] pursue a national outlook. We have already announced that we are willing to cooperate with all parties and [social] spectra. This comes as, we pursue the policies of [President Hassan] Rouhani’s administration.”
She added among the goals of the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs are advocating women’s religious rights within the framework of the country’s laws and regulations and improving women’s living conditions by increasing their capabilities to ¿nd jobs, improving their economic condition and helping them, particularly girls and school students, enhance their skills in life.
Efforts are underway by the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs as well as the Ministry of Sports and Youth Affairs to help remove the obstacles to women’s participation in sport activities and increase and improve respectively the number and quality of sport facilities for them.
Commenting on the issue of Iranian women facing some limitations in term of being allowed into sports stadiums to watch men’s competitions, she said the government has on its agenda the approval of a directive in this respect which will be ¿nalized in the near future.
“Not all the restrictions on [Iranian] women’s presence in [sports] stadiums have been in place since a long time ago. Women have always been able to enter stadiums. There are, however, a few limitations in this regard which can be removed by adopting effective and proper policies.”
She stated that in case “we seek to decrease the number of social harms, promoting sport among Iranian women is of the utmost importance and a necessary measure”.
Ebtekar said being involved in sport is among the ways to reduce the number of social ills.