IRANIAN WOMEN SHOULD HAVE A RIGHT TO TRAVEL ABROAD

The officer at the airport looked at me with menacing eyes. It dawned on me that I might not be allowed to embark on the plane. I was at Iran’s Imam Khomeini International Airport, prepared to get on my flight.

“What do you think you’re doing, leaving the country without a husband?”

I told her I was single, held American citizenship and was going back to the U.S after three years abroad. She did not look satisfied with my explanation and appeared to want to pursue the matter further when her colleague took me aside. Taking a look at my American passport, and then my Iranian one, she handed them back to me and let me exit the terminal.

Close call? An exit procedure? Or a charade to make women have second thoughts before traveling?

It never occurred to Samira Zargari to think twice. As head coach of Iran’s female national ski team, she was accompanying her team to the Alpine world championships in Italy. It was only upon her arrival at the airport that she realized she could not leave. In Iran, married women need their husband’s legal permission to obtain a passport or leave the country, and Ms. Zargari’s husband refused to let her travel.

Hers is just the latest in a slew of cases of women in Iran being denied freedom to travel. In 2015, athlete Niloufar Ardalan’s husband refused consent to renew her passport so she could participate in the Asian Championships in futsal, a version of soccer. In 2017, Paralympic gold medalist Zahra Nemati’s husband barred her from traveling to participate in competitions. Iran’s authorities were pressured to intervene and issue a special travel permit for her.

Yet there was no intervention for Ms. Zargari, who had to stay behind and cheer on her team from afar. She has posted Instagram stories expressing her hopes that one day all women in her country will be free to travel, and she believes that in unity, they will make it possible.

Ziba Kalhor, a professional skier in Iran whose coach is Ms. Zargari, considers the ordeal a senseless travesty.

“We’re talking about someone who supervises two assistant coaches and leads a team of five skiers,” she told me. “A perfectly capable adult whom the law has rendered incapable of leaving the country.”

Kalhor believes these laws will be removed one day for all women. But for now, she said, “They should at least prioritize women who operate on an international level — those whose absence affects the standing of their country on the world scene.”

Hasan Sakettabar, a lawyer in Iran, acknowledges the discriminatory nature of the law but said throughout his decade-long career, only three women have come to him with travel issues. “In this country, women are more affected by problems such as securing their rights to pursue a career outside the home without their husband’s say in the matter,” he told me.

He said it is only when a high-profile individual gets barred from leaving the country and the media become involved that women’s travel restrictions suddenly become a cause for concern. “For a long time now, Iranian society has dealt with an onslaught of sanctions, inflations and Muslim travel bans which relegate women’s travel issues to a back-burner,” he said.

To date, the only way women in Iran can circumvent travel restrictions is for a marriage contract to include an unlimited right to travel without a husband’s consent. Some have

opted for this solution; even so, a man still has to give his consent for his wife to travel without consent!

In the aftermath of Ms. Zargari’s ordeal, an online petition demanding a revision to laws surrounding women’s exit procedures from the country was created. The petition, addressed to Iran’s parliament, has so far garnered more than 50,000 signatures. Many Iranian women have shared the petition on their social media accounts, with the Persian language equivalent of a hashtag saying, “women’s right to travel.”

The travel issues Iranian women face are at odds with the fact that Iran’s heritage sites and natural wonders attract visitors from all over the world.

I’ve been traveling the world for as long as I can remember. The experiences gained on my travels have shaped who I am. I have studied and pursued career opportunities abroad, a privilege that is only acquired through the freedom to travel. No woman should have to face hindrances to such freedom, particularly when her career and livelihood are at stake.

I dream of the day when every woman can spread her wings and dare to overcome. As Ms. Zargari says, together and in unity, it will happen.

Jamali is a multimedia specialist who grew up in San Diego and currently lives in New York.