Rights group urges recognition of 'gender apartheid' in Iran

A US-based rights group has urged governments to recognize what it called gender apartheid in Iran as a crime against humanity, arguing that the Islamic Republic systematically oppresses women.

"The oppression of women in Iran is not just discrimination—it is a deliberately designed, institutionalized system of domination intended to enforce the subjugation of women to maintain the state’s grip on power," said Center for Human Rights in Iran (CHRI) director of communications, Bahar Ghandehari.

"This state-sanctioned systemic subjugation amounts to nothing less than gender apartheid, which fully meets the threshold of a crime against humanity," she added in the press release on Thursday.

Unlike racial apartheid, which is explicitly banned under international law, gender apartheid is not yet recognized as a distinct crime.

CHRI called on governments to support its inclusion in the proposed Crimes Against Humanity treaty, impose sanctions on officials enforcing discriminatory policies, and back UN investigations into rights abuses in Iran.

Earlier this year, Nobel laureate Narges Mohammadi called on France's Senate to support the criminalization of gender apartheid and prioritize the fight for human and women's rights in Iran.

Tehran postponed implementing the controversial hijab law in December following a backlash from the public and the international community.

President Masoud Pezeshkian said on Wednesday he cannot implement the law due to popular opposition, after hardliners largely thwarted his agenda by pushing out top aides and rejecting his overtures to Washington.

The remarks, quoted by the head of his office in a post on X, were the strongest yet against a dormant law to tighten Islamic morality restrictions on women.

Popular opposition to hijab enforcement exploded in September 2022 when a young woman named Mahsa Jina Amini died in morality police custody, sparking nationwide protests dubbed the Woman Life Freedom movement.

The unrest was quashed with deadly force and opposition to the theocracy festered, but hardliners still drafted the new hijab law in May 2023.