Women in Iran in Serious Danger From the Fundamentalists' New Tactics

In recent weeks, 5 women in the city of Esfahan have been victims of acid attacks by unknown mobs. In one reported case, a motorcyclist with two passengers stopped a car driving by a woman, pretending to ask for  an address. When the driver lowered the window, one of the men splashed acid through a syringe into her face, which burnt her so severe that the internal parts of her throat were damaged as well as her face. So far, these cases have happened in Esfahan. No one has claimed responsibility and no arrests have been made.

A few years ago, a range of rapes of women in public and private place shocked the nation. In one case, the mobs climbed the walls of a private garden where families had gathered, took the men to one side, gagged them and raped the women in front of their eyes. in another occasion, a woman doctor was raped in her surgery. The incidents only stopped after public outcry to the notority of the acts. 

In Iran, and in times of internal conflict and power struggle, women are the first groups to fall victims, as the issue of women and their proper dress code or improper dress code comes to light and whoever talks tougher on the issue of women and their boundaries becomes the champion and the winner of the contest !  

At present, whatever, the president and his team intend to do ( which are very limited in essence) in terms of running the country, their efforts are blocked by the fundamentalist groups who had been in power for 8 years and ruined the very foundations of the economy and social order. 

The worsening situation in the neighbouring countries and the emergence of extermism (more extreme than the Islamic Republic of Iran in ideology and deeds) has had its effects in Iran. With the widespread violence and abuse of women who live under the controlled areas in Iraq and Syria and women who have fled the occupied zones and their horror stories,  Iranian women's cases seem to have lost their central importance. It should not be the case. Whatever evil that is happening in the neighbouring countries should drive women in other neighbouring countries such as Iran and Turkey to call for their governments to stop all forms of violence against their half of population. This way, Iranian women and women of other neighbouring countries to the war zones can concentrate in helping their sisters.