It isn't just government policy that oppresses women in Iran, as recent assaults show

Elahe Hoseinnejad, 24, was killed by a taxi driver last month in Tehran. Photo: @Elahe.Hoseinnejad / Instagram

Iranians have lately been engulfed in debates around misogyny, gender roles and violence against women. A few disconnected events have helped push these issues to the top.

The body of Elahe Hosseinnejad, 24, was found in a deserted area outside Tehran earlier this month. A nail stylist at a beauty salon, she had been missing for 11 days after getting into a taxi home. The taxi driver was later arrested, having confessed to killing her with a knife.

Just days earlier, a coach and two athletes representing Iran at the Asian Athletics Championships in Gumi, South Korea were arrested on allegations of sexual assault. A young South Korean woman has accused them of assaulting her in their hotel room after they met in a nearby bar. Iran’s athletics federation has confirmed “inappropriate behaviour” by the three men. The case is ongoing and the accused might face life sentences if convicted.

The two events are unrelated but they both involve violence against women and have tested social attitudes. The feminist community has used them to raise awareness while, inevitably, they have become central to broader political controversies.

Following the athletes' arrests, many in the sports community called for Ehsan Haddadi, who heads Iran’s athletics federation, to resign. A demonstration was held against him in front of Iran’s sports ministry last week. They brought up the former discus thrower's own dubious past, including his 2016 conviction and subsequent jail time for harassing a woman. Haddadi has another open sexual harassment case against him, and critics say his appointment shows a culture of impunity in Iran and the government's lack of attention to women’s concerns.

Ehsan Haddadi, a former discus thrower who currently heads Iran’s athletics federation, at the medal ceremony for the men's discus throw final athletics event during the 2022 Asian Games in Hangzhou, China, on October 2, 2023. AFP

The government has also drawn criticism over murder case, particular over its inability to provide adequate safety and security to its citizens. They point to a lack of proper public transportation and a sharp increase in crime in recent years.

Opponents of the government are debating among themselves, too. Iran has one of the highest number of executions in the world, and critics have advocated for the abolition of the death penalty – a position some of the more conservative opponents disagree with. Another debate pits criticism of the government’s competency, or lack thereof, against broader sociopolitical critiques. Some argue that eradicating violence against women requires systemic changes that go beyond politics and that that’s where the focus should be.

Shocking reactions of some Iranian celebrities to the assault case lends credence to this argument.

The US-based influencer Aisan Eslami, with more than 14 million followers on Instagram, has in particular incensed many. In one video, he mockingly said the events in South Korea were of great national pride for Iranians and that the three men had “held the flag high”. In a later clip, he called the three accused men “our brothers” and criticised those who were “getting all honourable” on behalf of the victim (a reference to whom carried racial undertones).

This is hardly surprising from Eslami, who is something of an Iranian version of Andrew Tate, the right-wing American influencer. Previously, Eslami verbally attacked female Iranian influencers based in Dubai, openly calling for their male relatives to murder them for what he saw as inappropriate online behaviour on their part.

But Eslami isn’t the only figure to downplay the assault case.

Mohammad Mayeli Kohan, a former national football team coach, said what the Iranian athletes did was “indubitably ugly” but also accused Haddadi’s opponents of seeking “personal revenge” against him. More troublingly, he added: “In South Korea, such issues are not viewed so negatively. We have to see why they made a big deal out of this one.”

Eradicating violence against women requires systemic changes that go beyond politics

Javad Kazemian, a former footballer, said: “Such things are natural and they happen everywhere in the world … they are making too much out of this. Let’s be men and human and think what we would have done had this happened to ourselves?”

It's worth pointing out that Eslami, Mayeli Kohan and Kazemian have all faced backlash for their comments. Just as heartening are the reactions of other Iranians. For example, Ehsan Mohajer Shojaei, who competed in the 2008 Beijing Summer Olympics, said the “catastrophe” in South Korea made him ashamed to be an Iranian athlete. He also called for Haddadi to resign.

Another issue that has fuelled gender-based debates, albeit on a much lighter register, relates to a pioneering reality TV show that has captured millions of views since its debut last month.

Eternal Love is modelled after the Love Island franchise that began in the UK in 2015 and has since expanded to other countries. The Iranian version is set in Bodrum, Turkey and is produced by a Turkish company that also brought out versions based in Turkey and some Arab countries.

Hosted by the Iranian actress Parastoo Salehi, the show is broadcast on YouTube to overcome Iran’s strict censorship rules. Its first episode was viewed more than 7.5 million times, and the show has 1.5 million followers on Instagram.

Like its western counterparts, it features frank discussions and depictions of sexuality and romance. Such portrayals are not particularly new to Iranian audiences who are used to open programming broadcast to the country by Persian-language outlets based abroad. But the show is still the first of its kind, which explains its large viewing numbers.

But Eternal Love has also provoked debates on attitudes towards gender. In an episode aired this week, a male participant was seen pushing a female contestant, leading to an avalanche of public discussions on domestic violence.

All three instances, troubling as they are in varying degrees – and the widespread reactions to them – have shed much-needed light on gender-based issues in Iran. They are also a reminder that these issues are not always directly linked to repressive government policies. They can surface anywhere.