Iran’s women’s movement, civil society come under ‘maximum pressure’
While the declared aim of Trump administration’s “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran is to pressure the Islamic Republic to alter its policies, Iranian women and civil society are also being subjected to extreme constraints.
As tensions between Iran and the United States reached dangerous levels in recent weeks, Iranian human rights activists warned about the dire ramifications of sanctions and other pressures for women and the women’s rights movement in Iran.
The US policy of “maximum pressure” on Iran has been composed of ever-expanding sets of sanctions imposed in the aftermath of President Donald Trump’s unilateral withdrawal from the 2015 nuclear deal last year. The pressure has been intensified by a looming threat of imminent war. Not surprisingly, maximum pressure is having a big impact in Iran — but perhaps not the impact the United States claims to seek.
The worsening implications of US sanctions are reaching alarming levels, with women and the women’s rights movement in Iran among the collateral damage.
Indeed, Iranian women complain about the spiraling prices of imported contact lenses, cancer and diabetes drugs and even sanitary pads and tampons. They have had to resort to food rationing and substitution strategies to stretch a weak rial and feed their families as the reimposition of US extraterritorial sanctions batters the Iranian economy.
