COMMENTARY: Iran Needs to Treat Its Women Respectfully

A 22-year-old Iranian athlete, Khadyeh Azadpour, who won a gold medal at the Asian Games in China on November 17, revealed that Iranian officials told her that she would only be given the apartment she was promised as a reward for winning, if she got married.

Azadpour said Iranian officials had not kept their promise, and that men athletes are not required to be married to receive a reward for winning a gold medal. Azadpour's situation clearly portrays how the Iranian government discriminates against women today.

To be sure, Iran does have a double standard when it comes to treating men and women. The fact is that in Iran women suffer from discrimination and oppression simply because of their gender.

Iranians -- using Islamic dogma for their justification -- regard the male as superior, and the female as a slave at his service.

For the most part, Iranian officials believe that it is the sacred responsibility of a woman to serve her husband and take care of the household. Married women are not expected to hold a job.

The laws in Iran state that the husband is the head of the family. Moreover, a woman does not have the right to leave her home -- even for her father's funeral -- unless she has her husband's permission to do so.

Iran also has inequalities in its punishment of similar crimes, with harsher punishments issued for women. Recently, a woman in Iran was sentenced to being stoned to death for committing adultery. On the other hand, a man who commits adultery is just flogged.

Girls suffer a great deal in Iran. Under Iranian laws, a girl can be bought and sold with the consent of her father or male guardian. According to the Iranian penal code, a nine-year-old girl can be punished as an adult by flogging and even stoning to death.

The above situations are just a few examples of Iran's double standard with respect to its treatment of men and women. Unfortunately, the current government in Iran has no intention whatsoever of ending its inequities toward women.

It is now time for the United Nations -- especially its human rights divisions -- to investigate the treatment of women in Iran, and do whatever is necessary to put pressure on that country, so it will treat women with the respect to which they are entitled.