At least 152 people were sentenced to at a younger age. According to official figures, flogging, according to the Abdorrahman between March 2020 and March 2021, the Boroumand Center. marriages of 31,379 girls aged between 10 DISCRIMINATION and 14 were registered, representing a 10.5% increase over the previous year. WOMEN AND GIRLS LGBTI PEOPLE Women faced discrimination in law and The murder in May of Alireza Fazeli practice, including in relation to marriage, Monfared, who self-identified as a non-binary divorce, employment, inheritance and gay man, highlighted how the criminalization political office. of consensual same-sex sexual conduct and Discriminatory compulsory veiling laws led gender non-conformity with punishments to daily harassment, arbitrary detention, ranging from flogging to the death penalty torture and other ill-treatment, and denial of perpetuated violence and discrimination access to education, employment and public against LGBTI people.6 spaces. At least six women’s rights defenders State-endorsed “conversion therapies” remained imprisoned for campaigning amounting to torture or other ill-treatment against compulsory veiling. remained prevalent, including against Parliament further undermined the right to children. sexual and reproductive health by adopting Gender non-conforming individuals risked the bill “Youthful population and protection of criminalization unless they sought a legal the family” in November which, among other gender change, which required gender things, bans state-funded facilities from reassignment surgery and sterilization. providing birth control free of charge; The military continued to characterize requires pharmacies to sell contraception homosexuality as a “perversion”. Military only with a prescription; bans vasectomy and exemption cards issued to gay and tubectomy except when pregnancy would transgender individuals indirectly disclosed endanger a woman’s life or lead to serious their sexual orientation or gender identity physical harm or unbearable hardship during without their consent, putting them at risk of pregnancy or after labour; and suppresses violence. access to prenatal screening tests. ETHNIC MINORITIES The parliamentary Social Commission Ethnic minorities, including Ahwazi Arabs, approved the long-standing bill “Defending Azerbaijani Turks, Baluchis, Kurds and dignity and protecting women against Turkmen, faced discrimination, curtailing violence” in July after regressive their access to education, employment and amendments by the judiciary. The bill, which political office. Despite repeated calls for awaited final approval, contains welcome linguistic diversity, Persian remained the sole provisions, including the establishment of language of instruction in primary and special police units, safe houses and a secondary education. national working group to devise strategies to Ethnic minorities remained tackle violence against women and girls. disproportionately affected by death However, it fails to define domestic violence sentences imposed for vague charges such as a separate offence, criminalize marital as “enmity against God”. The authorities rape and child marriage, or ensure men who secretly executed those convicted of such murder their wives or daughters face charges and refused to return their bodies to proportionate punishments. In cases of their families, as in the cases of four Ahwazi domestic violence, the bill prioritizes Arab men in March and a Kurdish man, reconciliation over accountability. Heidar Ghorbani, in December.7 At least 20 The legal age of marriage for girls stayed at Kurdish men remained on death row after 13, and fathers could obtain judicial being convicted of such charges. permission for their daughters to be married Amnesty International Report 2021/22 199