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	Undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia amplify gender inequalities by UNICEF, World Food Programme   Undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia amplify gender inequalities by lowering learning potential, wages and life opportunities for adolescent girls and women, weakening their immunity to infections, and increasing their risk of life-threatening complications during pregnancy and childbirth.   In ‘Undernourished and Overlooked: A Global Nutrition Crisis in Adolescent Girls and Women’ UNICEF examines the current status, trends and inequities in the nutritional status of adolescent girls and women of reproductive age (15-49 years), and the barriers they face in accessing nutritious diets, utilizing essential nutrition services and benefiting from positive nutrition and care practices.   The analysis focuses on undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia because these forms of malnutrition affect the most vulnerable adolescent girls and women in low- and middle-income countries, especially in the context of the ongoing global food and nutrition crisis.   Research highlights:   UNICEF’s findings reveal the slow global progress on nutrition in adolescent girls and women, and the multiple, interacting drivers that underlie this global crisis. The key findings are as follows:   Progress on adolescent girls’ and women’s nutrition is too slow and under threat: no region is on track to meet the 2030 global targets to reduce anaemia and low birthweight, and acute malnutrition has risen by 25 per cent since 2020 in crisis-hit countries.   Disadvantaged adolescent girls and women and those living in poorer regions bear the brunt of undernutrition and anaemia.   Poor nutrition is passed down through generations: about half of children under 2 with stunting become stunted during pregnancy and the first six months of life.   The global food crisis is deepening the nutrition crisis for adolescent girls and women.   Adolescent girls and women struggle to access nutritious diets. Harmful social and gender norms and practices block progress on adolescent girls’ and women’s nutrition.   Nutrition services and social protection programmes are failing to meet the nutrition needs of adolescent girls and women, especially in humanitarian settings. Adolescent girls and women lack strong policy protection against undernutrition.   The scale and consequences of undernutrition, micronutrient deficiencies and anaemia in adolescent girls and women are being overlooked and under recognized by families, society, governments, development and humanitarian communities, research and academia, media and the private sector.   Unless decisive action is taken, we will collectively continue to fail adolescent girls and women, and jeopardize the survival, growth, development and well-being of their children.   With the mounting pressures on food and nutrition security and rapidly approaching deadlines for the global nutrition targets, governments and their development and humanitarian partners – national and international – must take the lead in accelerating progress for adolescent girls’ and women’s nutrition.   http://www.unicef.org/reports/undernourished-overlooked-nutrition-crisis http://data.unicef.org/topic/nutrition/womens-nutrition/   Changing Lives – Gender Equality. (World Food Programme)   Women play a critical role in global food production and food systems, but they remain disproportionately food insecure compared to men. When women and girls have better access to information, resources, services, decision-making, education and economic opportunities, the result is increased food security and improved nutrition.   Gender equality and women’s and girls’ empowerment are essential building blocks for healthy, prosperous and resilient communities. Societies where girls and women have the tools and opportunities to thrive can promote economic development, support development goals, fight climate change and build food and nutrition security.   http://www.wfp.org/publications/changing-lives-gender http://skoll.org/2022/10/11/why-land-tenure-cross-cutting-solution-for-poverty-climate-change-womens-rights/ Visit the related web page
	Outrage after young woman dies after arrest by Iran’s morality police for dress code violation by OHCHR, Guardian News, agencies   22 Sep. 2022 (OHCHR)   UN experts today strongly condemned the death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who died in police custody after her arrest for allegedly failing to comply with Iran’s strict rules on women’s dress by wearing an “improper hijab”.   The experts also denounced the violence directed against peaceful protesters and human rights defenders demanding accountability for Amini’s death in cities across the country by Iranian security forces. They urged the Iranian authorities to avoid further unnecessary violence and to immediately stop the use of lethal force in policing peaceful assemblies.   “We are shocked and deeply saddened by the death of Ms Amini. She is another victim of Iran’s sustained repression and systematic discrimination against women and the imposition of discriminatory dress codes that deprive women of bodily autonomy and the freedoms of opinion, expression and belief,” the experts said.   Amini was arrested by the Iran’s morality police on 13 September for being perceived as wearing “improper hijab”. Reports indicate she was severely beaten by members of the morality police during her arrest and transfer to the Vozara Detention Centre.   Amini fell into a coma at the detention centre and died in hospital on 16 September. Iranian authorities said she died of a heart attack, and claimed her death was from natural causes. However, some reports suggested that Amini’s death was a result of alleged torture and ill-treatment, the experts said.   “We strongly condemn the use of physical violence against women and the denial of fundamental human dignity when enforcing compulsory hijab policies ordained by State authorities,” the experts said.   “We call on the Iranian authorities to hold an independent, impartial, and prompt investigation into Ms Amini’s death, make the findings of the investigation public and hold all perpetrators accountable.”   Since 16 September, thousands have taken to the streets in many cities, including Tehran, Ilam, Isfahan, Kermanshah, Mahabad, Saqez, Sanandaj, Sari and Tabriz to demand accountability for the death of Amini and to put an end to violence and discrimination against women in Iran, particularly compulsory veiling for women.   The peaceful protests have been met with excessive use of force, including birdshot and other metal pellets by Iranian security forces, the experts said. According to reports, at least eight individuals, including a woman and a 16-year-old child, have been killed, dozens more injured and arrested.   Following the protests, prolonged internet disruptions have been reported in Tehran, Kurdistan provinces, and other parts of the country since 19 September. This is the third widespread internet shutdown recorded over the past 12 months in Iran.   “Disruptions to the internet are usually part of a larger effort to stifle the free expression and association of the Iranian population, and to curtail ongoing protests. State mandated internet disruptions cannot be justified under any circumstances,” the experts said, warning against a further escalation of crackdown against civil society, human rights defenders and peaceful protesters.   “Over the past four decades, Iranian women have continued to peacefully protest against the compulsory hijab rules and the violations of their fundamental human rights,” the experts said, urging authorities in the country to heed the legitimate demands of women who want their fundamental human rights respected.   As previously reiterated, “Iran must repeal all legislation and policies that discriminate on the grounds of sex and gender, in line with international human rights standards,” the experts said.   http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2023/04/repressive-enforcement-iranian-hijab-laws-symbolises-gender-based http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/iran-un-experts-demand-accountability-death-mahsa-amini-call-end-violence http://www.ohchr.org/en/press-releases/2022/09/mahsa-amini-acting-un-human-rights-chief-urges-impartial-probe-death-iran   16 Sep. 2022 (Guardian News, agencies)   A 22-year-old woman has died in an Iranian hospital days after being detained by the regime’s morality police for allegedly not complying with the country’s hijab regulations.   Mahsa Amini was travelling with her family from Iran’s western province of Kurdistan to the capital, Tehran, to visit relatives when she was reportedly arrested for failing to meet the country’s strict rules on women’s dress.   Witnesses reported that Amini was beaten in the police van, an allegation the police deny.   The news comes weeks after Iran’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, ordered a crackdown on women’s rights and called for stricter enforcement of the country’s mandatory dress code, which has required all women to wear the hijab head-covering.   Amini’s family were notified that she had been taken to hospital hours after her arrest. She was transferred to an intensive-care unit at Kasra hospital.   According to Hrana, an Iranian human rights organisation, Amini’s family were told during her arrest that she would be released after a “re-education session”.   Amini was in a coma after arriving at the hospital, her family said, adding that they were told by hospital staff that she was brain dead.   Photographs of Amini lying in the hospital bed in a coma with bandages around her head and breathing tubes have circulated on social media. Her hospitalisation and death drew widespread condemnation. Former Iranian President Mohammad Khatami said the behaviour of the morality police was a “disaster”.   Conservative hardliners in Iran have called for harsh punishment and even lashes for women who do not comply with the official dress code, arguing that allowing women to show their hair leads to moral decay and the disintegration of families. The judiciary has in recent years urged people to inform about women who do not wear the hijab.   The mandatory dress code, which applies to all nationalities and religions, requires women to conceal their hair and neck with a headscarf.   Reacting to the incident, human rights organisation Amnesty International said, “The circumstances leading to the suspicious death in custody of 22-year-old young woman Mahsa Amini, which include allegations of torture and other ill-treatment in custody, must be criminally investigated.”   “The so-called ‘morality police’ in Tehran arbitrarily arrested her three days before her death while enforcing the country’s abusive, degrading and discriminatory forced veiling laws. All agents and officials responsible must face justice,” it added.   http://www.hrw.org/news/2022/09/16/woman-dies-custody-irans-morality-police   Sep. 2022   Iranian authorities plan to use facial recognition to enforce new hijab law, by Weronika Strzyżyńska for Guardian News.   The Iranian government is planning to use facial recognition technology on public transport to identify women who are not complying with a strict new law on wearing the hijab, as the regime continues its increasingly punitive crackdown on women’s dress.   The secretary of Iran’s Headquarters for Promoting Virtue and Preventing Vice, Mohammad Saleh Hashemi Golpayegani, announced in a recent interview that the government was planning to use surveillance technology against women in public places following a new decree signed by the country’s hardline president, Ebrahim Raisi, on restricting women’s clothing.   The decree was signed on 15 August, a month after the 12 July national “Hijab and Chastity Day”, which sparked countrywide protests by women who posted videos of themselves on social media with their heads uncovered on streets and on buses and trains. In recent weeks, the Iranian authorities have responded with a spate of arrests, detentions and forced confessions on television.   “The Iranian government has long played with the idea of using facial recognition to identify people who violate the law,” said Azadeh Akbari, a researcher at the University of Twente, in the Netherlands. “The regime combines violent ‘old-fashioned’ forms of totalitarian control dressed up in new technologies.”   The hijab, a head-covering worn by Muslim women, became mandatory after Iran’s revolution in 1979. Yet, over the decades since, women have pushed the limits of the stipulated dress code.   Some of the women arrested for defying the new decree were identified after videos were posted online of them being harassed on public transport for not wearing the hijab properly.   One, 28-year-old Sepideh Rashno, was arrested after a video circulated on social media of her being berated for “improper dress” by a fellow passenger, who was then forced off the vehicle by bystanders intervening on Rashno’s behalf. According to the human rights group Hrana, Rashno was beaten after her arrest and subsequently forced to apologise on television to the passenger who harassed her.   Rashno is not the first person to suffer violent repression as a result of going viral on the internet. In 2014, six Iranians – three men and three women – were sentenced to one year in prison and 91 lashes after a video of them dancing in Tehran to Pharrell Williams’s song Happy had more than 150,000 views.   Since 2015, the Iranian government has been phasing in biometric identity cards, which include a chip that stores data such as iris scans, fingerprints and facial images. Researchers worry that this information will now be used with facial recognition technology to identify people who violate the mandated dress code, both in the streets and cyberspace.   “A large chunk of the Iranian population is now in this national biometric data bank, as many public services are becoming dependent on biometric IDs,” said Akbari. “So the government has access to all the faces; they know where people come from and they can easily find them. A person in a viral video can be identified in seconds.”   She added: “By doing that, the government proves a point: ‘Don’t think that a small thing happening on a bus somewhere is going to be forgotten. We know who you are and we will find you and then you will have to suffer the consequences.’”   Annabelle Sreberny, professor emeritus at the Centre for Iranian Studies at Soas University of London said: “There are terrible economic and environmental problems facing Iran. The inflation rate may now be reaching 50%, but the government is choosing to focus on women’s rights.”   http://www.theguardian.com/global-development/2022/sep/05/iran-government-facial-recognition-technology-hijab-law-crackdown
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