BY AMY FLOWERS UMBLE

Students at the University of Mary Washington are learning about human rights and Islam from a professor well versed in the topic.

Leila Asadi, 35, spent years studying the issues. But she also lived them. In fact, it was her work as a women’s-rights activist in Iran that brought her to the Fredericksburg university as a scholar-in-residence.

An Iranian, Asadi was an international-law professor and women’s-rights activist who often felt threatened in her home country.

She was fighting a patriarchal system where the legal age for marriage is 13 for girls and polygamy is allowed by law.
When Asadi and other activists spoke out against a proposed law that would strip Iranian wives of their right to approve their husbands’ second marriages, officials responded with arrests.

Asadi and women’s-rights groups tried to collect signatures opposing the bill, but the work was dangerous. They could be thrown in jail and charged with crimes against national security.

Activists had to be stealthy and creative. They often tried to get signatures on petitions on trains, where there were no cameras. But one activist was caught when the train doors opened and a camera at the station taped her with the petitions. She was jailed for one year.

Still, Asadi pressed on. She felt that a so-called Family Protection Law would erode women’s rights. The bill strengthened support for temporary marriages, in which a man could marry a woman for a certain time period, from one hour to several years.

The practice was considered necessary for men in a country where sex outside of marriage is illegal. The law required that the man provide a dowry to the family of the woman, even for a marriage lasting an hour.
Asadi and others view the practice as a way to legalize prostitution.

A little more than a year ago, she presented reports to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Asadi and some friends spoke about the gender gap in Iranian education and on violence against child brides.
When they returned to Iran, one of her friends was arrested.

She had expected to be questioned, but didn’t know officials would just throw her and her friends into jail.

“I decided to go out of the country for a while, to escape,” Asadi said.

She fled Iran and came to Fredericksburg through a program called the Scholar Rescue Fund. In the past 10 years, the program has helped 436 scholars from 46 countries. It is part of the New York-based nonprofit Institute of International Education.

UMW officials have had a relationship with the rescue fund for years. Asadi is the second scholar the university has hosted.

UMW provides room and board so the scholar can continue research in safety, said Craig Vasey, chairman of the university’s Department of Classics, Philosophy and Religion.

Helping scholars who face persecution is just one part of the university’s commitment to safeguarding human rights, Vasey said. The stance is natural for a school in the town where the Virginia Statute for Religious Freedom originated—and on a campus where noted civil rights activist James Farmer taught.

“We think these are legacies worth building on,” Vasey said.

And Asadi’s experiences benefit UMW students, he said.

“Civil rights is not just an idea anymore,” Vasey said. “Here’s somebody who’s doing this, and it’s inspirational.”
Asadi is teaching a seminar on human rights and Islam this semester. She also continues her research on women’s rights in Iran, focusing on human trafficking, prostitution and temporary marriages.

For now, there is little protection for Iranian women forced into prostitution or trafficked to other countries. And the problem is getting worse as the Iranian economy struggles, Asadi said.

It’s harder to research the topic from so far away.

“But this is not a good time to research in Iran,” Asadi said.

“I’m trying to find a solution,” she said.

Asadi’s tenure as scholar-in-residence ends in the late spring, and she hopes to find another American university where she can continue her work.

And she hopes that wherever she lands next, it will be just as welcoming as Fredericksburg has been.

“I receive lots of support from the university and the faculty,” Asadi said. “The environment is very friendly, and the people are very nice.”

Amy Flowers Umble: 540/735-1973
aumble@freelancestar.com