Voices
the necessary injections for IVF
treatment? And why have vaginal antibiotics and creams disappeared, which have nothing to do
with increasing the population?
“In short, what is going on is that
medicine for women has become
increasingly difficult to find — all
medicine for women, and no one
talks about it,” said a pharmacist
in Tehran’s Vanak Square.
Last month the U.S. Treasury
Department, which oversees all
American sanctions, announced
that it was adding items to its
general license for medicine export to Iran. The export of medicine has always been allowed under the current sanctions regime
against Iran, yet there is still a
severe shortage of medicine in the
country. At this point, actions like
this from the U.S. have become
comical for those of us who travel
to Iran frequently. Which bank
is willing to make the transactions necessary for the medicine
to reach Iran, given that sanctions
have choked off Iranian banks
from the world? Which company
is willing to ship the medicine to
Iran, given that almost all shipping routes have been sanctioned?
The U.S. Department of Treasury
NARGES
BAJOGHLI
HUFFINGTON
08.18.13
can appear to be making a humanitarian gesture, but without
making actual changes to banking
and trade sanctions — which have
been and will continue to block
the sale of medicines to Iran —
nothing will change.
And in the meantime, millions
of women in Iran will continue to
suffer the consequences of com-
In short, what is
going on is that medicine
for women has become
increasingly difficult to find.”
promised U.S.-made birth control
pills and the lack of any medications at all to treat the other gynecological problems they may have.
American policymakers, who ironically invoked the plight of women
in the Middle East to enact their
wars in the region after Sept. 11,
should know that their policies
in Iran are quite literally
making women sick.
Narges Bajoghli is a Ph.D student in
anthropology at New York University,
and director of the documentary B