For battered women in Iran, nonprofit Omid-e-Mehr offers help

World Today

CCTV America’s Asieh Namdar reports on how one woman is transforming the lives of young Iranian women who’ve endured unimaginable abuse.

Follow Asieh Namdar on Twitter @asiehnamdar

Farzaneh, one of many young Iranian women neglected and abused is now safe, her bleak outlook replaced by optimism.

She was aided by Omid-e-Mehr, a privately funded shelter run by the the Omid Foundations that gives battered women emotional support, education and job training.

Founder Majaneh Halati, a western-educated social psychologist and psychotherapist, says the women who come to her center are exposed to violence and drugs at a young age and are often betrayed by the very people who are supposed to protect them. She vividly remembers one young girl forced into prostitution.

While these women can’t erase their past, they are getting a second chance at happy and productive lives. They are learning about self-respect and self-sufficiency with the help of therapy and training.

Two hundred women have graduated from Omid-e-Mehr since 2004 and Halati hopes that one day, they will be the ones running organizations that transform lives and continue the mission she started.