The Role of Gender in Moral Damages

The necessity of paying attention to the role of gender in some areas of law is an issue that has been raised by some legal researchers in recent decades. One of these areas in which it is necessary to pay attention to gender differences is moral damages. The existence of brain biological and functional differences in men and women, as well as differences in social responsibilities, roles, and expectations, justify this necessity.In the case of moral damages, both sex differences (biological differences in the brains of men and women) and gender differences (differences in social responsibilities and expectations) are effective. To explain the sex differences between men and women, we must start with the brain: The brain is one of the organs that researchers say is highly influenced by sex. Although there are differences in the physics of men and women's brains, such as the size of the brain in men being generally larger than in women, or that there is more gray matter in the brain of women and more white matter in the brain of men. However, what makes the difference between men and women is not the anatomical structure of the brain, but its function, including differences in the function of neurotransmitters and hormones. According to the researches, sex differences-especially in the discussion of moral damages- are related to three important parts in the brain, namely, hippocampus, amygdala, and neocortex.In addition to these biological differences, the existence of differences in expectations and social responsibilities between men and women is another factor that shows the need to pay attention to gender in the discussion of moral damages. Gender norms that are traditionally predetermined in society and the expectations that exist in this regard in some cases cause women to suffer more psychological damage in the event of an accident. One of these factors is the "duty of care" that women often have in their families. If we look at the process of reproduction and the stages of child rearing in society, we find that in most cases mothers are more involved in caring and custody of children than fathers, and this leads to more emotional feeling between mothers and their children. This means that if an accident happens to a child or the parents see their child being killed or injured, this will hurt the mother more than the father.Another example is the cases of rape that cause the loss of virginity in women. Given that according to social norms in many societies, being a virgin is very important for women in marriage, in such cases, the society will impose an additional harm to women, along with the moral damages caused by the crime, while men will not have the same experience.In order to be able to take into account these gender differences in moral damage assessment, it is necessary to use psychometric tools as complementary tools of moral damage assessment based on indicators. It can be used to measure biological and emotional differences in calculating damages. Although this issue is not specified in the Iranian legal system, there will be no barrier in this regard, because according to Article 3 of the Civil Responsibility Code and Article 515 of the Civil Procedure Code, it is the judges who must determine the amount of damages according to the circumstances of each case. Therefore, judges can pay more attention to the victim gender in assessing moral damage. This will make the compensation more realistic and efficient.