A step back for women’s rights in Iran

By Anthony Diflorio

Staff  Writer

Courtesy of Reuters
Iranian women wait in line to cast their votes

As the international community becomes ever
more enthralled by the Iranian nuclear question, the
state of Iranian internal conditions and its domestic
functioning goes overlooked and, in most instances,
becomes more deeply misunderstood by the Western
world.
With controversy never excluded from discussions
of Iran, the world continues to confound government
decree as being in accordance with the
desires and wants of the people.
In September, Iranian society took a turn for the
worst as women were banned from 77 majors across
36 different universities, calling into question the future
of Iranian women’s education and further emphasizing
the sexism pervasive in the Islamic state.
There was no official reason given for the move,
but Iranian officials have expressed alarm in recent
months about the country’s declining birth and marriage
rates, seen as partially caused by women’s rising
educational attainment in the last two decades.
Unfortunately, this is an incredibly degrading
move that defies conventional wisdom in the modern
age. Widely accepted as the new universal reality in
almost all educated and developed nations, women
are marrying later and, as a result, are having fewer
children as they pursue ambitious career goals and
positions which deviate from the traditional domestic
role.
Since the fall of the western-backed government
in February of 1979, women have found education
to be the ideal “weapon of choice” to bypass the
stricter laws imposed on their lives due to the national
Islamic law.
In fact, significant progress had been made in
their quest for higher education: in 2009, 52 percent
of all Iranian undergraduates were women (a number
which puts them at parity with U.S. rates), and specifically
in the scientific fields, 68 percent of all graduates
were women.
However, with the banning of degrees in engineering,
nuclear physics, computer science, English
literature, archaeology, and business, among others,
the imposition of this law significantly hinders the
motivated, aspiring female visionaries of tomorrow’s
Iran.
Who is to say that a young woman denied an education
today could not have had the potential to
lead the country in future years, or save countless
lives, or inspire another human being to greatness?
The justifications for this ban are incredibly myopic
and serve to preserve traditional Islamic roles
of women in Iran, henceforth stunting any further
growth and advancement of educated women. A report
by the Research Center of the Majlis (controlled
by conservatives) warned that the large female enrollment
could cause “social disparity and economic
and cultural imbalances between men and women.”
This fear of social deviation is, in large part, what
contributed to the Revolution in 1979, as citizens
then viewed parts of “westernization” as responsible
for the evolution of women’s roles, and thus the
straying from Islamic tradition and cultural identity.
Increasingly, Iranian women have been able to
garner greater social rights since the Revolution of
1979, but have subsequently seen their legal rights
distilled down to that which only vaguely resembles
that of a man’s.
For instance, if a woman is tried in an Iranian
court, her word is equal to half of a man’s word; this
is an incredibly telling revelation, and one that female
secondary education was working to combat through
empowerment and advancement. This blatant form
of sexism is what continues to frustrate Iranian
women.
With a glimpse into the grand picture of gender
roles in the country, the words of Iranian dissident
and academic, Azar Nafisi, bring a glimmer of hope
to an unjust reality hindering female Iranian scholars:
“Every culture has something to be ashamed of,
but every culture also has the right to change, to challenge
negative traditions, and create to new ones.”
Contact Anthony Diflorio at
anthony.diflorio@student.shu.edu