The government of the Islamic Republic of Iran has always been wary of women. The reasons vary, of course, though the predominant belief is that the attitude stems from sexism rooted in religion and tradition. There is, as well, a more practical reason for it: a government that has from its very beginning demanded and exerted control of the people's lives is naturally resistant to those who acquire any measure of independence.
And that is exactly what Iranian women have done in the last 33 years: they've found a way to be independent in a country that is very tightly controlled, particularly if you are female.
Education has almost always been the key to that success -- the one sure ticket to independence.
This week's announcement that 36 universities across Iran have banned 77 fields of study to women is just the latest example of the Iranian government's particular disdain for the progress that women have made in education. While it is true that the universities made this decision on their own, the government has not opposed this decision and the universities are not facing any legal action by the government for having done so.
It is not, clearly, a violation of Iranian law to segregate in education, and therein lies the heart of the problem.
For Iranian women, this is a double blow: it is not only their fields of study that are limited but also their avenues for financial and personal independence. The fact is that Iranian women are the most educated women in the world -- according to UNESCO, Iran has the highest ratio of female to male university enrollment in the world. And the Iranian government has been overtly acting to change that statistic by placing quotas on women university entrants, particularly in specific fields, such as the most prestigious ones: medicine and engineering.
One of the first moves the fledgling Islamic Republic government made was in the education of those who treat women. It began just after the new government fell into place in 1979: with bans on all male gynecologists and obstetricians. Both fields and their practitioners suffered. But what suffered more were Iranian women: when you're in pain or when your water has broken, you're very unlikely to care about who exactly can help you. Even the most pious Iranians understand that in matters of life, death and health, segregation is hardly a priority.
Yet, the government moved forward with its plans to prevent women from seeing male doctors for their female health needs. Most existing male gynecologists and obstetricians closed down their practices and moved into general medical care or other fields. Those who were too senior to make drastic changes, quietly practiced, though lost many patients due to the fear and paranoia surrounding the issue and never fully recovered from the onslaught. And women suffered because they could be questioned or even arrested for seeing their long-time doctors. Or, they had to join the long lines of other women waiting in line at the few medical practices where the doctor was female.
This was at the beginning of the Islamic Republic, at a time when the government called for an increase in reproduction by eliminating the family-planning programs that the Shah had put into place, due to Ayatollah Khomeini's announcement that both Islam and Iran needed greater populations. The Islamic Republic has changed little when it comes to its understanding of the role of women: they are child-bearers first and foremost and, when they deign to pursue higher education, should be in fields that "women do," including fields that address women's needs. This year, the government has again eliminated its family-planning programs, including the mandatory birth control classes upon marriage.
In the intervening years, the Iranian government realized that doubling your population from around 30 million to more than 60 million in just one generation is a grand pressure on the nation's resources. It went on to build the only state-sponsored condom production factory in the Middle East ("45 million condoms a year, in 30 different shapes, colors and flavors").
It also went on to, grudgingly, look the other way at the existing male gynecologists and obstetricians who continued to practice despite the ban. However, no new male gynecologists and obstetricians have graduated since the post-Revolutionary ban: the residency programs in these two fields are limited to female medical graduates. Troublingly, the now limited knowledge that male physicians have about gynecology and obstetrics has impacted their ability to effectively treat female patients, particularly in rural areas where the number of female physicians is even more limited than in urban areas.
This week, in addition to the bans on certain fields of study for women, the government announced a renewed attack on healthcare providers (and thus healthcare recipients). As before, it is heavily tinged with gender issues. The national Nursing Association has banned male nurses. Nursing, the Iranian government seems to believe, is a woman's job, not a man's. This is no doubt also an attempt to absorb the growing number of Iranian female students who, though highly qualified, will be rejected from medical school and other prestigious fields of study because of quotas and prohibitions on female students.
What's ironic is that under the Islamic Republic, more Iranian women have become educated at institutions of higher learning than they had under the monarchy. Many observers attributed this to the fact that religious families finally acquiesced, in the post Revolutionary Iran, to allowing their daughters to go to university because of segregated university options, required hejab, and a curriculum that mandates religious studies and practice.
But what is also true is that in a society run by a sexist government, girls and women, mothers and sisters have learned all too well that their only hope for independence is an education -- a good one. A woman with a degree is less likely to get a job than a man with the same degree, but she is more likely to get one than a woman who has no degree at all. Further, the very process of getting the degree -- going to university -- is itself an act of independence and a chance for Iranian women to enter new avenues of social and intellectual exchange which they would not get if they were stuck at home.
Medicine and health are the two fields that are most sought after, because they provide the greatest job security and independence. For this reason, in the last decade, women's medicine entrance test scores have been consistently higher on average than men's. And for that reason, the government placed a quota on how many women could be accepted to medical school.
There is this saying in post-Revolutionary Iran that when the government tries to show some muscle, it is the women who are targeted first. The saying is based in quite some truth: when times are tough, politically, the morals police take to the streets in greater droves to harass and insult girls and women for their mandatory hejab. This scarf is too bright. This coat is too short. This makeup is unacceptable. And so on.
During this time of heightened fear of war and horrible economic conditions brought about by financial mismanagement, corruption and US sanctions, the Islamic Republic government is in a political quagmire. It is not surprising that they are going after the women again. It is another power move on the marginalized gender, no doubt, but it is also a show of ignorance by a government that has now cemented a culture of sexism in a society where women -- the strong, talented and intelligent women of Iran -- are in fact essential to the nation's growth.
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FACT: Robert Tait, and several authors in the West, falsely wrote, “Iran bans women from universities” - which is wildly inaccurate. 60% of students in upper education in Iran are STILL women.
FACT: This article, like a barrage of ones like it, are part of a series of inaccurate, misleading, and irresponsible articles about Iran and Iranian women. [And you wonder why Iran bans the Western press?]
CONCLUSION: Certain special interests in the West (we all know who) will use anything they can get their hands on to try and smear Iran and Iranian people. In this case the smear against Iran is being done under the banner of "human rights," and "gender equality/feminism." So don't be surprised, my dear friends, if in the future Iran gives Western rhetoric about "human rights" short shrift when it is in fact really being used as a racist part of a psychological war on the Iranian people and to soften the hearts of the public for another disastrous war.
RECOMMENDATION: Do you want fair journalism? Demand a serious investigative report on the people and institutions carrying out these vile and misleading attacks against the Iranian people on a daily basis. [Don't worry about the author of this article - she has outed herself.]
ONE INDEPENDENT MAGAZINE OUTED SOME OF THESE CHARACTERS:
http://iranianfacebook.com/2012/08/24/iran-has-legitimate-national-security-concerns-about-the-bahai-movement/
These types of stories about Iran are part of a smear campaign for building a case for war.
Any one interested in women's well-being would first and foremost focus on the BILLIONS-of-DOLLARS trade of the US sex industry that requires tens of thousands of American women as fuel for its immoral and oppressive behavior against people's daughters and mothers. And no one seems inclined to note that many of the porn-perchants are Jewish: News journals treat it as something you don't say while smearing Muslims on any thing they can get their hands on.
And no one in the US government is talking about Saudi Arabia, its regional ally, or given the fact women can't even drive there, have no rights, etc. Being a woman in Saudi Arabia is like being a bag of coal. But it goes unsaid for the most part because the US sees them as an ally.
There is a social problem in Iran with considerably more Iranian women qualifying and getting admitted in universities than men. That by itself shows there is no discrimination against Iranian women in higher education. In most scientific fields the number of women in universities are twice as much as men (2/3 to 1/3). There have been many discussions in Iran what to do about it and how to increase and equalize the male attendance to females. Many universities have been under pressure to achieve this by Iranian higher education ministry. Some universities tried to lower their admission standards last year and ended up getting even more female students. I know one of these universities where last year, they admitted 90% female students in the field of chemistry, going purely based on test scores as it is normal in Iran. So some universities have tried to outright suspend (not ban) female admission in certain fields, for a year probably out of frustration not being able to do anything else to address a valid issue, while being pushed by the ministry to do something about it.
I don't agree with the solution. But if you don't have any idea as to how to address a valid issue, piling on Iranian government so Iran can be nuked is nonsense.
Anyone that wants to see a "WAR" should look at the 500,000 Iraqi children starved to death and dismembered by the US government and military (half of them women) ... that's a "WAR."
Whenever I read one of these reports about women being banned from one thing or another in a Muslim country, there always seems to be some insecurity behind it all.
But the insecurity crosses borders, religions and cultures. Powerful white men are jockeying for position in the US that will allow them to legislate the moral scope of female behaviors, actions and reactions.
Same as anywhere, the self-righteous are scared as hell that the second class citizens will acquire too much education and power.
By this logic, since no place is a utopia, foreign news and world reports should not exist at all!
Peace through commerce and cultural exchange.
"The person who does not know and does not know that she does not know, will remain in everlasting ignorance." Sa'adi (Although I could be wrong about the authorship )
B - Why do you think sanctions would have worked to "persuade the Iranian theocracy to give more rights to all the Iranian people who are now suffering." First of all, their religious leaders are the religious fanatics. So kinda defeats the whole point of your sentence.
a) Our "allies" are in fact our client states like Saudi Arabia and Egypt under Mubarak. Today Egypt is not concerned about Iran as neither is Iraq .
b) Our neoCons are the best friends of their neoCons. At the moment they can use the boogeyman of the USA stopping them from their legitimate rights under NPT. We could have and can sill work with those elements of the Iranian regime which are more moderate or less extreme.
Any war (even the current economic one) just prolongs the theocracy.