The post-election crackdown has not quelled our spirit:
democracy will help us achieve equality Shirin Ebadi, The
Guardian, Tuesday 6th October 2009 Iran today is a country where
women are more educated than their male compatriots; more than
60% of university students are female, as are many university
professors. Iranian women obtained the right to vote and become
members of parliament half a century ago – earlier than women in
Switzerland, who achieved this right in 1971. Since that time at
least a small number have been present in Iran's parliament.
Even the present parliament, which is monopolised by hardliners,
has 13 women members. In governments, women have often held
senior positions. Even the health minister in Mahmoud
Ahmadinejad's cabinet is a woman. All this is proof that women
have managed to rise within the ranks of the fundamentalists.
And yet despite the cultural, social and historical heritage of
Iranian women, the Islamic Republic has imposed discriminatory
regulations against them. A man ma