The Status of Women in Iran

This is not a promotion of the ruling theocracy in Iran. Just a reminder that Iranian society in total is not what the western media would have us think. It is a very ancient civilisation. While socialists and working people must oppose this regime in general, we can still oppose the illegal and unprovoked war US imperialism and its proxy Israel is waking at this moment. Let's not forget, in Saudia Arabia, a US ally, up until 2018, women were forbidden to drive and were often flogged if caught leaving their homes without a male companion, even a 15 year old son would suffice. RM

Iranian women college graduates. (Credit: Islamic Republic News Agency – English)

From Navdeep Singh

 

I am reminded that when I see women in Iran, they are attired not much differently than Punjabi women (like my mom and relatives), who generally wear a Shalwar Kameez and chunni. (The picture above is of a traditional Punjabi woman-I wonder how different the typical Iranian woman’s attire is different to similar??) 

 

It made research the educational status of women in Iran, today. Some indicators of the Status of Women in Iran (compare to the Arab countries/North Africa/West Asia, if you want to judge Apples to Apples: Saudi women were first allowed to DRIVE a car in 2018) 

 

Prior to the Islamic Revolution in 1979, the literacy rate for women under the western-backed Shah of Iran was 42%. In less than a decade of the revolution, that number climbed to 98%.

STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Mathematics) graduates

 

In Iran, 70% of STEM graduates are women — far exceeding the U.S. level, which stands at 53%.

Professional doctorate programs

 

About 58% of students in Iranian professional doctorate programs are women. In contrast, that number in the U.S. is 56%.

Femicide (homicide of females)

 

In Iran, the rate of intentional murder of women is 0.59 per 100,000. In the U.S., that number is nearly four times higher, at 2.1 per 100,000 women (with stark racial disparities: Black and Native American women combined: 4.3 to 4.8 per 100,000 vs white women: 1.5 per 100,000.)

Participation in government

I

n Iran, women hold 27% of ministerial-level posts with 1,121 female judges and 25% of managerial roles in government. (These numbers are from the early 2000s and are surely much higher now.)

 

Maternity leave and benefits

In Iran, the Law on Family and Youth Support mandates nine months PAID maternity leave for public and private sectors — plus an optional four months remote work during pregnancy — job security protections for extended unpaid leave and two weeks paternity leave. In the U.S., the only federal guarantee is 12 weeks of unpaid maternity leave.

 

Furthermore, the following benefits are available to Iranian women, but not U.S. women:

1. Free maternity care and subsidized infertility treatments

Nationwide free maternal and delivery services, including for uninsured women. Infertility treatments are heavily subsidized at 90%.

 

2. Labor protections

Pregnant women are reassigned from hazardous jobs without pay loss; nursing breaks are offered until a child is two years old; workplace childcare provisions are required.

 

3. Family support policies under demographic law 

This includes housing assistance, loans for married couples, job prioritization for parents, childcare subsidies and retirement benefits for mothers with multiple children.

 

Gender affirming treatment

Iran legalized gender-affirming surgery (SRS) in the 1980s! The government subsidizes surgeries and hormone therapy for trans individuals who are at least 18 years old and have completed an approval system that requires psychological counseling and hormone therapy for one to three years, and professional filtering panels that evaluate gender dysphoria vs homosexuality, including family interviews, DNA tests and potential coercion. In the U.S., SRS is a for-profit industry with no subsidies.

 

Source: Workers' World, Status of Women in Iran