Your Egypt

[Persian princess]

Number Of Female University Students Rising Dramatically in Iran

http://www.payvand.com/news/03/nov/1133.html

By Golnaz Esfandiari
In recent years, the number of young Iranian women who have been admitted to universities has risen dramatically. In the last five years alone, Iranian women have made up more than 60 percent of university entrants. It's a surprising development for the Islamic Republic. Experts say education has a strong social value for the country's women, who see it as a way to gain greater freedom. But some Iranian officials have expressed concern about the trend.

Prague, 19 November 2003 (RFE/RL) -- The growing numbers of young women in Iran's universities is considered a phenomenon that has already brought substantial change to the country's traditionally male-dominated society.

Iranian women are using university studies as a way to leave home, postpone marriage, and generally earn greater freedom and social respect.

Dr. Said Peyvandi is a Paris-based professor of social sciences who follows issues relating to Iran's educational system. In an interview with Radio Farda, Peyvandi said the already strong presence of women in the universities will play a significant role in shaping Iran's future.

"The remarkable educational progress of Iranian girls in the last decade should be considered a social phenomenon, because its implications for social relations, the labor market, and the status of women in society and in the family are very, very important in determining the future of Iran," Peyvandi said.

Peyvandi adds that, ironically, it was after the 1979 revolution and the Islamization of the country's educational institutions that girls from traditional or conservative families began to find ways to go to school. "The modern middle-class families who sent their girls to school even before the revolution continued to do so after [the revolution]. I think the change that took place after the revolution should be considered part of the reason behind the progress we're seeing now," he said. "And that was that the traditional families who had not sent their girls to school before -- because the teachers were men or the school was not Islamic -- these were the girls who took the greatest advantage from the Islamization of schools, or the fact that schools were no longer mixed, as a way of justifying their presence out of the home."

The growing number of female university graduates has already had an impact on Iran's labor market. Women have entered a number of professions both in the public and private sector. Women are also becoming increasingly active in the business world.

All told, they currently make up some 10 percent of the work force. But with women comprising 60 percent of all university students, that number is set to grow dramatically. Dr. Peyvandi says it is a historic change. "In the early years of the revolution, about one-third of the women who were working were laid off by the new regime. Now, instead of those female office workers and secretaries, Iranian women are returning as factory engineers and specialists," he said. "So in fact, Iran's labor market is facing an influx of female specialists who can replace men, and with the very male-oriented structure of Iranian society, this is a big change. In Iran there is now a labor force made up of women specialists that never existed in Iranian history."

Mohammad Ghaed is the managing editor of "Lowh," an educational and cultural magazine published in Tehran. Ghaed says many Iranian women are rising to top professional positions that were previously dominated by men. "In Iran, women at the head of an office or a bank -- and in a position where they can give orders to their subordinates, who are mostly men -- is becoming a common scene," he said.

The change can also be felt in Iran's family structures. In recent years, the average marriage age has risen and the birthrate has fallen. Peyvandi considers these changes to be a direct result of the growing number of women pursuing university education. "In the last decade, all the population indicators in Iran have changed drastically in the direction of improved conditions for women," he said. "The families are smaller, girls get married later, and girls with higher education have higher social demands."

Faced with greater social demands from women, many Iranian officials have voiced concern about the changes under way in the country. Some conservatives argue that the shift represents a threat to traditional values. A reformist female parliamentarian recently decried the dearth of marriage opportunities for university-educated women.

The Education Ministry recently proposed a quota system aimed at limiting the number of women who can enroll in courses like medicine, where female students are rapidly outnumbering males. Peyvandi says conservatives and some reformists are also trying to scale back women's overall access to higher education. "For the past several years, the conservative faction along with some reformists have expressed their concern over the situation. They consider education to be the reason behind these changes in Iranian society, because education is playing a liberating role for women," he said. "They are using economic excuses to try to impose some restrictions, and they are even pushing for laws to limit the admission of women to universities. The Education Ministry proposal to limit [the enrollment of female students in certain courses] is one of these plans."

Observers say that Iranian women have made great achievements in recent years but that much of society is not yet ready to accommodate them.

[Monica]

What an interesting article...Thank you so much..

I moved the thread here as it is suitable for Around the World..

The people and cross cultural section is more for foreigners wanting to learn about Egypt..
:wink:

[Persian princess]

horse riding competition-Triabal women

http://www.womeniniran.org/archives/FMO/000999.php

[Persian princess]

women (Tribe)

[Persian princess]

Tajikestan

[Persian princess]

Woman-Art

[Persian princess]

Anar-pomegranate

[Persian princess]

Iranian popular singer Pari Zanganeh, blinded years ago in a car accident, poses for a picture at her home in Tehran. Zanganeh is one of the few female singers that made her name before the 1979 Islamic revolution who is still allowed to perform in Iran.

[Persian princess]

Parisa (her name is sometimes spelled Parissa), Iran's foremost female vocalists, is a master of the radif or classical Persian repertoire. This traditional musical style is based on improvisation within a modal structure known as dastgah. The performer's skill rests in the extemporaneous vocal ornamentation of this basic melodic framework.

Born Fatemeh Vaezi, Parisa started her musical work under the supervision of the renowned Persian Radif teacher, Mahmoud Karimi, with whom she studied for ten years at the National Music Conservatory in Tehran. Two years through her pupilage, she was invited by the Ministry of Culture to work in the National Radio and Television Broadcasting.

In 1969 she began her singing career under the auspices of the Ministry of Culture and Art, performing throughout Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. She spent much of her early career fighting against bureaucratic obstacles and a misreprentation as a pop singer. The Ministry had misjudged her and gave her semi-pop tunes to perform. Eventually, a fierce crusade in the media
eventually allowed her to work with other traditional artists. Gradually, Parisa was seen at more traditional concerts, finally performing at the Shiraz Arts Festival during its last years.

Parisa's musical talent truly bloomed when she was introduced to "The Iranian Center for Preservation and Dissimination of Music". Her recordings of this period show a tremendous depth and growth in her musical understanding.

In recent years, Parisa has been successfully concentrating on teaching and guiding young talents. Since 1995, she has been performing in collaboration with Hossein Omoumi in various festivals and concerts around the world. Parisa currently lives in Iran.

samples:
http://archnet.org/file-storage/download/parisa.swf?inode=86550

http://archnet.org/file-storage/download/parisa-maberaftim.swf?inode=86554

[Persian princess]

Sima Bina born in Khorasan, in the heart of a popular tradition, Sima Bina started her career on Iranian radio at the age of nine, under the direction of her father, Ahmad Bina - a master of Iranian classical music and poet who wrote many of her early songs.

http://www.sima-bina.com/bio.html

http://www.sima-bina.com/history.html

[Persian princess]

Sima Bina

[Persian princess]

Shirin Ebadi wins the Nobel Prize
Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi, a human rights and democracy activist, won the 2003 Nobel Peace Prize Friday for her focus on human rights, especially on the struggle for the rights of women and children.

Ms. Ebadi won from a record field of 165 candidates, including Pope John Paul and former Czech President Vaclav Havel.

The committee calls her "a sound professional, a courageous person" who has "never heeded threats to her own safety".

"We hope that the prize will be an inspiration for all those who struggle for human rights and democracy in her country, in the Muslim world, and in all countries where the fight for human rights needs inspiration and support," the committee said.

"It's very good for me, very good for human rights in Iran, good for democracy in Iran and especially children's rights in Iran," said the 56-year-old lawyer.

The Nobel prize is worth $US1.32 million and will be handed out in Oslo on December 10.

Ms. Ebadi is only the 11th woman to win since the prize was set up in 1901.

No Iranian has previously won the prize.

Former US President Jimmy Carter won in 2002, and the United Nations and secretary-general Kofi Annan won in 2001.

The last women to win the prize were Jody Williams, the coordinator of the International Campaign to Ban Landmines in 1997, Guatemalan human rights leader Rigoberta Menchu in 1992 and Burmese opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi in 1991.

http://nmo.omroep.nl/cgi/nmo/nmo_real.php?s=18&id=230

[Persian princess]

Shirin

[Persian princess]

Shirin Neshat

Shirin Neshat doesn't quite know where to call home. The 43-year-old artist was born and raised in Iran but moved to the U.S. after high school to study art. When the Islamic Revolution overtook her homeland in 1979, Neshat was exiled and couldn't return until 11 years later--and the country she went home to bore little resemblance to the one she left.


Shirin Neshat has moved from photography to making some of the most beautiful films being shown in art galleries today. She often deals with relations between the sexes, particularly as they're informed by Islamic culture. In her most stunning moments, Shirin addresses questions of life's universal cyclical patterns. At her show at Barbara Gladstone Gallery, she showed three films Passage, Pulse, and Possessed, the latter of which brilliantly exemplified this theme of cycling.


logic of birds (video)
http://www.walkerart.org/calendar/0206/qt/birds.html

[Eastern girl]

thanx for this good thread, keep posting :D