If Iranian women can put themselves forward, American women have no reason not to

(Cross-posted from Heidi Li on Equality, 51 Percent)

Today's New York Times has a front-page story, above the fold, headlined "Starting at Home, Iran's fight for Women's Rights".  At home in Iran things obtacles to putting women forward are more obvious than they are at home in the United States.   In Iran:

Despite the gains they have made, women still face extraordinary obstacles. Girls can legally be forced into marriage at the age of 13. Men have the right to divorce their wives whenever they wish, and are granted custody of any children over the age of 7. Men can ban their wives from working outside the home, and can engage in polygamy.

The article highlights amazing things that can be done by women - and men - determined to resist these signs of pervasive misogyny. Chief among them is the rise in the ratio of women to men in university: "Today, more than 60 percent of university students are women, compared with just over 30 percent in 1982, even though classes are no longer segregated."

If an officially theocratic state, whose official religion is most definitely patriarchal, can achieve this ratio in higher education, certainly we in the United States can achieve comparable gains in not only in higher education but elsewhere, including especially in the use of smart power to encourage the promotion of human rights around the world.

I recommend not only the full New York Times article, but encourage all to visit the One Million Signatures website, which is font of information about sex discrimination and misogny in Iran; efforts to end this, and host of the One Million signatures petition supporting these changes.

Comments

[Mirlo]

The efforts and the risk taking of these Iranian woman is simply admirable.