A natural process in modernization

Iranian Women Outnumber Men at University

Growing number of Iranian women are opting for higher education to become financially independent.

By Hiedeh Farmani - TEHRAN

From a small town in western Iran, Saeedeh Mahjoubi has come a long way to study chemical engineering at the country's prestigious Tehran University with her religious family's blessing.

More than half the seats in her freshman class are taken by women, who have accounted for 60 percent of university entrants over the past four years.

"Deep down in their hearts my parents would have liked me to stay home and get married, but I was a top student and they sent me away to make something of myself," said Mahjoubi, who hopes to work in the petrochemical industry after graduation.

Dressed in the enveloping traditional black chador, this bubbly 19-year-old jokes with a male classmate, challenging him over an upcoming calculus exam.

"Women face many limitations in Iran, but education is seen as an acceptable outlet for self-fulfillment and social participation," said Hamidreza Jalaipour, prominent reformist journalist and professor of sociology.

He believes the Islamic revolution of 1979, which made it obligatory for women to wear the headscarf, has encouraged religious families to send their daughters to college which was "Islamized and no longer regarded as an unsafe, corrupted place".

From 150,000 in 1979, the number of university students has risen to some three million in state-funded schools and the semi-private Islamic Azad University, founded in early 1980s to contain the ever-increasing hopefuls by setting up branches all over Iran.

For postgraduate anthropology student Mariam Ansari, studying has been a means for getting out of the house and meeting men as "young people are not allowed to mingle freely elsewhere".

She added: "College has boosted my confidence and taught me how to deal with men."

Under Iranian law, a husband can prevent his wife from working outside the home, but the prospect does not faze 23-year-old Ansari.

"I have learned to think for myself and I will not marry a man with such a mindset in the first place," she said.

According to Jalaipour, economic hardships are also responsible for women flocking to college.

"Few families can live on one income so women have to work and get educated to find better-paying jobs," Jalaipour said.

On the other hand, some analysts say a poorly performing economy and high unemployment rate -- officially at 15 percent -- have dampened young men's enthusiasm for college.

"In our patriarchal society the man is expected to be the bread winner and in the past years education has become less relevant to financial success," said single-mother Simin Ronaghi, 43, a university lecturer and PhD student of psychology.

The decreasing number of men in universities has prompted some conservative MPs to debate whether affirmative action needs to be taken for "adjusting" the male/female ratio, especially in medicine and engineering.

The argument, lambasted by reformists and women's rights activists, has never been introduced as a draft bill.

Ronaghi deems the growing number of women seeking higher education a natural process in modernization, saying "women are now less willing to sacrifice careers to stay home and care for children".

Despite their qualifications, women only form 15 percent of the work force and "still lots of them face discrimination by prejudiced employers over payment and promotion", Jalaipour said.

"Yet they stick with their jobs to be independent. A woman who brings food on the table is less likely to be bullied by a man."

For years Iranian women's rights activists have been challenging "unfair" laws, demanding equal rights in divorce and child custody as well as inheritance and blood money, which are half the amount of a man's under the Islamic republic's Sharia law.

Women are banned from being judges in Iran and two women's testimony is equal to one male witness in the court.

Despite attempts by MPs in the former reformist parliament, Iran has not joined the UN convention on eliminating discrimination against women - finding it contradictory to Islam.

And since the hardline government of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad took office in August 2005, voices have been raised urging women to put their traditional roles of a wife and mother first.

Jalaipour believes education has made women aware of their rights and emboldened them to question their status and press for equal rights.

"And they are not alone; men are becoming more democratic too and support better conditions for women."

"Women's traditional roles are changing. They will eventually impose changes on the system," he said.

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