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To Divorced woman in Tehran,

Please do not equate my call for equal rights to social disorder. Iranian women must never settle for anything less than what they deserve.

You claim to look for your solutions inside Iran, but are reading this forum which is an international platform! nevertheless, embedding yourself in a close box does not help fulfilling your aspirations. Also, do not sideline the Iranians in diaspora as many of them are driven outside by obligation. I wish you the best.

Dr. Amir Matin (again!)

Yes, the author points out the fact that Iranian women are active in all walks of life and, as posters above have indicated, there is a gradual improvement towards a relaxed atmosphere.

Take Sameera Makhmalbaf, for example. An award winning film maker and famous around the world. Yes, she wears the veil in Iran, but that has not stopped her from being an excellent film maker. There are many other examples like her.

To Dr. Amir Matin

As to your first post, it is called tradition! For the same reason that people in different places of the world behave differently. It is not a matter of universal McDonaldisation of the world....

As for your second post about crimes and government officials, etc. since when government officials, anywhere, are 100% Mr. or Mrs. Snow White, perfect and clean?
Exceptional, notable matters (or problems, crimes, etc.) happen, every day and all the time and everywhere. We are not in Utopia (McDonaldized or not!).

In societies where education levels are lower, more mistakes or crimes or notable/exceptional acts take place. However, it is noteworthy that the levels of violent crime in Iran are much lower than, say, USA...also prison population is much lower (as % of population) and at least 2/3 of all Iranians in jail, male or female, are drug-related.

So, it is not a very objective way to enlarge one single incident, even though every life is precious. Dialogue and evolution is MUCH MUCH better than emotionally-charged ways of communicating or inciting civil disorder.

Persian Redneck,

There is a huge difference between rape crimes and rape perpetrated by government official against prisoners of conscience in custody. Even one victim is too many, and through amnesty international reports there are more than many. We all know, it takes a lot of courage for an Iranian woman to admit she was raped. Indeed, Iran has brave women such as Roya Toloui to match the kinds of Masha Lipman and Samina Ahmed.

I hold great esteem for Iranian women, but I am perplexed by the fact that they are submitting to the severe anti-feminine laws in Iran. Do the majority of Iranian women enjoy wearing veil in public places? I truly believe Iran progress is closely tied to women liberty. A country cannot be free or progressive if it systematically oppresses half of its population.

To the nameless poster:

There are no female Saudi journalists, as Saudi women do not have the legal right to work. The females that work in Saudi Arabia are foreigners, mostly Palestinians, but also Egyptians, Syrians, Jordanians, etc.

Secondly, you emphasize on the fate of a single person that died under arrest (justly or unjustly). However, the entire prison population in Iran, including male prisoners, is 0.25% of the population or about 180'000 (and this is inspected by UN). As for your second "victim", you have actually said that she has jumped bail and run away. This means the government has followed the law and has confiscated the property put up for bail.

Is any system perfect? No. Are women raped all over the world at frequent numbers? Yes. Is it a crime? Yes. Is jumping bail a crime in any country? Yes.

So, set aside your sensationalist approach. This blog is about what is happening to approximately half of any population, as the question on the front section is posed to the panel. And, keep your unrelated comments to yourself! If you don't like it, don't bother!

There was a post about the Iranian female jourmalist who was raped in Iran this year and fled to USA after putting more than 200,000 $ bail. The Iran government confesticated all her properties.

Ironically postglobal of Washington Post censored the news on this very forum instead of publicising her ordeal.
Why? Why the anti-Israeli posts are not censored on postglobal but facts about Iran's crimes are systematically censored here? What is the bias of postglobal?

Things are getting better for whom? Why in one month 2 UN resolutions on Iran human rights were passed in UN? Zahra Kazemi the Iranian Canadian was raped in Iran's prison in 2003 and her skull cracked.

Even Saudi Arabia is not that stupid to rape female journalists in prison. Those one Million signatures of the Iranian women this month for freedom and regime's preventing them to meet speaks against all Iranian regime propoganda on this forum.

Last decade it was the Europeans going to bed with Mullas and this decade it is the Democarats in the US.

We should not have great expectations....all thru history, there has not been a single female prophet, or leader of the church or priest or cardinal in The Vatican or Rabbi or Muslim prayer leader and female ministers in very reformed Protestant churches is a 10-20 year old matter. History has reported Queens (Queen of Sheeba, Queen Mary, Cleopatra, .....) as notable exceptions.

A long way to go, everywhere!

What is important is to change the mind of the general population. Our country is very traditionalist and it is slowly, very slowly, opening its mind. But it will take a long time. I think it is the same way in other countries in the Islamic world. It is not important to have just a female prime minister or president, but the same old system and the old minds.

But it is better than my mother's generation.

This forum is full of censurship. I notice the anti Iranian regime posts are being removed by postglobal. Is Islamic republic in charge?

Yes things could be better, and yes things are better than 10 years ago. A lot more relaxed.

To Dr. Amir Matin

I am a twice-divorced Iranian woman, once in USA (married to an American there) and once in Iran, married to an Iranian in Iran. As a professional (doctor) who has returned to Iran, I can tell you that it is not all that different to go thru divorce proceedings in either country.

Neither Iran nor any other country is perfect or heaven. Iran is a developing country and I can observe that things are getting better, slowly, gradually. Laws are being reviewed and relaxed even if it is slow. Overall, it is a better place than it was 30 or 20 years ago.

So, please set aside your "rise up" calls to create a mess or disorder. Look at Iraq and then reassess your "revolutionary" cream puff for the fact that we Iranians will find solutions to our own problems in Iran, not from chants of sidelined Iranians abroad. Less than 4-5% of Iranians are abroad and the majority, at home, must make decisions for themselves. So, thank you but no thank you. We don't need to rise up and revolt.

There is no denial that Iranian women command great potentials. But the bare true fact is that they are treated as second class and inferior citizen. The inheritance law, right to divorce and right to travel to foreign countries and the last but not the least the degrading female dress code are amongst few examples. the re is no female in "Majlese Khobregan" and all other watchdog organizations and their scarce presence in parliament and cabinet is rather symbolic. The key to liberating Iran is in women hands and could very well start when they rise up to secure their natural rights.

Proud to let the Iranians women know that like them Pakistani women too have made great stride in education.
In Karachi University more than 50% students are girls and in Dow Medical University an amazing 65% medical students are women.
Also our current FED CHAIRMAN (equivalent to America's Alan Greenspan or Barnaki)is a women: Dr Shamshad.

Things are a lot more relaxed in Iran these days compared with 10 years ago, based on my personal experience.

It is important to look at the long-term process. Most European countries allowed women to vote in 1960s.....I Switzerland, it was in 1970s and in Canton Appenzell, women are still not allowed to vote for local elections. For a country like Iran, that has run into blocks every time it wanted to liberalise and democratise over the last 100 years, these are major leaps forward.
We should also remember that progress and improvement is not a straight line up....there is a price to be paid for everything. Growing pains, abrasions, debate, opposition, .....

To poster Charbel vic, Australia

You have posed a very interesting question: if the world allowed Iran to have a democracy, then......this is like saying if my grandfather was female, I would be calling her grandmother!

But it is also fair to say that the world does not want Iranian to have their own kind of democracy and help them improve it. Rather, the world wants an "obidient, half a loaf" of democracy. Ditto for Iraq and Lebanon these days....otherwise, there will not be sanctions, strict limits and the "terrorist" label all the time.

Iranians revolted in favour of democracy and the world didn't like it!

I agree with Persian Girl posting.
It is getting better, slowly and gradually. Stories of "religious police" and all things like that are more than 10 years old. I am a female living in Iran and I can tell it is slowly relaxing the rigid rules. Just like anywhere else in the world, it can always get better.

To be objective, every one thought that Ahmadinejad will bring back the tough rules of the past, but it didn't happen. Why? Because the entire society is stepping forward. The other posted comments are too emotional, focused on very narrow issues. The total number of people that are arrested, legally and justified or not, is a very small. Iran is not like North Korea or like Saudi Arabia and/or a very strict place to live.

I am not convinced that Iranian women are better off than their counterparts in the rest of the middleeast. In Iran you still get religious police ensuring religious scarves are worn at all times, It is still illegal for women to attend sporting events and the legal systems are run by religious clerics, hence women have absolutely 0 chance of ever leading the country.
I believe that had Iran adopted a democratic regime rather than a religious one 30 years ago, Today, Iran would be one of the powerhouse economies in the WORLD!!!

I frequently visit the region on business and Iran is much further ahead than most of its Arab neighbors. Iranian women are present at all levels of professional and ordinary work positions, drive cars and all other social functions.
The dress code is a bit difficult for them, especially during hot summer days, but they have used their typical Persian Solutions to every problem.

It is a country that is developing along nicely and it must helped, not stopped. There are a lot more open minds and smart people in Iran than elsewhere in the Middle East, including Turkey (where appearances are very much misleading!).

it is getting better, we just need to work on relaxing the dress code.....

It is a refreshing change to see that Iran is resetting its targets to the future. The past has certainly been with mistakes, but what is important is to improve and relax the atmosphere.

As the author states, it is about education.

Yes, indeed. It is a matter of gradual change. The younger generation in Iran are leagues ahead of their parents as they are working towards equality.
They also have to deal with special dress code in Iran, but it seems that it is more relaxed these days than, say, 15 years ago.