Persia

Not that I'm paranoid nor nuffink, but I swear that A-mad-bad-jihad man, Pres. of Iran was in Tim Horton's and staring straight at me this morning. Of course, it could have been auto-suggestion since I have had Iran on my mind again recently.

Once again, my hair has reached that just past its sell-by date stage, where it's driving me crazy and so I need to get it cut. However, getting an appointment that is convenient to me is easier said than done. My hairdresser however is from Iran, although she always says, 'Persia'. I really don't know where Shakespeare was coming from with that whole,
'Rose by any other name...' line. Persia really does make you think of a more ancient and interesting civilisation. If you called a rose 'skunk weed' I'm pretty sure it wouldn't smell as sweet.

Anyway, Iran. So, in 'The Week' there is a pretty well written and comprehensive article on where it's at for women there. I'll give a little precis, which I remember as one of those skills they taught at school that seemed impossibly difficult at the time, but which was an invaluable lesson learnt.

At present, more than 50% of graduates are women and there are more female engineers than in the UK and more women MPs than in Germany. Women can drive, smoke, sit in mixed groups to eat and converse as equals, smoke and stand for public office. But, they have to wear headscarves in public.
Extramarital sex is tolerated because the Islamic authorities allow 'temporary marriages'.

The reason Iran is different from the rest of the Middle East is because of the religion of Zoroastrianism which preceded Islam and is a part of Persian heritage that they are fiercely proud of. One example of Zoroastrianism is that women and men fought together as warriors.

The Shahs took a liberal view of the role of women, Reza Shah (1926) for example forbade women from wearing the hijab in public. [Lucky him, British and French politicians who try to do that nowadays don't get such an easy ride.]
He gave women the right to divorce and raised the minimum age of marriage for girls from 9 to 15. Girls received the same education as boys.
Under the last Shah of Iran, women were accorded the right to vote and stand for public office. Divorce hearings were moved from religious to family courts. Polygamy was restricted and were allowed guardianship of their own children if widowed. He raised the marriage age to 18.

Then came the Islamic Revolution of 1979 and things started going backwards. The Family Protection Law was reversed, women were barred from becoming judges and from doing many other jobs.
The marriage age was set back to nine.
Segregation was introduced in the workplace, on public transport and in education. Custody of children after divorce was stopped for women. Women were monitored for lewd behaviour such as wearing lipstick and eating fruit seductively [can cause men to lose all control] and stoning to death for adultery became de rigueur, but only of course for women.

In 1997, reformist president Khatami improved matters a little, but in 1980, when Saddam Hussein attacked Iran, [the beginning of the Iran-Iraq war which would last until 1988] the response was to ban contraception and women went forth and multiplied. [How they did that on their own is a mystery].

As an unintended consequence, two-thirds of Iran's population of 70 million are now under 30 and want and expect to be part of the western world. They are very active on the internet [as you may remember from a previous post, so is Ahmadinejad who has his own blog], they listen to western rock music, watch western DVDs and host racy blogs replete with dirty jokes and acerbic wit.
In response, the mullahs have made contraception available again.

So...you can see why I need a haircut.