Cartoon 75: Women’s Education

Iran is currently reviewing education and family planning policies to try to reverse the declining birthrate in the country. Alireza Aliahmadi, head of the “Commission to Develop an Islamic-Iranian Lifestyle Model” within the Secretariat Office of the Supreme Cultural Revolution Council and former Minister of Education during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s first presidency, said recently: “From my point of view, considering the earlier puberty age for girls as compared to boys, and considering the conceptual and analytical powers our girls develop earlier as compared to boys, the 12-year general education that is common in our educational system could be presented to girls within 10 years. Therefore, if we define high school or general education for our girls in fewer years, we will also create an age difference between girls and boys which would make their preparedness for building a family more suitable. This way, before entering the employment cycle, our girls can form a family and their main job becomes family, children, and doing things they will have to be accountable for on Judgment Day. It is permissible for a woman to have a job, but we don’t consider this a top priority in our lives for women. Women must be able to form warm family units and to raise children whose good deeds will leave good marks for their parents and which will please God. We don’t know how to prepare for this properly, therefore what we have is a delayed marriage age, and when our girls and boys marry at an older age, they each have a complete program for their 24-hour days and they have no room for mutual family activities. This is the root of some of the problems our current lifestyle faces.”