Male high school students in Iran in 2001. All Iranian schools are segregated by sex.
Sex segregation in Iran encompasses practices derived from the conservative dogma of Shiite Islam currently taking place in Iran. Most areas of the country are segregated by sex. In many cities, there are women-only parks. Sex segregation prohibits males from viewing females, and age of consent laws do not exist, as all sexual activity outside marriage is illegal. UN experts have denounced Iran for enforcing a gender apartheid.[1]
After the Islamic Revolution in 1979, there began a sex-based segregation of public places. All schools are segregated by sex for students and teachers. Beaches and pools are segregated by sex as required under national Iranian law. Pre-marital relationships between boys and girls are strictly banned. However, certain parts of Iranian society, primarily in wealthy urban neighborhoods, have accepted relationships between unmarried individuals despite it being illegal.[2]
The Tehran metro has wagons specifically designated for females only. In recent years males have often attempted to break the law, and in present times there have been cases of men entering the female-only wagons. There are many women-only parks all over the country and all beauty salons prohibit the entry of men and boys. Due to extreme sex segregation in the past, Iranian mothers typically chose a wife for their son, and largely continue to do so.
Qajar era
During Qajar dynasty (1789–1925), sex segregation was severe all over Iran. Men and women were not allowed to walk with each other in streets. There were always wardens on Laleh-Zar Street to separate men and women. The officers monitored sidewalks to make sure that men or women don't exit their designated areas.
According to biographies, during Naser al-Din Shah Qajar era, adolescent boys and girls were not allowed to meet each other and all marriages were formed through interference of their parents.
Reza Shah era
The first university in Iran without sex segregated classes in 1960s.
Reza Shah attempted to challenge the patriarchal structure of Iran by increasing visibility and mobility of women and to emancipate them from what he viewed as oppressive traditional practices.[3] This included a repudiation of sex-segregation with an order made in 1936 that Tehran University enrol its first woman.[4][5] Shah attempted to unveil the women of Iran. In 1929, he issued a law forcing Iranians to wear modern clothing and banning women from wearing the veil. A significant number of women from the middle class considered the abolishment of veils as freedom from oppression. However, for others, the veil was not considered oppressive but protection from the eyes of strangers.[6]
When Ruhollah Khomeini called for women to attend public demonstration and ignore the night curfew, millions of women who would otherwise not have dreamt of leaving their homes without their husbands' and fathers' permission or presence, took to the streets. Khomeini's call to rise up against Mohammad Reza Shah took away any doubt in the minds of many devoted Muslim women about the propriety of taking to the streets during the day or at night. After the Iranian revolution, however, Khomeini publicly announced his disapproval of mixing between the sexes.[7]
As the religious leaders have influence and power in this country, they will not permit girls to study in the same school with boys. They will not permit women to teach at boys' schools. They will not permit men to teach at girls' schools. They will not allow corruption in this country.[8]
Sex segregation of public places such as beaches or swimming pools was ordered and legally introduced.
After the Iranian revolution, many guardian groups were in charge for controlling social subjects which were important to the new government like women's clothing and sex segregation of youth. Some of these groups were Islamic Revolution Committees (1979-1991) and Iranian Gendarmerie Jondolla which were converted to newer forms like Guidance Patrol (2005-now) after several years.[9]
Adult males are not permitted to be in contact with females except under the presence of parents. They must intend to marry and until marriage are under parent control.[10]
Bakeries
A bakery with two windows to separate male and female customers, Iran, 2021s. In this bakery the right side queue for men and left side queue for women. In Iran; Apart from bakeries, mosques, schools, libraries, music concerts, public transport and many other places are sex segregated.
In bakeries across Iran, men and women must stand in separate lines when buying bread. This is for prevention of touching or looking at Non-mahrams. According to Islamic rules (basis of the constitution) in Iran, looking Non-mahram females is haram (religiously forbidden) whether they are real or on TV (just live). Looking a Non-Mahram is likened to a poisonous bullet shot from Satan in Islamic Sharia.[11]
Urban buses
Buses are divided in two parts. Men are required to get on and off through the front door, while the back section and back doors are intended for women. Although bus services in Iran are sex-segregated, women are required to remain fully covered while inside the bus. In other cities such as in Mashhad, males and females were prevented from traveling on the same bus. Traditionally it is not acceptable in Iran for a man to sit or stand beside a non-mahram woman in public places.
In 2021, Tehran municipality announced that it has introduced female-only buses and minibuses inside the city. All the drivers are female and all the passengers should be female, no man is allowed to get on the bus.[12]
There are special wagons specific to females and, according to Metro laws, entrance of men in these wagons is illegal. Also according to Islamic penal codes, if a woman has an objection against a man, this is considered as female violence and has legal punishment.[13]
Beaches
In 1979, officials calling the current situation of beaches as "idolatry" started to segregate beaches by sex. By the Caspian coasts, beaches were divided by sex. In the port of Bandare Anzali protesters continued to object for 3 months, but the governor Abolghasem Hosseinjani neglected them and divided the beach by 200 m segments named for men, for women and not suitable for swimming.[14]
Kindergartens and schools
The education system is single-sex so that boys and girls go to different schools. Governmental rules don't allow the mingling of boys and girls in kindergartens.[15]
Dress code
After the revolution, Parliament made it compulsory for all women to observe the veil and for the first time rules prescribing the Hijab as proper attire for women were written into the law.[16]
According to the law, women's clothing should meet the following conditions:
Women must cover their entire body except their faces and hands (from the wrist to the base of the fingers[clarification needed]).
Women who choose not to wear chador must wear a long overcoat or manteau. The manteau should be thick enough to conceal what is underneath, and should be loose-fitting.
Women should not wear bright colored clothes or clothes that are adorned so that they may attract men's attention.[17] In recent years, many women have begun wearing more colorful dresses in public and this seems to be tolerated by the moral police. Correspondingly, Iranians have been arrested or received warnings over bad hijabi ("improper veiling").[18]
What follows is an excerpt from Ayatollah Khamenei's speech regarding bad-hijabi:
More than Iran's enemies need artillery, guns and so forth, they need to spread their anti-culture that leads to moral corruption. Instead of bombs, they now send miniskirts and short manteaus. If they arouse sexual desires in any given country, if they spread unrestrained mixing of men and women, and if they lead youth to behavior to which they are naturally inclined by instincts, there will no longer be any need for artillery and guns against that nation.[19]
Other public places
After the 1979 Islamic Revolution, all swimming pools are segregated by sex legally. During early years after the revolution, Komiteh morality police used to prevent wedding ceremonies with sex mingling in outdoor gardens.
Supporters of sex segregation generally claim that experience has shown that presence of women and girls in public places and parks has caused much harassment for them while female-only places result in safety of girls and women and protects them from the opposite sex harassment.[20]
Music concerts
Some concerts have been canceled in Iran because of mixed-gender seating during performance.[citation needed]
Amusement parks
In different cities there are amusement parks where men are not allowed to enter. These women-only parks are protected spaces where women can remain out of reach of men.
Sport events
"No entrance for men" sign on a gym in Iran, 2022
Men are not allowed to see women's sport events and vice versa.[21] Hosein Fekri, an official in sports affairs, in early years of Islamic revolution said: "We will create walls in any place women are doing sports in order to prevent men from watching even if it's a tennis yard".
The 2006 movie Offside is about the prohibition of women from the male-played sport of association football.
In 2019, after the death of Sahar Khodayari, Iranian authorities finally allowed select Iranian women to attend a football match in Iran's record 14-0 win against Cambodia for the first time since the Iranian Revolution.[22] However, in March 2022, Iranian women were again banned from attending a World Cup qualifier.[23]
Handshake between opposite sexes during sport events has always resulted in conflicts in Iran.[24] In 2023, an Iranian media objected Hassan Yazdani a famous wrestler for shaking hands with a non-Mahram at the game,[25] the scene which was censored by national TV channels.[26][27][28]
Mosques and religious events
Mosques are sex-segregated and have different doors for each sex. As well as, religious committees for Muharram Mourning are sex-segregated.
Hospitals
Unsuccessful efforts have been made to run sex segregation in hospitals. Some women-only hospitals were constructed but were not successful. Men are prohibited to study in Obstetrics and Gynecology since Masoud Pezeshkian became Minister of Health.
In 2023, the issue was reopened by Gholamabas Torki (in Persian: غلامعباس ترکی) vice attorney-general of the country who said "male physicians don't have to examine female patients."[29]
Banks
Some women-only banks were constructed in different cities with women employees. After a period, men comprised most of the customers at these banks.
Ski reserves
General Hosein Sajedi-nia said police officers will prevent skiers in Tehran ski reserves from immoral behaviours. Police are involved in enhancing sex segregation between male and female skiers.[30]
University campus and dormitories
Even though most universities are not segregated, university students must sit apart from each other by their sexes.[31] All areas in university campuses are segregated by sex; such as restaurants, libraries, study rooms, etc.
All university dormitories are unisex with exception of married students dormitories. Unisex dormitories (for either single or married students) can be male-only or female-only. As an example, Hafez university dormitory is one of the dormitories belonging to male students of University of Tehran while Fatemieh dormitory is one the dormitories belonging to female students of University of Tehran.[33]
Police interference and punishing minglers
Since the revolution it has been considered a duty of civil police to enforce Sharia law throughout Iran. In 2012, Ahmadi-Moghaddam, current chief police, stated that "sex segregation is not our policy but when a man and woman are dancing in a garden the police interferes because the garden proprietor has plighted not to let sex mingling in a public place".[34] In 2022 images of Sardar Talaie, ex-police chief of Tehran in social media were issued showing him exercising in a mixed gym. A turmoil started among Iranian people why the ex-commander of civil police who was responsible for confronting and punishing mingling of sexes is doing sport in a mixed gym in Canada.[35]
In 2002, Mojahed KhaziraviIran national football team player was excluded from national team for years because of attending a mixed party. His arrest initially saw him receive a very harsh punishment of 99 lashes and he was handed a five-year suspension from playing with the national side and a three-year suspension from playing with his club Esteghlal. Needless to say, this was the beginning of the end to a very promising career for the then 22-year-old. Later his suspension was reduced and was not lashed either.
Many cases of police action against sex mingling have been recorded. In 2015, police stopped a bus of tourists heading to the Maranjab Desert. All 32 passengers were arrested for sex mingling.[36]
In 2012, Sharia police arrested 45 boys and girls going mountain climbing in the suburb of Mashhad.[37] In 2016, police arrested 25 boys and girls with the average age of 25-35 who didn't have any familiar relationship and were together in a garden villa in Pardis County (around Tehran). The prosecutor convicted them of premarital sex and ordered to punish them.[38]
Objections
Some consider sex segregation a positive thing. For example, ex-parliament representative Seyyed Mahmood Hoseini Dolatabadi said, "University is a place for education not for finding couple. University is supposed to be a place for catharsis and learning. We have such successful places for this aim like Islamic Hawzas. Furthermore sex-segregated universities are successful."[39]
On the other hand, many authorities and sociologists in Iran are against sex segregation. Saeed Moeedfar, an Iranian sociologist, said in an interview with Fararu press: "Sex segregation policy forms negative reaction in the society. Attitudes of previous policy makers has caused abnormalities in the society and people don't pay attention to moral and ethic norms which obeyed before sex segregation any more."[40]
Ali Jannati, ex-minister of culture, said in 2014: "We don't confirm sex-segregation of live concerts. Governmental cultural group doesn't agree with this idea and won't execute that because we consider it inappropriate for families."[41]
Seyyed Hassan Modarres was an Iranian Twelver Shi'a cleric and a notable supporter of the Iranian Constitutional Revolution. He was among the founding members, along with Abdolhossein Teymourtash, of the reformist party Hezb-e Eslaah-talab, which was formed during the fourth national Majlis of Iran. He has been called "brave and incorruptible" and "perhaps the most fervent mullah supporter of true constitutional government."
Hassan Ebrahim Habibi was an Iranian politician, lawyer, scholar and the first vice president from 1989 until 2001 under Presidents Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani and Mohammad Khatami. He was also a member of the High Council of Cultural Revolution and head of Academy of Persian Language and Literature from 2004 until his death in 2013.
Education in Iran is centralized and divided into K-12 education plus higher education. Elementary and secondary education is supervised by the Ministry of Education and higher education is under the supervision of Ministry of Science, Research and Technology and Ministry of Health and Medical Education for medical sciences. As of 2016, around 86% of the Iranian adult population is literate. This rate increases to 97% among young adults ages between 15 and 24 without any gender consideration. By 2007, Iran had a student-to-workforce population ratio of 10.2%, standing among the countries with the highest ratio in the world.
Throughout history, women in Iran have played numerous roles, and contributed in many ways, to Iranian society. Historically, tradition maintained that women be confined to their homes to manage the household and raise children. During the Pahlavi era, there was a drastic social change towards women's desegregation such as ban of the veil, right to vote, right to education, equal salaries for men and women, and the right to hold public office. Women were active participants in the Islamic Revolution. Iran's constitution, adopted after the Islamic Revolution in 1979, proclaims equality for men and women under Article 20, while mandating legal code adhering to Sharia law. Article 21 of the constitution as well as a few parliament-passed laws give women rights such as being allowed to drive, hold public office, and attend university but not wearing a veil in public can be punished by law; and when in public, all hair and skin except the face and hands must be covered. However, this is often not enforced; notably in recent years, Iranian women have started a number of groups to rebel against the government's oppressive policies and reclaim their independence and rights.
Gender segregation in Islamic law, custom, law and traditions refers to the practices and requirements in Islamic countries and communities for the separation of men and boys from women and girls in social and other settings. In terms of actual practice, the degree of adherence to these rules depends on local laws and cultural norms. In some Muslim-majority countries, men and women who are unrelated may be forbidden to interact closely or participate in the same social spaces. In other Muslim countries, these practices may be partly or completely unobserved. These rules are generally more relaxed in the media and in business settings, and more strictly observed in religious or formal settings.
Sex segregation refers to the physical and spatial separation of humans by sex in public or private places. In public places, women are forced to wear the burqa at all times, because, according to one Taliban spokesman, "the face of a woman is a source of corruption" for men not related to them (Non-Mahram).
Prostitution is illegal in Iran, and incurs various punishments ranging from fines and jail terms to execution for repeat offenders.
Hassan Rouhani is an Iranian Islamist politician who served as the seventh president of Iran from 2013 to 2021. He is also a sharia lawyer ("Wakil"), academic, former diplomat and Islamic cleric. He served as a member of Iran's Assembly of Experts from 1999 to 2024. He was a member of the Expediency Council from 1991 to 2013, and also was a member of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2021. Rouhani was deputy speaker of the fourth and fifth terms of the Parliament of Iran (Majlis) and Secretary of the Supreme National Security Council from 1989 to 2005. In the latter capacity, he was the country's top negotiator with the EU three, UK, France, and Germany, on nuclear technology in Iran, and has also served as a Shia mujtahid, and economic trade negotiator.
Tehran–Qom–Isfahan high-speed rail is the first truly high-speed rail project in Iran. Construction began on 25 February 2015. The rail line would decrease travel times between Tehran and Isfahan, passing through Qom. It connects Isfahan and Qom to Imam Khomeini International Airport.
Sexual segregation in Saudi Arabia is a cultural practice and government policy which keeps Saudi wives, sisters and daughters away from contact with male strangers (Non-mahram) and vice versa. However, since Mohammed bin Salman was appointed Crown Prince in 2017, a series of social reforms have been witnessed that created cultural changes, which included putting an end to the gender segregation enforcement. The Saudi gender segregation originated from an extreme concern for female purity and family honour. Social events used to be largely predicated on the separation of men and women; the mixing of non-related men and women at parties and other social gatherings were extremely rare and limited to some of the modern Western-educated families.
All young men who reach the age of 18 must spend about two years of compulsory military service in the Iranian army or the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps. Often, the General staff of the armed forces of Iran chooses where people will serve, and a person cannot choose where to serve. The length of conscription is between 18 months to 2 years.
The Girls of Enghelab protests are protests against the compulsory hijab in Iran, part of the wider Iranian Democracy Movement. The protests were inspired by Vida Movahed, an Iranian woman known as the Girl of Enghelab Street, who stood in the crowd on a utility box on Enghelab Street in Tehran on 27 December 2017 during the 2017–2018 Iranian protests who tied a white headscarf, to a stick, and waved it to the crowd as a flag. She was arrested on that day and was released temporary on bail a month later, on 28 January 2018. Some people interpreted Movahed's action as being based on Masih Alinejad's call for White Wednesdays, a protest movement that the presenter at VOA Persian Television started in early 2017. Other women later re-enacted her protest and posted photos of their actions on social media. These women are described as the "Girls of Enghelab Street" and the "Girls of Revolution Street" in English sources. Some of the protesters however claim that they were not following Masih Alinejad's call. The protests intensified in 2022 due to the death of Mahsa Amini.
Ali Tehrani, also known as Sheikh Ali Tehrani, was an Iranian Shia Islamic theologian and writer. He served as the representative of Khorasan Province in the Assembly of Experts for Constitution.
Esteghlal Ladies Football Club, formerly known as Taj Ladies Football Club was a female football club based in Tehran, Iran.
In the total 11 terms of the Parliament of the Islamic Republic of Iran, 78 women have won 111 seats in various terms. Some of these women were subsequently disqualified by the Guardian Council, some failed to win the necessary votes to re-enter parliament, some were imprisoned or left Iran, and others are still seeking re-election to the parliament. There are 16 women from 13 constituencies in the current term of the parliament of Iran.
Woman, Life, Freedom is a slogan that originated within the women-led Kurdish movements. This slogan transcended its initial context and garnered global recognition following the 2022 protests in Iran, sparked by the death of Mahsa Amini, who was in custody of Iran’s morality police for “improper” clothing. The phrase rapidly became a universal rallying cry, symbolizing resistance against oppression and the fight for women's rights.
This article deals with people's slogans during the 1979 Iranian revolution
Ammāmeparāni, often referred to as Turban knocking in English, refers to a protest action by Iranians in which they throw the turban off the head of a mullah in order to express their disgust with the Shia clergy and therefore insult it. The action is normally done through the protester running past the subject, knocking the headdress while continuing to run off to avoid capture. During the Mahsa Amini protests in Iran of 2022, people would take videos doing this action, publishing them on social media, resulting in a brief popularization of the protest method.
Shokouh Riazi was an Iranian Modernist painter and educator. She was a pioneer of modern art in Iran and is thought to have been the first Iranian woman to study art in Paris.
Saeideh Shafiei is an Iranian story writer and journalist. She contributes to economic topics in journalism, and her novel 'The Spiral Girl' has been published. Recognized as a laureate of the International Festival of Press and News Agencies, Shafiei was arrested at the same time as the Mahsa Amini protests, which are known as the 'Women, Life, Freedom' movement and occurred following the death of Mahsa Amini.
↑ "برخورد با مسافران مرد در واگن مترو زنان"[Dealing with male passengers in women's subway cars]. خبرگزاری مهر | اخبار ایران و جهان | Mehr News Agency (in Persian). January 13, 2015.
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