Iranian Women’s crucial role in nation building

Classic example of how western media deceived the world:

Latheef FAROOK

The general image built up by the relentless pro Jewish Western media since the 1979 Islamic Revolution has been that women in Iran were an oppressed lot without any freedom that the women in the West were supposed to have been blessed with.

I too was partly a victim of this powerful Western propaganda that is part of the western war machine. However, I was shocked to realize during my recent visit to Tehran that women were working, shoulder to shoulder with men, in the task of building this country in every possible conceivable field.

Women play a crucial role in the day-to-day running of the country.

This oil rich country, proud of its long history traced back to 3000 BC, was devastated by the eight year war triggered off when assassinated Iraqi President Saddam Hussein, put forward by the United States, Europe, Israel and some Arab countries despatched his troops to invade Iran in 1980 in the hope he could snatch Iran’s oil rich Arabistan within weeks.

This war was regarded as the richest in history as the western weapons industry flourished while almost a million Iraqis and Iranian soldiers perished, caused billions of dollars worth of destruction and devastation besides unbearable misery to the people of the two countries.

Once the war ended in 1988 Iran, isolated by most countries in the world, started concentrating on rebuilding the nation, while keeping a close watch on forces all out to destroy the Islamic Revolution.

These efforts turned this country today into an almost developed one and Tehran, a city of 17 million people, with a daily floating population of three million, into one of the most developed and cleanest cities in the world.

Contrary to the Western propaganda, that women were an oppressed lot under the Islamic Revolution great importance was attached, since the early days of the revolution, to provide a balanced education to men and women alike aimed at equipping them with various skills needed to ensure that women also contribute as equal partners in nation building task.

Simultaneously, they also concentrated in providing a sound religious knowledge that ensures smooth day-to-day life linking family ties.

As a result of this policy almost thirty years later today women play a crucial role in the day-to-day running of the country. In fact, around 67 percent of the graduates passed from numerous universities all over the country last year were women.

They work as receptionists, clerks, salespersons, businesswomen, doctors, nurses, architects, engineers, researchers, professors, lecturers, scientists and parliamentarians to almost every other field.

They freely walk and drive around, neither without any let or hindrance nor without any harassment as the people turned Tehran into a crime free city. In fact, their lifestyle has been such that they were equally responsible for maintaining law and order together with the authorities.

Girls from colleges and universities are now being engaged in painting producing colourful artworks on special clothes on walls along several streets in Tehran. Women were seen selling flowers around traffic lights almost during mid night in this brightly lit city of more than 2000 well maintained parks where families spend their leisure.

In short, there is nothing that the Iranian women were deprived of that the women in the west enjoy except immoral sex scenes seen in the west.

As moral principles is a priority in paving the way for stable family and building up an energetic society without any exception, women adhere to a modest dress code in keeping with Islamic principle s which they are proud of, though some even in our country regard this as unfit for schools.

They are treated with respect and dignity everywhere. Of course, they were not provided with unlimited freedom that would cross the accepted moral barriers.

As bartering of sex in red light areas, as it has been done in many Western capitals in the name of freedom, is unimaginable.

In the aftermath of the war when they started the gigantic task of rebuilding their country, numerous obstacles were placed in their drive to engineer the collapse of the revolution.

Forefront in this campaign were the United States, United Kingdom, Europe and the Jewish lobbies all over backed by some countries in the Middle East. They used the United Nations to impose crippling economic sanctions throttling Iran’s rebuilding efforts.

It was very difficult time for the people who suffered under the war. There was no one to turn to. Yet they didn’t sit back and cry. Instead, they exploited this difficult time to produce all what they needed within their country. Hundreds of thousands of factories started springing up all over the country.

The government gave every possible incentive, assistance and guidance. These new factories started producing almost every possible conceivable item. The result was once starved local markets were flooded with locally produced items paving the way for an economic boom throwing out employment opportunities for millions.

Encouraged by the success of small scale industries, medium and large-scale industries came into being paving the way for major industrial complexes producing items which they had never imagined before the United Nation’ economic sanctions were imposed.

Some of the key industries in the country include petroleum, gas, petrochemical ,steel, weaving, food processing, car manufacturing, electrical and electronics to handicrafts, household and traditional industries such as carpet weaving, coarse carpets and ceramic industries.

Over the years, Iran has emerged as the largest car manufacturer in the entire Middle East and established joint ventures with foreign partners in four continents. So much so today about 75 percent of the around two million cars used in Tehran were locally made.

Today there are around 17 thousand industrial workshops and, of this, around 97 percent belong to private sector while the remaining account for public sector ownership.

Equal importance was attached to develop the agricultural and livestock sectors catering to local demands.

Hand in hand health and education sectors too were developed. In the health sector alone, there are hundreds of thousands of doctors, both general physicians and specialists, working under the supervision of the health ministry in around 6500 well-equipped health care centres in the cities and nearly 3000 in rural areas.

Owing to the systematic drive to educate and equip the people for nation building task, 65 million of the little more than 70 million populations, are literate. This includes male more than 92 percent and female nearly 81 percent.

Today the country is provided with some of the best road networks that also included subways and overhead bridges built entirely under the supervision of local engineers.

Iranians are proud of their achievements and keen to continue their progress march despite threats from United State, European, Israel and their collaborators in the Middle East.

`We have lost enough lives, shed enough of blood and sweated for years to reach where we are today. We know the taste of the fruits of our sacrifice and hard work and we will go to any length to protect and preserve these achievements.

Our society is a liquor free, crime free, immoral activities free one with healthy and peaceful family environment. This is the envy of the West that is all out to destroy us.

The country is blessed with dedicated and committed religious and political leaderships guiding the nation with dignity while following a fiercely independent policy in the regional and international scenes, said many people from different walks of life in Tehran.