Iran To Alter Schoolbook Cover After Anger Over Girls' Removal

By Amir Havasi

Iran's education ministry said Tuesday the new cover of a schoolbook which removed girls from an illustration would be modified next year, following widespread criticism on social media.

After the ministry distributed textbooks for the new school year on September 5, parents saw the cover of the third-grade mathematics book had changed.

Two girls had been removed, leaving only three boys under a tree made up of numbers and mathematical signs.

A wave of criticism online prompted a rare apology from the education minister.

"A tasteless act was done in removing the image of girls, therefore we apologize for this and will correct it," Mohsen Haji-Mirzayi said Sunday, state news agency IRNA reported.

On Tuesday, the ministry told AFP the books would be changed.

"The textbooks have already been printed and distributed, so the cover will not change until the next year," its public relations office said, without giving further details.

Both public and private schools in Iran are required to use the ministry's textbooks.

The removal of the girls' images sparked uproar among Iranians on social media, with some denouncing the move as a form of gender discrimination.

Some pointed out that Iranian-born Maryam Mirzakhani was the first woman to win the coveted Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize for mathematics.

A professor at Stanford University in California, Mirzakhani died in 2017 in the US at the age of 40, after a battle with cancer.

"The most prestigious mathematics figure of Iran's recent decade was a woman named Maryam Mirzakhani, and then you remove girls from a mathematics textbook cover?"  one person wrote on Twitter.

"Hey, Mr. IRI (an acronym for the Islamic republic), print this photo and paste it on the cover," another tweeted, attaching a photo of Mirzakhani along with the hashtag #gender_equality.

Some parents also posted pictures of covers on which their children had painted the girls back.

Illustrator Nasim Bahary, who had designed the original cover seven years ago, called the change "unbelievable".

She said Friday on Instagram that at the time she had been told to change elements such as a girl sitting on a tree branch or a boy positioned in a way "that looks like he wants to hug a girl".

Iran's Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, said last week on Twitter that "the people's considerations are correct, girls cannot be ignored."

But she also noted that other changed covers—including a science schoolbook featuring only three girls—showed there was no intent to discriminate.

A statement by the ministerial body in charge of textbooks said the change was because the original illustration was "too crowded with too many mathematical concepts."

But the reformist Shargh daily on Saturday slammed the ministry for its overall textbook material and design.

Citing data by the ministry's previous caretaker Javad Hosseini, it said "70 percent of names and designs in schoolbooks are masculine", adding that women are significantly underrepresented in school learning materials.

Photo: IRNA

#MeToo in Iran: Women Break Their Long Silence

By Ahmad Parhizi

Three years after the #MeToo movement spread globally, Iranian women have broken their silence on sexual violence, raising awareness about a subject that's taboo in Iran.

For the past week, many mostly anonymous internet users in Iran have come forward with allegations of falling unconscious and being raped after having their drinks spiked, all by the same man.

The method used by the alleged rapist has provoked outrage on social media, encouraging others to reveal cases of sexual assault experienced when they were still youths.

They have taken to Twitter to air their allegations, although they have done so without using the #MeToo hashtag.

Other Iranians, including a school teacher, an academic, a novelist, a renowned painter, a prominent singer, an actor and a tech executive are among the others to have faced accusations of rape and sexual assault.

Society Blamed

The majority of the testimonies date back more than a decade.

This has caused some to deplore the lack of support in the face of such sexual violence that has been ignored for many years.

They have pointed the finger at society, the Iranian intelligentsia and even families as accomplices of the perpetrators of violence against women.

"This movement should have started much earlier," said Hana Jalali, a 25-year-old accountant in Tehran.

"I believe talking about these issues, them being publicized, is a great thing," she told AFP.

Somayeh Qodussi, a journalist with the monthly magazine Zanan ("Women" in Farsi), said the issue is highly sensitive in Iran.

"Rape is a taboo subject in Iran's society and it is difficult to talk about it even in one's own family," she said.

But "now we are seeing girls who seem willing to stand in the central square of the city" and make such allegations, she told AFP.

At least 20 women have come forward with accusations of having had their drinks spiked in the case that sparked Iran's #MeToo movement.

The anonymous Twitter users in Iran have adapted the #Rape hashtag to draw attention to their cause.

The police have called on the accusers to file a complaint against the alleged offender, Keyvan Emamverdi, a former bookshop owner who studied archaeology.

They have sought to assure women that they can do so anonymously and without fear of being accused of drinking alcohol or having extramarital affairs, both of which are illegal in Iran.

'Weapon' for Justice

"They expose the suffering they have endured for years by expressing themselves in order to remedy a long-hidden trauma," said Azar Tashakor, a sociologist.

The scope of the controversy was unexpected, and even the government has reacted.

One of Iran's vice presidents on Friday praised women for speaking out and called on the judiciary to "confront" sex offenders.

"In the absence of a legal structure in Iran to systematically prosecute rapes, victims use disclosure as a weapon to obtain justice," Tashakor said.

But she expressed concerns that such disclosures "will not lead to profound social change.”

On social media, internet users have raised many concerns of their own, including over the tendency to blame and mistreat victims.

"It's hard to know if people are telling the truth or not," said Samaneh Rostami, a graphic designer in the Iranian capital.

"But talking about this issue is still a good thing, to be able to focus the public on what's happening, what's been happening for years," she said.

For the journalist Qodussi, it is crucial that the polemical issue has been brought to the public's attention.

"Many people have gained knowledge of the subject" for the first time, she said, adding that that was a "great achievement for Iranian women,”

Photo: IRNA

Victory for Iran’s Women as Breakthrough Citizenship Law Passed

By Yasna Haghdoost

Iran will for the first time grant citizenship to children born to an Iranian mother and foreign father after a long-awaited bill was signed into law by the powerful Guardian Council in a significant victory for women’s rights.

The law was passed by parliament with an overwhelming majority in May, and ratified on Wednesday by the panel of senior clerics and judges, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported, citing council spokesman Abbas Ali Kadkhodaee.

The measure is significant in the Middle East, where many countries don’t allow mothers to pass their nationality onto their children if the father is a foreign national. In Iran, the new law will give tens of thousands of children access to social and health-care services previously denied them on the basis that they were foreigners.

Photo: IRNA

Iran Parliament Upholds Women's Rights in Citizenship Debate

Iran’s parliament struck a blow for women’s rights by overwhelmingly voting to confer citizenship on children born to an Iranian mother and foreign father.

Currently, children of “mixed marriages” are only eligible for citizenship if their Iranian parent is a man. If the decision is approved by the Guardian Council, a powerful body of senior clerics and judges, then the offspring of mixed marriages would be eligible for citizenship, regardless of whether their mother or father is the Iranian national.

The parliamentary vote was reported Sunday by state-run Islamic Republic News Agency.

Such a law would represent a significant development for women’s rights in Iran, with possible implications for the wider region, where many countries don’t give women the right to pass on citizenship to their children if the father is a foreign national.

It would also give tens of thousands of children access to social and health care services.

Iran’s vice president for women’s and family affairs said the current legislation, dating back to 1934, was written at a time “when women were considered chattel.”

“Today, when women have gained dignity, respect and a high level of education and status in the country, on the basis of what logic are we depriving a woman the right to transfer the citizenship that’s in her blood on to her child?” Masoumeh Ebtekar said, according to IRNA.

Photo: IRNA