Jamaica Gleaner
Published: Monday | June 29, 2009
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Women in Iran
As the protest over the June 12 general elections in Iran continue, many analysts, diplomats and expatriates wonder how it will end. The Ayatollah has repeatedly called for an end to the protests and that the results will hold.

The catalyst of change has been Iran's young population (about 60 per cent are under 30), that have no memory of the 1970s revolution. A major player in this young population is Iranian women.

An article on CNN.com on June 19, highlighted the changes that Iranian women and the country have been going through.

Second-class citizens

Under Iranian law, women are regarded as second-class citizens. In cases of divorce, child custody, inheritance and crime, women do not have the same legal rights as men. However, women have been at the front and centre of the recent demonstrations. Sixty three per cent of all Iranian college students are women.

According to the article, for the first time, women were allowed to register for the presidential race, though none were deemed fit to run by the religious body that vets candidates.

Women's issues surfaced in the campaign. Iranian women pressured candidates to agree to ratify the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW). Two of the opposition candidates vowed to look at sections of the Iranian constitution that defer women's rights. One the candidates; Moussavi, promised to appoint women as cabinet ministers for the first time. Iran's 34 million women want civil laws and family laws revised.

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