Challenge To Iranian Women

Press, Volume CVII, Issue 31450, 17 August 1967, Page 2

Challenge To Iranian Women

When the Shah of Persia granted the women of his country the vote in 1963 he said: “Women of Iran, the future lies in your hands.”

The small minority of educated women had certainly accepted the challenge, particularly in the field of illiteracy, Mrs Doreen Grant told a meeting of the Canterbury branch of the English Speaking Union yesterday.

In three years the literacy rate had been raised from 2 per cent to 60 per cent This high figure was somewhat misleading, however, as people were counted as literate if they could write their own names.

“Nevertheless, this is a tremendous increase and it is largely a result of the work of Iranian women's organisations," she said. The women had said they

could no longer bear the shame of seeing illiterate women sign a cross for their names oh their marriage certificates. “And so the women who could read and write got busy taking classes,” Mrs Grant said. “They opened little training schools, gave girls 30 hours’ instruction, and sent them out to teach what they had learnt” The cost of training one teacher was the equivalent of SNZS.2O. Mrs Grant who was the official New Zealand delegate to the conference of the International Council of Women in Teheran last year, said many of the delegates were shown schools where reading, writing and simple arithmetic were taught to female pupils from four years to 70. “Some of the women took tiny babies to class with them and fed them there because they were so keen to learn,” she said. “What women have done to overcome illiteracy in such a short time in Iran is a tremendous credit to them.” As she was flying home, Mrs Grant said, she began thinking of the social problems in New Zealand—the serious rise in the illegitimacy rate and in venereal disease. “I could not help but feel that the Shah’s message to his own women should go out to the women of New Zealand: that the future lies in your hands," said Mrs Grant. On the lighter side of her visit to Teheran, she told of some hazardous taxi rides between her hotel and the conference hall. The decrepit four-passenger taxis were usually overloaded and would stop along the road to pick up anyone else if there was a spare seat. The passengers were often men who had little idea of hygiene and they did not make pleasant travelling companions. “A Bulgarian woman got into our taxi one day and asked me where I came from. When I said New Zealand she exclaimed: That’s where my boss comes from. You must meet him.’ He was Dr. J. Williams, formerly of Dunedin, who was working in Teheran for the United Nations,” she said.