TEHRAN – The Indian Ocean Rim Association (IORA) should become familiar with the remarkable achievements of Iranian women, Ensieh Khazali, the vice president for women and family affairs, has said.

IORA members should participate in face-to-face meetings and closely witness the successes of Iranian women in various fields such as engineering, medicine, health, and business, Khazali said in a meeting in Tehran with the IORA Secretary General Salman Al Farisi on Thursday.

During the meeting, Khadijeh Karimi, director for international affairs of the Vice Presidency said Iran's experience in empowering women, despite the coercive and unilateral sanctions, proved that in order for women to achieve optimal empowerment in various fields, they must master the latest scientific, technological, and skillful achievements. 

IORA secretary general appreciated Iran for setting up the working group for the economic empowerment of women.In this regard and with the aim of utilizing the capacities of various institutions, research institutes, entrepreneurship centers, and some national authorities of IORA in Iran, the National IORA Committee was formed under the chairmanship of the vice president for women and family affairs and prepared a program and submitted to the IORA Secretariat, she explained.

She emphasized the need to strengthen the performance of the Union, the challenges and opportunities ahead, the necessity of active participation of all member countries, and adopting a pragmatic approach.

Al Farisi, for his part, appreciated Iran's activities in cooperation with IORA, especially the working group for the economic empowerment of women.

Iran has been active and well-planned and has held three effective webinars, and we hope that this active presence will continue, he highlighted.

Iranian women achievements

The Vice Presidency for Women's Affairs released a report on the achievements of women after the 1979 Islamic Revolution in 7 areas of “education”, “health”, “employment and entrepreneurship”, “media”, “sports”, “decision-making”, and “environment, climate, and crises”.

In the field of education, the share of women in university faculty members has increased by 33.3 percent, and in medical sciences universities by 34 percent. Also, the number of female students in the country's universities has increased by 56 percent, according to the report.

Also, illiteracy among women and girls has been nearly eradicated as the literacy rate reached 99.3 percent and the ratio of female to male students has increased by 28 percent.

The report also says that after the Islamic Revolution until the past Iranian calendar year (March 2021-March 2022), more than 9,500 female authors and 840 female publishers were active in the country.

In the field of employment and entrepreneurship, 4,200 rural women's credit funds have been operating. Also, 2,390 women work as members of the board of directors of knowledge-based companies.

According to this report, there are 16,111 sports clubs for women in the country, and 3,302 medals have been won by female athletes in recent world events.

Moreover, 70 women have been presidents of sports committees at the provincial level, and 51 women have been presidents and heads of sports federations. Also, 88,366 women referees have participated in national and international competitions, and Iranian women have worked in 97 international seats in world sports federations.

In the field of media, the participation rate of women in the field of information technology has reached 5.31 percent, 903 women filmmakers have worked in the field of cinema and 2000 women specialists have worked behind the scenes.

Also, 114 national awards and 128 international awards have been won by female filmmakers in prominent festivals.

FB/MG