TEHRAN - On December 22, 2015, the United Nations General Assembly decided to establish an annual International Day to recognize the critical role women and girls play in science and technology.

Gender equality has always been a core issue for the United Nations. Gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls will make a crucial contribution not only to the economic development of the world but to progress across all the goals and targets of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, as well.

Even though women have made tremendous progress toward increasing their participation in higher education, they are still under-represented in these fields.

The International Day of Women and Girls in Science celebrated on February 11, is implemented by UNESCO and UN-Women, in collaboration with institutions and civil society partners that aim to promote women and girls in science.

This Day is an opportunity to promote full and equal access to and participation in science for women and girls. Gender equality is a global priority for UNESCO, and the support of young girls, their education, and their full ability to make their ideas heard are levers for development and peace.

This year, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science focused on the role of Women and Girls and Science as relates to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

On March 14, 2011, the Commission on the Status of Women adopted a report at its fifty-fifth session, with agreed conclusions on access and participation of women and girls in education, training and science and technology, and for the promotion of women’s equal access to full employment and decent work.

On December 20, 2013, the General Assembly adopted a resolution on science, technology, and innovation for development, in which it recognized that full and equal access to and participation in science, technology, and innovation for women and girls of all ages is imperative for achieving gender equality and the empowerment of women and girls.

In 2020, the United Nations Women, a UN entity for gender equality and women's empowerment, honored seven women scientists, including Iran’s Maryam Mirzakhani, who have made significant contributions to the field of science, highlighting their world-altering and trailblazing careers.

“They’ve discovered life-saving remedies, devised world-altering inventions, and produced far-reaching research, but in many cases, their invaluable advances are minimized or neglected,” the Un Women website wrote on the International Day of Women and Girls in Science, February 11.

Maryam Mirzakhani, an Iranian-born genius mathematician and Stanford University professor, obtained her BSc in mathematics (1999) from Sharif University of Technology, Tehran.

Later, she earned her Ph.D. from Harvard University and was a leading scholar on the dynamics and geometry of complex surfaces. In 2014, she became the first female winner of the Fields Medal, the most prestigious award in mathematics.