MASHHAD, Khorasan Province -- MP from Tehran Mrs. Jamileh Kadivar said that the community and officials should not look at women as "the second class citizens".

Kadivar told a group of local stateswomen on Monday that women are sometimes treated from the traditional outlook as "the second class citizens" regardless of the fact that Iranian women have made great strides in learning science and technology in the past 20 years after establishment of the Islamic Republic.

She said that over the past years, Iranian women have got much progress in the scientific, social and cultural domains, leading to growth in their expectations from the community, IRNA reported.

She regretted that some officials have the approach toward women that belongs to the past. She said the officials' approach toward women remained as "the old-time one" which has yet to change.

The lawmaker said the kind of approach toward women is not restricted to a special wing or faction, rather it is common to both reformists and conservatives. She said that or else, there would have been qualitative and serious change in condition of women.

The official said that despite measures and efforts taken over the past years to remove discrimination against women, the female in Iranian society still lags behind in terms of the development indices compared to the opposite sex.

She pointed to education, health, economic welfare, employment and the managerial posts in different fields, especially in political area, as the indices.

She said women's condition in the fields is worse than men.

the parliamentarian called for finding solutions to the problems facing women. "With 24 years since triumph of the 1979 Islamic Revolution, no definite strategy has been complied in the case of women and despite the slogans, raised by officials in defense of the women's rights, what comes in practice is in contradiction with the slogans," added the official.

Concluding her remarks, Kadivar called for reforms and changes in status of women.