TEHRAN – Since the emergence of Islam up until today we observe that women’s rights in the contemporary world and in international arenas have gradually become institutionalized. We can also discern a growth in the appreciation of the importance of the roles of women in industry and the workplace, Iranian Women’s News Agency (IWNA) quoted Elham Aminzadeh, a member of the Commission of National Security and Foreign Policy here last week.

However some ancient traditions have prevented women from obtaining their rights even in the contemporary world, she said, stressing that Arab customs are not necessarily in accordance with the rules of Islam, which is a religion that pays particular importance to women’s rights. Speaking at the second round-table of “studying the dimensions of Iran’s development and the improvement of women’s rights in the contemporary world” held at the venue of the Association for Supporting Human Rights, Aminzadeh referred to the fact that Iran’s population has about 35 million and emphasized that women have played an important role in the development of the country. “We have always considered positive and negative discrimination in the case of women as well as other propaganda which has influenced human life”, Molaverdi the chairperson of Human Rights’ Association expressed. Molaverdi emphasized that women should be aware of their absolute rights adding “Women have always been discriminated against because of being women, sometimes they have been oppressed and sometimes they have been given more support than required.” Even in today’s world old cultural infrastructures still cause a type of social blindness toward the realities of life, Kambiz Norouzi, a university professor said. Today the social changes of European countries have initiated progress in women’s movements; a prominent illustration of this movement is the country of Switzerland in which women’s rights have been officially realized since the 60s. However, within the infrastructures of some European countries there has been a certain lack of belief towards the capabilities of women and unfortunately women have been viewed as an ornament of society, he expressed. MZ/MA