STORIES

The Second Sex

Iran

Iran is a country where half of its population are deprived of their rights, while being unable to follow their interests without being judged, subjected to every kind of discrimination and violence as well as being joked. They can’t even choose their own clothing and are considered second-degree citizens throughout society. All of these, are only a part of the daily problems faced by Iranian women for a long time.
Nowadays, women’s rights are neglected in many countries, especially the countries located in the Middle East. The society of Iran is no exception to this fact however some of its women emphasize realizing their social rights as well as believing in making progress and equality. Although Iranian women are constantly facing pressures inflicted by social and political movements, various layers of oppression, gender discrimination, cultural suffocation, and all kinds of violence, still every day you can see them trying to prove and realize their rights. In this regard, several social movements have been formed in Iran during the past few decades focusing on realizing their rights. Some women have been able to prove their competence by overcoming discrimination and oppression. While trying to realize their rights, they have tried to change or reform certain social rules by criticizing them. Still, most Iranian women are still deprived of their most basic rights and still have a long way until they can have rights equal to men in their society, and the society is still treating them as if they do not even exist.

After graduation, Mahnaz Mirazei has become a safety engineer in a mine because of her interest in harsh jobs. She is the first miner woman ever since the Islamic revolution and is now working in the Saraparde mine in the vicinity of Koohbanan town. In the beginning, the mine personnel had a very bad attitude towards her, because the mine's environment is a masculine environment and workers could not get along with a female engineer easily. However, with all her efforts and years of patience, she was finally selected as the chief of Saraparde mine in which 90 men and 5 women work. All she wishes for is to allow women to be able to play their parts in the society and reach their goals.

Nili is an anti-obligatory-Hijab activist and is a member of the white Wednesday campaign. She is not against hijab, but she is against obligatory hijab which has been in place for forty years by the Islamic Republic of Iran. She believes that every person must be given the right to freely choose his/her clothing. While she is in the city, she removes her Hijab in every chance she gets and she has even been sometimes fined and threatened by the police because of doing so, however she is still trying to break this taboo.

Niloofar loved music ever since she was a child, but her family were against her learning music and did not let her choose music field after finishing high school and wanted her to choose another field for her high education. After graduating, she paid all her first wage for a violin and decided to learn it. But because of her age, most institutes avoided from accepting her until she found a private instructor and currently she is practicing hours a day to become what she wants and be able to play in an orchestra. Niloofar believes that families should help their children reach their goals irrespective of their gender and if they do so, many talents will efflorescence.

Sara has been a reporter in a well-known local media for three years. As Sara believes, this occupation has its own hardships in Iran's patriarchal society, one of which is that they are only allowed to work on certain subjects; and the other is that they are not allowed to enter sports fields. This is while male reporters are less likely to face such problems. However, she and other female reporters are trying to change this situation.

Soori is a 58-year-old retired housewife. When she was young she was able to enter an architecture college, but she was forced by her family when she was young to go to a hospital and become a nurse. As she believes, the main reason why she was kept from going to architecture college was that men and women used to attend this field together but her family, especially her brothers had a problem with this and believed that universities are no place for women. In Soori's family children are now supported in having free will to study and educate. Since she was a victim of such point of view, she has always tried to teach her children the basic human rights ever since they were little children.

Mahdie is an art activist and has activities in the fields of poetry and photography. Her family, especially her father and other elders of the family are strictly against arts and believe that women are not made for such things. However, she has secretly been trying to learn photography and she has also been successfully able to hold a few expos.

In 2013, Nazanin has been able to establish a phone taxi in the city of Jahrom. In the beginning and because of the mostly religious atmosphere of this city, she was not treated fairly and no one would enter her taxies, however as time passed and she resisted and tried her taxi company became one of the most successful taxi companies in the city of Jahrom. Currently, she has made the context for income generation for many other women in her taxi company in addition to herself.

39-year-old Avakh is the only girl carpenter in Gilan. She had a lot of interest in working with wood for a long time and she wanted to experience woodworking on those days, but everyone told him that it was a men job. They repeated this so many times that she was motivated to try it, and because of this, she went to work with wood. Avakh said: "The first days I opened my shop others did not take me seriously, But after seeing my efforts, they supported me and are now I'm one of the most accomplished carpenters in north of Iran.

Maryam Dehchi is one of the few female drivers of heavy trucks in Iran. She learned to drive from his father and began her driving career with the encouragement of her husband and took the basic certificate in the second of September, 2014. Ms. Dehchi first faced many disagreements on the part of the drivers and even the passengers, as this profession is known as quite masculine. She says that after nearly 5 years of driving, she is still mocked by other male drivers and are travelers who, due to her gender, are not interested in riding her bus. But by the time the society's overall vision of women's abilities has changed to a certain extent. Also, a number of regular travelers, after noticing that being a good or bad driver is not related to gender, now ride our bus with relief.

Elham Sadeghi runs a small café in a crowded street. She loves her occupation and says she has had tried for five years to get a license, while having faced problems just because of being a woman trying to get a café license, and she adds that she has even sometimes been verbally harassed in certain cases. However she never gave up and after going through plenty of hardships, she has been able to get her café license and currently her café is one of the most crowded ones in the city.

Sepideh is a 34-year-old modeling photographer. She has been doing her job for almost 12 years. Of the hardships she has endured in a completely masculine environment, she says: in terms of my job, I have neither been supported by my family, nor by my coworkers. In fact, most people think that I am doing what I do in order to find myself a husband; but now after 12 years of enduring these types of looks, I have been able to become one of the bests in my work and I have made the first place in several international festivals as well.

Shamim is a 21-year-old student of biology who has withdrawn from studying. Ever since she was a child, she was interested in painting but in spite of her talents, because of her family's restrictions and the type of people's look on the women who attend to learning such arts she was never able to study her interest academically. Now, in another province away from her family and locals of her town, she is studying painting in a private painting class and now that she has withdrawn from her previous field of study, she is determined to become a painting student so that she could follow her interest more seriously.

Maryam has been working in a restaurant in Rasht for almost a year. As she says, one main reason why she was employed in the restaurant was her appearance, making her a criterion for the attraction of customers. However, after a while, she was able to show her managerial skills and started working as the saloon manager soon. Maryam believes that if women are given the grounds, they can prove their abilities and so the society will no longer look upon them with an instrumental view.

Zahra is a 28-year-old women's football league referee. Being a referee was initially a harsh thing for her in a patriarchal society. People, especially men used to tell her that women cannot make good referees, however, Zahra used all these talks as a source of motivation and so was able to become a successful referee. Currently, she is deprived of practicing in sports fields because of her gender and so she has to take her practice to nonstandard places such as dirt grounds and or parks. One week after this photograph was taken she injured herself when she was practicing in a park because her practicing ground was not standard. All she ever wants is to be able to go to a standard suitable ground for practicing.