Abstract
There are two forces that drive attitudes and behaviors in Iran. Strong Islamic, religious traditions that continue to dominate the culture exist in the presence of an emerging pattern of developmental idealism. This idealism, seen first in western societies, is associated with beliefs about and a striving toward such modern attributes as individualism, autonomy of children, nuclear families, equality between women and men, and planned family formation. It is thought that diffusion of this idealism occurs over time and cannot be fully controlled by traditional institutions and conservative governments. Because religious traditions in Iran have been most defined and restricted for females, we reasoned that an important and strong indicator of evidence of diffusion would be increases in female school enrollment. To explore these changes, we examined public record data for the period between 1976 and 2006. The data demonstrated clear advancements in education for women. The strong educational attainment of women during the period of study is parallel to findings in other areas, particularly in the realms of increase in age of marriage, control over reproductive behaviors including birth timing and family size, and are thus supportive of a strong trend toward developmental idealism [1 - 9]. This trend was facilitated by extensive expansion of access to educational institutions by the government.
Highlights
There is an extensive and growing literature in both social science and history concerning the status and destiny of women in Muslim countries, a general assumption being that the religious tradition of Islam inherently condemns women to an irrevocably lower status than that of men [2 - 5]
The set of values labeled developmental idealism emerged first in western societies and is associated with beliefs about and a striving toward such modern attributes as individualism, autonomy of children, nuclear families, equality between women and men, and planned family formation.The diffusion of this idealism tends to occur over time and to be relatively impervious to traditional institutions and conservative governments
Our concern is with a comparison of educational rates for Iranian females relative to Iranian males at the same points in time and in the same localities and experiencing the same economic and political situation existing in the country as a whole - we recognize that there may be local variations in such factors, considering the ethnic variation in Iran [28, 29]
Summary
There is an extensive and growing literature in both social science and history concerning the status and destiny of women in Muslim countries, a general assumption being that the religious tradition of Islam inherently condemns women to an irrevocably lower status than that of men [2 - 5]. The forces of change has affected the younger generations extensively exposed to the modern values, but their parents and members of extended family who have been socialized by the traditional values of early marriage, procreation, and focus on domestic role for women These cross-generational attitude changes have generated support from parents and members of the extended family for high female educational achievement in recent decades in Iran. Discussed with varying interpretations is that principles of Islam and the Shia tradition address women’s legal status as being that of “a half witness” and include such tenets as “Sigheh or temporary marriage” and “men’s unilateral right of divorce.” While these legal issues can have effects on the educational attainment of females, the lack of relevant data makes it impossible to measure these effects at present. Infants 1-5 6-10 11-14 15-24 25-64 65 and more Unknown Total Raw Total Source: [34, 35]
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