Ambassadors and foreign representatives stationed in Tehran took part in a meeting that was to discuss the terrorist attack on Shah Cheragh shrine in Shiraz and examined the changes in the last few weeks.
According to the vice-presidency for women and family affairs at this meeting which was participated by the deputy minister for political affairs and vice minister for legal and international affairs and Dr. Karimi, director general for international affairs of the vice -presidency for women and family the speakers while reviewing the various dimensions of this incident condemned any form of terrorism.
During the meeting Dr. Karimi said: “As an Iranian woman I was born in this land, have grown up here and through my efforts have been educated up to the position of a professor to serve my people. So, I would like to briefly give a picture of the realities of the women’s progress of my country despite pressures of the coercive unilateral, illegal and cruel measures imposed.”
Dr. Khadijeh Karimi stressing on the long leap taken by the Islamic Republic of Iran in eradicating illiteracy at two primary and secondary education levels for girls and women leading to reducing gender gap added: “In terms of higher education in the current year 56% of university students at the state-run universities are women. The increasing level of women working as faculty members in the medical sciences universities has reached 34% and over 33.3% of women faculty members are now working in other university fields across the country.
She stated: “Life expectancy for Iranian women has reached 78 years of age and 95% of birth deliveries are taken cared of by women gynecologists, the rate of maternal mortality rate has declined remarkably and has reached to 20 for every 100 thousand individuals.
She further stated: “Today 40 % of physicians and 30% of medical specialists are women.” Dr. Karimi added: “In terms of rural and urban management 3547 women are members of the Islamic councils in the rural areas and with a 43% growth in last terms of elections there are now over 2393 women members of the rural councils.”
She said: “In the urban management system there are over 482 women active in the urban Islamic councils and there are 8 women working as mayors and there is a growing rate of participation for women working in the IT to 31.5% who occupy 23% of the Mobile telephone soft -ware development and they have a share of 50% in the digital transformation, i.e., innovation. These are some of the examples that the Islamic Republic of Iran is proud of.” She went on further reminding that in recent years the role of women in managing startups ,working as accelerators, facilitating groups and also their ownership over 12000 companies in various agricultural, industrial, architecture, pharmaceuticals and more and also their active presence in the chambers of commerce and entrepreneurship have taken an increasing trend She said: “Currently, women compose over 32% of company members active in economy and over 735 women are working as managing directors of the knowledge -based companies and over 2390 women are members of the board of directors of such companies . There is even a documentary program made on this. Moreover, the presence of over 4000 women entrepreneurs in the country who manage over 20 % of entrepreneur centers is highly remarkable.
By stating that our women through observing Hijab when the world calls it restriction have also outshined in many areas such as sports. She went on saying: “ In the field of sports there are over 16111 sports clubs for women and over 3302 medals have been won by women athletes from sports competitions around the world, there are over 88366 women referees working in the national and international games and there are 97 women who have taken international seats at world sports federations .There are 51 women working as presidents and vice-presidents for sports federations and over 70 women working as head of the sports delegations at provincial levels who are also an honor and pride for the Islamic Republic of Iran.”
She added: “In addition to the increasing rate of women’s participation in IT reaching to 5.31%, working of over 3000 women in cinema industry is also another example of women’s progress.”
In the end Dr. Karimi stressed: “The women of my land are practically fighting against the coercive unilateral measures which are imposed on the nation of Iran in an illegal way nevertheless, they have reached and recorded remarkable results and achieved tremendously in various areas next to men.” Dr. Karimi invited the ambassadors of different countries to stand beside Iran in order to support the growing trend of women’s progress and flourishment.