What’s to Admire About Iranian Women

This chapter gives an introduction to the broad range of great women in Iran’s present and past. The discussion highlights a number of fairly normal modern women who are making a difference in fields such as science, business, politics, or community leadership. The chapter also considers the roots and ongoing effects of traditional boundaries between male and female, or public and private realms. It considers how women are rearranging boundaries in their own interests. It surveys Iran’s vast history of female saints, empresses, army generals, legendary lovers, revolutionaries, entrepreneurs, or just local women who’ve been the backbones of their communities. The diversity of female heroes challenges numerous stereotypes, which is part of the book’s agenda. But it is the women themselves who defy stereotyping and provide the edutainment.