IRAN

An Iranian female student paints in the Fine Arts Faculty of Tehran University in Tehran 29 October 2006. "Women face many limitations in Iran, but education is seen as an acceptable outlet for self-fulfillment and social participation," said Hamidreza Jalaipour, prominent reformist journalist and professor of sociology. He believes the Islamic revolution of 1979, which made it obligatory for women to wear the headscarf, has encouraged religious families to send their daughters to college which was "Islamized and no longer regarded as an unsafe, corrupted place"