First They Came for the Bahá’í: Iran moved to ban women from taking degree-level courses in 77 areas.
For a country trying to swim upstream against a torrent of international approbation, Iran makes some intriguing choices that burnish its reputation. Last month Angilee Shah explained how members of the Bahá’í faith are prohibited from higher education. Earlier this month, the Islamic Republic of Iran moved to ban women from taking degree-level courses in 77 areas.
The restrictions on women’s education are not as overt as the one on the Bahá’í. For one, while promulgated from on high they are enacted at the country’s 36 government-run universities apparently on an institution-by-institution basis. For another, it’s not that women are banned—it’s that places are reserved only for men. (Men, in turn, were excluded from studying nursing earlier in the year.)
These subtle but meaningless distinctions aside, banned courses are mostly in the so-called STEM fields of science, technology, engineering, and math—areas in which the United States has been actively recruiting women to study. Other fields on the Do Not Try list include accounting, social work, hotel management, and forestry.