the desire of women toliberate themselves, we must recall the keenness with which women threw themselvesinto education, like drowning persons into an unhoped-for lifeboat. In less than twogenerations, since the Second World War, they have laid siege to the academicworld...Thanks to them, things began to change and the university became a place ofhope. For women of my generation higher education was regarded not as a luxury, butas a chance for survival and escape from the widespread contempt for women thatcharacterized the traditional ordering of society a few decades ago. In the 1960s womencould neither engage in business nor launch political careers. Only the universities andeducation provided a legitimate way out of mediocrity. Women did not study to benurses and nurse's aids; subordinate jobs re-created the domestic scene. Therefore theaim was medical school. In 1987, 50 percent of all medical students in Tunisia werewomen, 37 percent in Syria, and 30 percent in Algeria.32Once women become educated, they will be aware of what they do not have andwhat they should be granted. The greatest kept secret in many Islamic countries is the factthat many of them have signed the United Nations Charter The United Nations Charterincludes the Universal Declaration of Human rights which reads:Now, therefore, The General Assembly proclaims This Universal Declaration of HumanRights as a common standard of achievement for all peoples and all nations, to the endthat every individual and every organ of society, keeping this Declaration constantly inmind, shall strive by teaching and education to promote respect for these rights andfreedoms and by progressive measures, national and international, to secure theiruniversal and effective recognition and observance, both among the peoples of MemberStates themselves and among the peoples of territories under their jurisdiction.33On June 26, 1945, this was signed by many Muslim states including Iran, ...
