AhlulBayt News Agency (ABNA): At the Student Day ceremony held on Monday at the AhlulBayt (a.s.) International University, Hojat al-Islam Dr. Jazaari, the university’s president, stated that Iran’s honor among the nations of the world lies in being a land whose history of women is luminous and distinguished.
He emphasized that credible international studies show that women in the Achaemenid era held prominent positions within administrative, social, and cultural structures.
The president of the AhlulBayt (a.s.) University then referred to an academic session he once attended at the University of Strasbourg. “When the question of women’s status in Iran arose,” he said, “I cited documents from the Old Testament and explained that if you accept those sources, you must also acknowledge the role and names of Iranian women mentioned in them.”
Dr. Jazaari, noting the history of the University of Sorbonne, Paris, stated that although the University was founded in 1291 CE, women were not permitted to enter the institution for six centuries. “Yet in that same historical period, an educated woman in Iran founded two schools and specified, in their endowment deeds, the salaries of teachers from the endowed properties. It is an honor for Iran that a woman established educational and scholarly institutions,” he added.
He continued, “In Europe, women did not obtain formal property rights until 1932, whereas Islam, fourteen centuries ago, declared that whatever a woman earns belongs to her. This reflects the civilizational distinction between Iran and Islam on the one hand, and the West on the other.”
Referring to the expanding role of women in academic and research fields after the Islamic Revolution, the university president noted, “Over the past forty years, women’s participation in scientific, research, and cultural centers has reached its highest level. Today, women constitute 33 percent of our university’s staff and nearly 40 percent of our students. In my view, this figure is still insufficient, and women’s status must rise further.”
He ended by citing a statement from the Leader of the Islamic Revolution regarding women, “The Leader has said that woman is the embodiment of creation and the pinnacle of human perfection.”
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