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Revolution opens doors for Iranian women
So, is the Iranian government relaxing their hardline stand on women? or is this just a ploy to bring out the women "entrepreneurs" so they can arrest them?
http://www.nj.com/business/ledger/i...83843586190.xml
Thursday, March 04, 2004
BY BORZOU DARAGAHI
For the Star-Ledger
TEHRAN She knew competition would be tough when she opened her furniture store, the first owned by a woman, along a bright, busy strip of Shariati Street in the city's affluent north.
But Behnaz Arsanali never imagined her competitors would unleash Tehran's notorious morality police on her.
"They told them I was selling statues of naked women," said the 37-year-old mother of two.
"The morality police came around and inspected every nook and cranny, wasting my time looking for any violation. They couldn't compete with my prices. So they attacked me because I was a woman."
Still, with no help or encouragement from the nation's ruling elite, Iranian business women have made great strides in the 25 years since an Islamic revolution put clerics in charge of the government.
"Whether we have women members of parliament doesn't matter that much," says Nazila Noebashari, chief executive of a Tehran-based cargo and shipping firm. "We are all paving our own road now. No one gave us anything in this regime. Whatever progress the Iranian women have made has been because of our own persistence and hard work. Nobody gives us trophies."
Though Iranian women are now advancing in all sectors of the economy, the 1979 revolution at first seriously hampered their career prospects. The proportion of working women outside the home fell from 10.8 percent in 1976 to 6 percent in 1986, before rising again in 1996 to about 8 percent, according to the last official census statistics.
Shamsosadat Zahedi, a professor of management at Tehran's Allameh Tabatabai University, estimates that fewer than one in seven working Iranian women have private-sector jobs. No reliable figures exist on the number of Iranian women entrepreneurs, though an official 1994 study described 450,000 Iranian women as "self-employed," a wide definition that could mean anything from maintaining a home- sewing business to running a fishery.
More than 60 percent of Iran's new university students are women, and they have entered the public sector in droves, making up 38 percent of government employees, according to a study conducted by Zahedi.
In rural Iran, women have long played a back-breaking role in the agricultural sector, harvesting rice and other crops. But while Iranian law bars discrimination against women in the workplace, many women face stereotyping and discrimination from male co-workers on a daily basis.
"Patriarchy is a basic part of our culture," says Pouran Kamali, owner of an all-women's taxi service in Tehran. "And the law, unfortunately, backs up men."
Thus far, nothing like a women's chamber of commerce has emerged from the kaleidoscope of formal and informal civic groups and associations popping up throughout Iran.
But despite obstacles and humiliations -- including officials who conduct gratuitous body searches of women at airports -- Iranian business women travel independently around the Middle East selling traditional arts and crafts at festivals and trade shows.
And pioneering lower-middle class women like Arsanali have begun testing their business acumen head-to-head against men.
"My only problem was my competitors," said Arsanali, who closed her store for personal reasons. "I had good relations with my customers and suppliers. The customers were astounded that a woman ran this store. They preferred to buy from me."
Noebashari, chief executive of Trafco, a business founded by her grandfather and handed over to her two years ago, once heard a competitor accuse a partner firm of doing business with her because of her looks. She was enraged, but kept her response focused on her adversary's business skills.
"I retaliated by saying, 'When you can compete with me professionally, come and talk to me,'" she recalled.
Noebashari, 38, who became widely known in Iran after appearing on the BBC's "Hard Talk" television show, said she was stopped recently at the airport by a 13-year-old girl.
"She said, 'I watched the program and I'm really proud of you,'" Noebashari recalled. "It was such a great moment. Women here are really lacking role models."
As the rare female boss of a company in a traditionally male field, she has had to fight men all the way.
When she first visited Bandar Abbas, Iran's main Persian Gulf port, 15 years ago, employees wouldn't allow her on the premises because she was a woman.
"Now, there are quite a number of women working at the port," she said.
Often juggling three phones, toggling between Farsi and English and coordinating Afghan truckers, Dubai shippers and European clients, Noebashari says she sometimes has to work overtime just to earn the trust of her 23 mostly male employees and colleagues.
Forget about the Middle East, where she often travels on business. Even customers and contractors in Europe are shocked when they see an Iranian woman running her own business.
"It's double work," she said. "You have to do your work professionally, and you have to gain the respect of the men."
Other Iranian women are finding niches where they don't have to wrestle day-to-day with men. Six months ago, after 25 years of working as a grammar school teacher and accountant, Kamali, 45, decided to start a 24-hour all-women taxi service catering exclusively to women and families.
"I love this," said the mother of three, proud that she employs about 15 women, ages 20 to 55. "My only regret is that I didn't start a business earlier. I've always wanted to be independent."
Her drivers distribute ads as they return from dropping off customers. In the latest promotion, the taxi service's best customer will receive a solid gold coin.
Kamali, who often works from 6 a.m. to 10:30 p.m., fills in when she is short on drivers. The business, she says, has reinvigorated her.
"I'm not making a big of profit, yet," she said. "I'd love to have real capital. I would open up different branches in different parts of the city and in other cities. I would build skyscrapers. I have real dreams!"
maybe this is a sign of better relationship with neighbors, i don't know.
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ya neva know!
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