Iranian Women in the Year 1400: The Struggle for Equal Rights Continues – Co-authored by Mehrangiz Kar, an Iranian human rights lawyer, and Azadeh Pourzand, co-founder and director of the Siamak Pourzand Foundation, the paper outlines an image of women’s struggles for equality to help US policymakers better understand the intricacies of Iranian society and to design policies that support—but do not supplant or undermine—the women’s movement. Understanding this struggle can help policy makers look beyond simplistic solutions that see disempowered Iranian women as requiring saving from the outside or that use women’s achievements as a justification to legitimize IRI rule.

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Through our Rafik Hariri Center for the Middle East and Scowcroft Middle East Security Initiative, the Atlantic Council works with allies and partners in Europe and the wider Middle East to protect US interests, build peace and security, and unlock the human potential of the region.

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Image: ranian women wearing protective masks to prevent contracting a coronavirus walk at Grand Bazaar in Tehran, Iran February 20, 2020. WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Nazanin Tabatabaee via REUTERS