Roundtable Women in the Middle East: The Experience of Iranian Women

The main goal of the roundtable in this issue of the Middle East Quarterly is an analysis of major obstacles to women’s participation in various socio-economic and political fields in the Middle East. It is crucial to find ways to encourage more active and widespread women’s participation in this region, given the fact that the level of participation of the Middle Eastern women in the labor markets as well as their relative involvement in political organizations are comparatively narrow. The experience of Iranian women shows that effective political participation of women can be permissible and attainable with the gradual change in the dominant political culture and the process of the formation of civil society. The following scholars and practitioners took part in these Dr. Saideh Lotfian, an associate professor at the Faculty of Law and Political Science of the University of Tehran; Dr. Nasrin Mossafa, a faculty member and the director of the Center for Advanced International Studies of Tehran University; Mr. Bagher Namazi of the Population Center with long-standing international experience in population control and activities of NGOs; Dr. Homa Zanjanizadeh, a professor of sociology at Ferdowsi University of Mashhad, Iran.