Human, Gender and Education Development in Islamic Countries, (Emphasizing Iran)

Human capital as the basis for development is the most important part of any policy governing the training and education of an expert labor force. This is achieved by improvement of human development indicators. Women also play a significant role in the development process. Status Analysis of any country would determine their position in the world or compared with its neighbors. Thus, it is necessary to know how much Iran's development policies have been successful in achieving its development goals and its competitiveness with the other countries in the world. In this article, human and gender development perceptions are discussed first. After that, the education index throughout Islamic countries – with an emphasis on Iran - is examined. Both descriptive and documentary approaches are used in this article. Data from Human Development Reports between 1990- 2007 are also used. Results show that Iran has a low status in human and gender development indices among 19 selected Islamic countries. However, the women's share of enrolment in higher education has increased relatively in Iran but it is lower than that in Kuwait, Qatar, Albania, UAE, Saudi Arabia, Malaysia and Lebanon. Finally, a pattern for improving the development system in relation to scientific development is suggested.