International Women's Day in Iran

A few facts about Iranian women:

*Women are attacked and flogged in public.
*One of the most common methods of punishing women in Iran is by stoning.
*The suicide rate in Iran is one of the highest in the world. 75 percent of the victims are women, 81 percent of whom are between 15 to 31 years of age. The average age of those attempting suicide is 25.
*Only 9 percent of Iranian women are employed. 72 percent of these women work in the educational sectors.
*Only 600,000 of the country's 29.5 million women have jobs even thought Iranian women are better-educated than many of their neighbors. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization reports that the literacy rate of Iranian women is 70 percent, compared with an average 46.2 percent in the Middle East.
*The legal age for marriage for girls is 9 and for boys is 15.
*Women are not allowed to leave home without the permission of their husbands, even if she wants to attend her father's funeral.
*Women cannot travel on their own without the permission of their husbands.
*Husbands can prevent their wives from working outside, if they realize that a woman's job is interfering with the interests of the family.
*Husbands can divorce their wives whenever they wish and without presenting any reasons.
*Women are banned from teaching boys older than 10 years of age.
*Woman is the inferior sex, whose testimony is worth half the testimony of a man.
*Women inherit half of men.
*Women do not have the right to enter sport stadiums.

In a defiant move, Iranian women commemorated International Women's Day in Tehran.

This is from the Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism in Iran, a non-profit group based on Boston:

Several hours ago, Iranian women held a rally in Laleh Park, Tehran to express their opposition to the fundamentalist regime in Iran.

Women chanted "Down with the regime," "Women's mission: Justice, Peace, and Equality."

Facing a great danger and threats from the Iran's anti-riot police, women gathered and sang Iranian National Anthem "O'Iran, Land of Glory and Gem."

Women's Forum Against Fundamentalism has learned many have been arrested and reports are still coming from Iran.