Iranian Women’s Life Expectancy at 78

The average length of life of Iranian women has increased to 78, a presidential aide for women and family affairs announced on Saturday.   
In a meeting at in the Foreign Ministry on Saturday, Khadijeh Karimi highlighted statistics that indicated Iranian women had been empowered compared to a few decades ago, ISNA reported. 
“Death rates among mothers due to pregnancy and childbirth have plummeted to less than 20 in 100,000,” Karimi said. 
According to the official, the gender gap in illiteracy has been completely eradicated and women and girls have attended elementary as well as high school. 
“In higher education, women constitute 56% of students in public universities in the current year,” she added. 
The ratio of female professors has risen to 34% in medical universities and 33.3% in other universities. 
“Nowadays, 40% of medical specialists are women,” Karimi said, noting that 30% of specialty doctors who have pursued even higher education are also female. 

Politics, Finance and Sports

Karimi next laid out women’s role in politics, the financial sector and sports. 
“Some 482 women are members of city councils and eight of Iran’s mayors are women,” she pointed out. 
In the field of information and technology, female participation has increased by 5.31%. Roughly 23% of mobile app developers are also women. 
Karimi stated that Iranian women own 12,000 firms in various sectors. 
The official said, “Some 250 knowledge-based companies have been founded by women, 735 are company CEOs and 2,390 are board members.”
Despite wearing hijab, women have also been able to participate in sporting events. The vice president put the number of gyms for women at 16,111 and the number of medals gained in international contests at 3,302.
“The women of my nation are practically fighting one-sided measures that have been illegally implemented against women,” Karimi said. 
She concluded that despite sanctions imposed by world powers, women have been extremely successful under the rule of the Islamic Revolution.
She invited the ambassadors of other countries to stand in solidarity with Iran to support and continue the improvements in the lives of women. 
The meeting was attended by Deputy Foreign Minister for Political Affairs Ali Baqeri Kani and Deputy for Legal and International Affairs Reza Najafi.