The alarming rate of the various types of social harm, particularly among young women and girls, who are more vulnerable, have prompted the Vice-Presidency for Women and Family Affairs to devise progressive plans to alleviate the situation.
Initial efforts started in 2013 to promote the physical and mental health of girls and the vice-presidency signed a memorandum of understanding with the Education Ministry based on which the latter agreed to hold training courses on communicational skills for over 7,000 middle school girls along with their parents. Around 3,000 school teachers and staff were also involved in the process.
In 2014 and 2015, the training was extended to cover nearly 10,000 and 8,000 girls respectively together with their parents. The purpose was to improve life skills including social interaction among adolescent girls based on religious teachings, develop their self-confidence, and enhance the interaction between parents, students and teachers.
The national scheme to improve hygiene in girls’ boarding schools in deprived regions was another instance of joint efforts by the vice-presidency and the ministry whereby hygiene packages were distributed among 10,000 girls in more than 1,000 middle schools in 2013. The scheme continued in the next two years as well, along with educative programs on feminine hygiene.
A new MOU was signed in 2014 which tasked the ministry to conduct studies on the psychological and social harm afflicting high school girls in Sistan-Baluchestan, Khorasan (North, South and Razavi), Isfahan, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari, Yazd and Kerman. As a result, an atlas of girl’s mental-social harms categorized by geographical area was prepared. The studies continued in 2015 and yielded a comprehensive analytical report on the variety of social ills and their prevalence among high school girls.
In 2015, the ministry implemented another plan of the vice-presidency which involved preparing an educational package and presenting courses on individual, familial and social rights and responsibilities for high school girls as well as their parents and teachers in 15 provinces, including West Azarbaijan, Alborz, Ilam, Tehran, Chaharmahal and Bakhtiari and Khorasan.
Education for the Dropouts
Women constitute a larger part of the illiterate population in the country and a considerable number have missed the chance of education for various reasons such as poverty or family traditions that oppose female education.
In a bid to expand the education coverage of girls in deprived regions, the office of the vice-presidency signed a separate MOU with the Education Ministry in 2014 to provide primary school education for 10% of the girls in 10 provinces. Besides, efforts were made to ease their access to learning centers and textbooks, khabaronline.ir reported.
Since many girls in underprivileged areas do not start school at the right age, they often experience a feeling of shame and inferiority. To address this issue, the officials offered counseling courses both for students and parents.
The MOU was extended in the last academic year that ended in June, with the vice-presidency supplying stationary and covering the educational costs of girls in the 10 provinces as well as designing cultural packages for their parents to instruct them on the importance of girls’ education.
The plan covered 3% or 2,500 girls in the 10 provinces of Bushehr, North and South Khorasan, Sistan-Baluchestan, Khuzestan, Golestan, Kerman, Lorestan, Markazi and Hormozgan, which have the highest number of girls who have missed primary school education.
A similar scheme is planned to be implemented in the upcoming academic year that starts in September.
The Literacy Movement Organization has also cooperated with the vice-presidency to promote literacy among nomadic women and girls in East Azarbaijan, Ardebil, Fars and Kohgiluyeh-Boyer Ahmad provinces. The scheme offered education for 2,000 illiterate or poorly educated nomadic women between 10 and 49 years of age.
