On a tourist trip to Iran in the summer of 2010 I decided to visit the famous “Big Bazaar” in Southern Tehran. On my way, I found myself in a men’s compartment of the metro. In Iran, the last two compartments of each metro tram are women-only sections, and the rest of the compartments are de facto male-dominated carts. Other countries in the region employ similar gender-segregated metro systems. Typically, women sit in the front compartments only when they are accompanied by their husbands and when the metro is not crowded. My trip to the “Big Bazaar” took place during a crowded rush hour, but I was resistant to part from my male friends to sit in the back of the metro. It felt degrading. My mistake became clear as hoards of men pressed shoulder-to-shoulder into the cart, en route from their jobs in Northern Tehran to their homes in Southern Tehran. Our stop in Southern Tehran arrived and I was forced to pushed through the hyper-attentive crowd of groping hands. That was degrading.
As a “Western” woman, I imagine myself to be liberated—although the degree of liberation is questionable, that’s another matter—and above patriarchal gender distinctions ubiquitous in the Middle East. Take transportation, for instance, riding in the back of the metro is like being told you’re not good enough for the front seat. Such gender segregation initially struck me as a facilitator of misogyny. It enables the conception of men and women as different—so different that they need to be separated and treated according to their gender.
As a “liberated Western” woman becoming acquainted with Tehran, I found myself defying these social (and sometimes legal) gender distinctions in small ways—showing excessive bangs from under my headscarf, smoking gallion (hukkah) in downtown cafés, respectfully declining the back seat reserved for woman, etc. I validated these defiant acts as a effort to bridge, in my own small way, the larger social conceptions that so sharply define and marginalize the role of women in Iranian public life. I was probably proving something to myself as well in this foreign-to-me context that unequivocally encouraged my contribution in the domestic sphere while legally prohibiting my participation in the public sphere, just because I am female. In retrospect, I see that I imagined myself to be above these gender constructs through my nonobservance of them.
And with the exception of the relentless staring and optimistic hands, outstretched for a subtle grope, gender-defiant actions came fairly easily. All it really required was for me to keep being myself. To keep being assertive, as I was accustomed to in the United States. To not soften my tone. To walk, as usual, with speed and purpose, and to not step to the side of a doorway so that a man, any man, could walk through first. Basically, defying Iranian gender roles required minimal effort. I was simply imposing my pre-existing beliefs upon another cultural context, and validating this behavior with the social order that I alone presumed appropriate.
However, understanding the implications of gender segregation from the perspective of women within the cultural context of, for instance, Iran, requires more effort. My grandiose social ideals are humbled whenever I remember that my having an opinion is in itself a luxury. In many patriarchal cultures, a woman’s actions are inhibited by social stigmas, regardless of her personal beliefs. Iran’s women-only metro cart, for example, enables the movement of women from a variety of socio-economic strata, who may have otherwise been inhibited or prohibited from doing so, whether or not they believe themselves capable. Transit segregation potentially increases a woman’s medical, economic, and social access in may different places by allowing them to travel safely and free from social stigmatization.
In this light, the segregated metro that I initially scorned as degrading and regressive is, in practice, empowering and progressive, expanding a women’s sphere of possibilities and participation in public life. Iran’s transit segregation is clearly a gain for women and I’ll have to be more thoughtful next time I am there.
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Apparently women only metro cars are the norm in Japan, Egypt, India, Taiwan, Brazil, Mexico, Indonesia, the Philippines and Dubai as well! Who knew
I do agree with segregation of genders and believe it is of benefit to society – especially in terms of education it is most beneficial. Of the seven schools that I have been to (K-12), the segregated school was my favorite. Simply putting girls in one room and boys in the other is not the point. In fact, there have been public schools which did just that, and had everything happen the same as usual. The idea of the single-sex education format is it creates opportunities that don’t exist in the co-ed classroom. Teachers can employ strategies in the all-boys classroom and in the all-girls classroom which don’t work well in the co-ed classroom. The teachers I had at my school were professionally trained.
A recent study that was conducted in several US states proves there has been a dramatic improvement in grades and test scores after adopting single-sex classrooms, but that’s because they did more than just put the girls in separate rooms. In each of the schools examined, teachers received training in gender-specific classroom strategies and the best practices for gender-separate classrooms. Researchers completed a three-year pilot project comparing the single-sex classrooms with co-ed classrooms at particular elementary schools. Students in the fourth grade were assigned to either single-sex or co-ed classrooms. Here’s how it came out:
Boys in co-ed classes: 37% scored “proficient.”
Boys in single sex classes: 86% scored “proficient”
Girls in co-ed classes: 59% scored “proficient”
Girls in single-sex classes: 75% scored “proficient”
Girls and boys are different. Boys bounce off walls and do much better when you don’t constrain them to a seat. When some of the boys were in co-ed classrooms, they were labeled as “learning disabled” or with ADHD. Many of the boys who scored “proficient” in the single-sex classroom had previously been labeled as having ADHD.
All the proof is there. At minimum, there’s no distraction in single-sex classrooms. But you’ve got the ACLU and other groups jumping up and down screaming that this is some kind of discrimination. This kind of blind, ignorant hysteria is really annoying because it doesn’t speak to the needs of the children who will one day shape our future. Segregation of genders needs to be a concept applied more often in the west to create more succesful people.
You’ve beautifully expressed something I’ve struggled with in my experiences abroad as well. Thank you!
Thanks Natalie, that is a perspective I have not thought of yet. I still do not know if I agree with segregation in schools and transportation. Obviously education and transportation is better than none at all, so I would think the opportunities for women are increasing so that is a good thing. Just cause scores are better in segregated schools does not mean school segregation is the solution. The culture around that community as well as how the parents raise their children are also factors.
Since I went to co-ed schools all my life, I believe having interaction with the opposite sex was a good thing because you can get perspectives from the opposite gender, you can also learn to interact with the other sex as well. The more you grow up with segregation, the more comfortable it becomes. I think boys and girls should grow up together and learn together starting from youth, and from what I have seen, those students that do well is usually a reflection of those parents and how they are raised. When education is pushed at a young age it reflects in the future.
Hey Cyrus!
Thanks for the insightful comment. I share your sentiment completely, and the segregation of schools, which Thana brought up, is something I did not explore in the above article, but which is an important question that many countries in the Middle East face today, including Iran.
Regarding transportation, deep-seated social norms that guide the treatment of women in public spaces warrant segregation on, for instance, the metro. Because combatting harassment, for instance, is not an issue that can be solved over night, or even over the course of many years, segregating the sexes on the metro provides a snap solution: women can suddenly move from place to place with a minimized risk of harassment.
Segregation in education is another issue altogether, once that is deeply nuanced and varies from one place to the next, and even from one individual student to the next. Thana brought up an important point: some students do better in segregated schools. Probably because they feel less shy or less inhibited. However, Thana, the statistic of improved proficiency you procured reflects segregated school in the United States, a country where the gender inequality index (GII) is markedly smaller than that of countries such as Iran. In countries like Iran, women are not only socially marginalized, but their legally disadvantaged as well– in court, the life of a woman is worth half the life of a man, and her testimony counts for only a third of a man’s testimony.
Thus, in Iran, where gender inequality is so appalling disparate at the social level, exacerbated by the disadvantageous gender policies at the legal level, I fear that segregated schools would, in this same vain, disadvantage women in the grand scheme of things. After all, we know from our own American example that, with respect to minorities, policies of “separate by equal” facilities are bombastic in theory and never possible in practice. I am fearful that the “separate but equal” educational facilities in Iran would place young girls in crumbling facilities with regressive teachers, thereby limiting women’s intellectual creativity, self-confidence, and future prospects. Conversely, it’s not a stretch to argue that their corresponding boys-only schools would received better supplies, teachers, attention, recognition, etc. Cyrus, the psychological issues that come with gender segregation (at ages as young as 3 according to a recent IRI policy!), is discerning as well.
Thana, although I see your point and I think it is a valid and important perspective to consider, I personally feel that the experience of gender segregation in the United States and the experience of gender segregation in countries like Iran are not comparable due to the social, political, and legal differences that women face in these separate places. That was the message I was trying to convey in the above article.
kudos natalie for how you have articulated an important issue with your experience. certainly, segregation can be beneficial in different places and times and in some cases be more liberating than the non-segregation. LOVE your photo too. looking forward to reading more of your articles.
This is a beautifully and thoughtfully written article. Initally I thought to myself there is no way I could align with the thinking that segregated transport is a good thing in light of women’s rights. Natalie’s insights though have caused me to see a larger view of the situation that I would not have come up with on my own. Thank you for challenging my thoughts in this arena!
Hi Nat, glad to see that your were able to resolve your attempt to impose western culture on another nations mores, values and traditions. It simply won’t work in a country that has a culture based on a couple of thousand years of behaviors alien to relatively new nations like the U.S. that have Constitutions and governments based upon secular law and not religion. When people decide they are tired of sitting in the back of the bus and being treated with less regard than others they share community and society with, they will alter the situation on their own initiative. Pent up frustrations sometimes just need a tiny spark like Rosa Parks to change the world.
you need to read “the war against boy”