Sunday, June 7, 2009

Day 18 (5/12) Lap swimming at an all-women's pool


Today was a new experience for me. I have always wanted to find a pool to go to when in Iran, so that I can get my normal workout, since I normally swim at least a couple of times a week back in the U.S. these days. One of my sister-in-laws, Akram, has a friend who is a swim instructor at a pool and club for women only. It was fairly close to home, so Nick drove Akram and me over there. The pool was very large, and while there were not people lap swimming as rigorously as they might in the U.S., I was still able to get quite a few short laps in. I was definitely a bit of a curiosity there. As I came up for air and to turn at one end of the pool, I noticed about 6 people sitting on the side just watching me go back and forth in the water. I smiled and said “Salaam” rather breathlessly. By my next lap, I noticed that most of them were back in the water swimming as well. The pool was fairly crowded and warmer than I was used to, but it was great to be back in the water again. The club also had a sauna, steam room and Jacuzzi as nice as I would find back home. While I found that it was actually somewhat refreshing having only women there, at least one women I spoke to indicated it would be nicer if it could be men and women. At any rate, the club is very cautious that nobody from the outside gets a peek of women in their bathing suits. Cell phones are strictly not allowed in the club - apparently there have been problems at some clubs before with pictures being taken by cell phone and then distributed. While this perhaps doesn't sound like such a big deal for somebody from the West (after all, who hasn't had their picture taken in a swimsuit at some point?), it would be mortifying for a women who chooses to practice full hejab.

When we got home that afternoon, Nick staged a photo session with me and our nieces, Mahsah and Parisa. We put on different outfits and adopted different poses - both inside as well as in the back garden. It was a fun way to connect with them both. I cant' believe Parisa is now as tall as me, and I'm sure will soon be taller! She is studying very hard for her university-entrance exams. It is very difficult to get into university here, much like many other countries, and there is an exam to select those who will have the opportunity to attend. Students generally spend an entire year, 12 hours a day studying for the exam. Parisa was telling us that she has 44 books that she has to study - 44! No wonder students spend so many hours for days, weeks, and months just studying.
Women here know that getting a college education is a key to a better future for them. Depite the difficulty of the exam, they have actually outpaced men in recent years in gaining admittance. They now make up approximately 60% of university students. In fact, the government has recently passed a law to make sure there is more balance between men and women in colleges - now it must be 50/50. So even if a man scores lower on the exam than a woman, he may get accepted to the university where she may not if the 50% quotient for women has already been filled.

The education has paid off for women. Each time we come here, we see and hear about more women with careers, making their own way in the world. We are very proud of our other niece, Mariam, who not only has a full-time job with a French company in Tehran, but who is also pursuing her Master's degree in commerce. Contrary to some misconceptions about Iranian women, there are women bankers, doctores, lawyers, and a full range of other occupations. Is there still a glass ceiling? Yes, absolutely. But it's changing slowly. The status of womens' careers now doesn't seem to me all that different from what it was in the 1960's and 1970's in the U.S.

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