More than half of Iranian university students are women. Women work, drive, own property, have access to birth control and vote. This activity is very dangerous. There is always the possibility of an unexpected intrusion by the morals police, perhaps just to extort a bribe, perhaps to arrest the participants. The insecurity is deeply resented.
Women also show extraordinary courage in fighting the system.
Azam Taleghani, the publisher of the weekly newspaper Payam-e Hajar, is committed to Islam and the revolution but challenges clerical ideas of male supremacy and promotes a more feminist interpretation of the Koran. Another activist, Faezeh Hashemi, published a newspaper until it was banned and now promotes sports programs to combat depression among women and to encourage them to fight for their rights. Minorities do not fare well at all, but are nonetheless loyal to the Iran of their ideals. Zoroastrians and Christians are barely tolerated. Bahais are persecuted relentlessly.