Iran to women: Can’t ski without male guardian

As the first snow falls in Tehran, women in Iran eager to hit the slopes will have to do so with a male guardian, reported the Washington Post.

The police circular was issued Thursday in hopes that order will be restored to the three ski resorts in the Tehran area, which have become a relatively safe haven from traditional Islamic dress required of all Iranian women.

Since Sharia law was instituted in 1979, Iran has a violent history of suppressing women's rights, reported the National Post. During a UN Human Rights Commission meeting last month, expert Cornelis Flinterman was upset by Iran's lack of progress on improving women's rights:

I don’t see any concrete measures taken in Iran to end violence against women. Are there cases that have been dealt in court? What are the verdicts? It seems that there continue to be discriminatory laws against women.

A UN report on the situation of human rights in Iran, released September 2011, noted a sharp increase in executions of women since the contested elections in the summer of 2009. 

According to The Atlantic, the World Economic Forum's 2010 Gender Gap report ranked Iran 123 out of 134 countries for disparities between women and men on eonomic and political participation, access to healthcare and education.

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