When we are growing up, we are learning some social skills. Our envirment and what kind of people we are spending our time with have a massive impact on us especially as a kid or a teenager. Social skills have different aspects. We need to learn how to have a conversation with a senior, a child, or the opposite sex. When a person lives in a community which they cannot learn all the aspects for a long time, it can be hard for them to find out the importance of what they didn’t learn until they experience the hassle. If we deny a group of people in our life, the fact that they still exist is going to hit us one day. In Iran, boys and girls are separated in kindergartens until they get their diploma. There is no option as a mix gender school. They all are separated by the governments law. Thus, kids between 5 -18 years old don’t interact with the opposite sex at least 8 hours daily and in result their friends are also mostly the same gender. The interesting and sad part is that women need to have their hijab even if the whole class or school’s employee are women at their school After the 12 years, people can choose to go to a mix- gender university. In university, 18-year-old teenagers will experience a totally new envirment after a long time. An envirment that they didn’t learn about it and it is so new. These distractive rules don’t stop at schools. 

The other rule is if a person taking a public bus, they need to stay in their specific gender section of the bus. It doesn’t matter how old they are. Usually, women at the back and men at the front exactly like how the government works.

 The third law that I like to mention is if people want to work out, they need to find the gym or the hours which is just for their gender. Women and men cannot work out together at the same time at a same gym. One of the reasons is Hijab but it is not the only reason. This doesn’t stop at gyms. It is also true at courts, on fields and for spectator rules. Women cannot go to stadiums to watch men’s games and vice versa. On March 29, 2022, women were allowed to buy tickets for Iran’s football national team game against Lebanon, but they weren’t allowed to the stadium again. Personally, I used to have games in Iran and not even once my father has seen me play in a real game for this brainless law.

 Finally, women and men need to be separated in mosques. Mosque is where people can go to do their pray. They say if men and women get mixed in mosques, they might distract each other. While in Mecca, where the Kaaba exist, men and women are mixed.

 After all these the social expectation is that there will be good understanding between the two gender and, they expect happy marriages. However, the community can easily forget that we spend our life separately for 12 years by the Iran’s government choice.The laws I just mentioned shows the government is treating us (women) more like animals than human beings. It demonstrates that they don’t count people’s freedom to choose what they desire. People are separated for 12 years at schools, are separated in buses, are separated in mosques, are separated at the gyms, and even need to be separated on weddings or birthday parties unless they find a place which doesn’t follow the law as they asked for.Plus, one of the reasons that Iranian people cannot defend their rights is this separation. Both women and men need each other’s support to get their rights.Human being cannot ignore the exitance of the opposite sex. If we do, we are ignoring the nature. These rules don’t make sense if a country wants to respect human rights and clearly Iran is taking no notice of them.

Mashouri V