http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-05-30/iran-candidate-jalili-says-women-s-rights-are-as-mothers.html


...“Women’s core identity lies in motherhood and her role should be defined within that framework, not in an economic context,” Jalili, who’s also Iran’s chief nuclear negotiator, told a female audience at a political rally late yesterday.

.....“The West says society should work to its full potential, and since women constitute half of the population, their work power cannot be ignored and should be included in the economic cycle,” Jalili said.
“Making use of women as an object and lowering her greatness to the level of a workforce and economic tool is very different from how they are viewed in Islam,” Jalili said. “We are backers of women’s rights, especially in comparison to the West.”

....About 52 percent of Iranian university students who graduated in 2009 were women, according to data published by the UN Education Scientific and Cultural Organization. Sixty-eight percent of science graduates were women, Paris-based UNESCO said.
In 2011, women in Iran accounted for 27 percent of the workforce, the Tehran Times reported. While women are culturally not seen as responsible for contributing to a family’s income, in many cases men are in effect no longer the sole breadwinner.