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Single Women in Iran: Courage amidst Extraordinary Challenges
Meet a brilliant and brave scholar and activist
Recently, I received an email from MahSa Hariri, who described herself as “an Iranian women’s rights activist focusing on the lived experiences and challenges of single women.” I didn’t realize just how extraordinary and brave it was to live as a single woman in Iran, or to try to become a scholar or an activist.
As you will learn from the interview below, MahSa Hariri was succeeding in her 20-year career in a large organization. She had excellent credentials and was doing great work. But when she wanted a promotion to manager, she was told she could not have that job because she was not married. She was given a one-year deadline to get married and then she could become a manager. Academia was a daunting experience, too: She was in a doctoral program but faced so much harassment and discrimination, she ultimately left.
In the email, MahSa Hariri was asking me to do an interview about my experiences as a single woman and what I’ve learned about singlism (the stereotyping and stigmatizing of single people and the discrimination against them). I agreed, and I will share that interview in a future story.
But far more compelling and inspiring than my own experiences are MahSa Hariri’s. I…
