Yet the success of female education in Iran, especially the expansion of women’s university attendance, triggered a reactionary backlash that came to fruition under the (previous) hardline administration of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Ironically, the Islamic Republic has long pointed to the expansion of women’s education as one of its crowning achievements. What we mean by deprived of education is any girl or boy between 6 and 18 years of age …

By mid-century, legal reforms granting women the right to vote and raising the minimum age for marriage offered more opportunities for women to pursue educ… During Ahmadinejad’s presidency, however, many restrictions were introduced to girls education including separate entrances and classrooms, as well as separate social areas and a repression of the subjects women w… Formal education for women in Iran began in 1907 with the establishment of the first primary school for girls. 75 percent of students deprived of education in Iran are girls. Before his election, women accounted for more applications to universities than men in Iran.

In 1935, women first experienced the secularization of Iran's educational system when the University of Tehran was established.

Iran is a Persian nation, and women there can do many things that they cannot do in some other countries, including Saudi Arabia, which is an Arab nation. Conservative government officials and clerics came to view female education … Addressing a Planning Council meeting of Kohgiloyeh and Boyerahmad Province, Massoumeh Ebtekar, director of the presidential directorate on Women and Family Affairs, said, “The number of girls deprived of education in Iran is three time greater than boys. Women in Iran are forced to wear the hijab, the headscarf worn by some Muslim women, in public.

Education held an important role in Iranian society, especially as the nation began a period of modernization under the authority of Reza Shah Pahlaviin the early 20th century when the number of women's schools began to grow.

As the nation's secularization created demand for professionally trained students, women were encouraged to attend schools. The presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad from 2005 to 2013 ushered in an era of repression for girls’ education in Iran. Education became a social norm and a marker of achievement in Iranian society. Studying at Tehran University in 1977: While many women were already in higher education at the time of the revolution, the subsequent years saw a marked increase in the number attending university. As the world celebrated International Literacy Day, basic literacy remains a distant dream for many girl children and women in Iran.