In my reports, I have expressed CEDAW's concern about structural discrimination against women in the Iranian system. It's built in through the laws and through the practices. There's also a paradox to this, in that over the past 30-odd years women have attained huge strides in education in Iran. As a consequence, Iranian women are amongst the most educated, in fact, in the entire region.
What happens, though, is that this doesn't translate into actual economic empowerment. There are laws and practices that often inhibit women from joining the workplace. A new law that is just making the rounds of parliament now would actually require an employer to give first preference to married men with families, then to married men, and then to married women, leaving out any consideration for single women. These sorts of policies actually hinder women's rights.
Having said that, over the past five years that I have been observing Iran, women remain very powerful and active advocates for their own rights and also for the wider community as well. The election of 18 women to parliament I think signals the continuing role women have in public life, but it also has a lot of inequality built into the system.