Single mothers and breadwinners should enjoy the same SSOI benefits provided to men.

Social Security Organization of Iran plans to unify supportive services for survivors of both men and women covered by its insurance, a member of the Majlis Health Commission said.
Masoud Amini told Fars news agency that women breadwinners, who are administering their families due to death of their husbands or fathers, or divorce must be provided with the same SSOI services provided to men.
"The plan for unification of social security services was initiated at the Sixth Majlis and passed on the to current parliament. The Health and Treatment Commission of the Seventh Majlis has already endorsed the plan which is awaiting discussion at the parliament," he added.
Amini opined that women, financing their families, should be entitled to the same Labor Law incentives provided to men. "SSOI incentives provided to male employees are partly supplied by the government and partly by the employers. The same practice should be extended to women," he noted.
"It is the government's duty to set aside special budget for supporting single mothers and women breadwinners, who are among the vulnerable social groups."

Women researchers will be honored at the Woman and Research Festival.

Women researchers in all scientific domains will be hailed in the nationwide Festival of Woman and Research during the Research Week in December.
Mehr News agency reported that the event would also introduce and discuss research projects conducted on women-related affairs.
The audience at the nationwide festival will comprise professors and researchers from research and scientific centers, organizers and policymakers, representatives of scientific and research associations and organizations, managers and employers of governmental and non-governmental organizations, university and non-university women researchers and members of the public.
The festival will be held on Dec. 13th and 14th with the collaboration of Women Participation Center of the Presidential Office and Women Studies Group of Teacher Training University.
Agriculture Bank and IRIB will sponsor the event.

Parliamentary commissions dealing with women's affairs should not solely react to statements made by men officials about women.
Advisor to the interior minister on women affairs, Fakhrossadat Mohtashami-Pour, insisted that women should play a more active role in determining their own fate, ILNA reported.
She recalled that the Interior Ministry was the first governmental institution to expand bodies in charge of women's issues in deprived regions.
"Studies suggest that women's commissions, especially in disadvantaged areas, have helped promote women's contribution to political, cultural and social arenas. Women cannot take part in other affairs, unless their level of political participation increases," Mohtashami-Pour added.
She noted that a small number of directors of working groups dealing with women's concerns pay attention to gender-based issues. "The budget allocated to these working groups is 0.25 percent of that set aside for other organizations, in spite of the fact that their performance has been evaluated as 60 to 80 percent successful," the advisor commented.

British writer, university lecturer and prolific novelist, Iris Murdoch, dealt with everyday ethical or moral issues, sometimes in the light of myths. As a writer, she was a perfectionist who did not allow editors to change her text. Murdoch produced 26 novels in 40 years, the last written while she was suffering from Alzheimer disease.
Iris Murdoch was born in Dublin in 1919. Her mother, the former Irene Alice Richardson, was an Irishwoman who had trained as an opera singer. Wills John Hughes Murdoch, Iris's father, was an English civil servant who had been a cavalry officer in World War I. The family moved to London, where Murdoch grew up in the western suburbs of Hammersmith and Chiswich.
Murdoch studied classics, ancient history and philosophy at Somerville College, Oxford. During World War II, she was an active member of the Communist Party, but eventually became disappointed with its ideology and resigned. From 1938 to 1942, she worked at the Treasury as an assistant principal, and then for the United Nations relief organization UNNRA (1944-46) in Austria and Belgium. After a year without employment in London, Murdoch took up a postgraduate studentship in philosophy under Ludwig Wittgenstein. In 1948, she was elected a fellow of St. Anne's College, Oxford, where she worked as a tutor until 1963. Following that time, Murdoch devoted herself entirely to writing. Between the years 1963 and 1967, she also lectured at the Royal College of Art.
Murdoch's first published work, Sartre, Romantic Rationalist (1953), was a critical study. She had met Sartre in the 1940s, becoming interested in existentialism. Murdoch's great love was a Czech Jewish poet and polymath called Franz Steiner, who died of a heart attack in 1952. In 1956, Murdoch married John Bayley, who was six years younger. They lived more than 30 years at Steeple Ashton, then moved into the academic suburb of North Oxford. Murdoch never took any interest in children.
Murdoch made her debut as novelist with Under the Net (1954). A Severed Head (1961) exploited Jungian theories of archetypes. The novel was turned into a play with the help of J.B. Priestley, then later (1971) a movie.
The Bell (1958) is among Murdoch's most successful novels. It depicts an Anglican religious community in Gloucestershire.
In Murdoch's early works such as The Sandcastle (1957), the style is polished and the books are generally short. Her later works are large, over 500 pages in length. In The Red and the Green (1965) Murdoch took her subject from history and set the story on the eve of the Easter Rebellion in Dublin, in the midst of World War I.
Often, Murdoch used fantasy and gothic elements, but her characters were realistically portrayed in their attempts to find meaning to their lives in extraordinary situations. Many of her novels have a religious or philosophical theme, but she avoided clear political statements.
Murdoch's major work is considered The Sea, The Sea, which won the Booker Prize in 1978.
She died in Oxford in 1999.

About 90 percent of Iranian married women have never asked for their Mahrieh (dower), an expert in women's affairs with the Tehran Governor's Office, Zahra Nejad-Bahram, said.
She told ILNA that Mahrieh is an exclusive right for women, in exchange for a multitude of extra rights enjoyed by men in our society.
"The number of women who have demanded their spouses to pay the prenuptial agreed sum is insignificant. Even most women disregard their rights to Mahrieh upon divorce," she said, insisting that the high Mahrieh sought by many women as a condition for marriage should not be interpreted as profiteering. "In fact, by demanding high sums, women seek some guarantees for continuation of their married life in the present unstable social conditions.
"It is wrong to put women's only warranty in married life under question," she opined. "Perhaps one in a thousand women demand high Mahrieh due to reasons other than fastening down their matrimonial bonds. So, we should not deprive all women from their legitimate right, for the sake of a small minority."
Nejad-Bahram remarked that "we should try to find alternative reasons for break-ups. We should pay attention to gender equality. We must not give women, who work alongside men outside home and whose daily chores in the house have a high financial value, a second role in decision-makings."
She gave assurances that by resolving women's concerns, the inclination for demanding heavy sums upon marriage will automatically be dispelled.

From Afghanistan to Liberia, from Colombia to the Congo, women and girls are being subjected to rape, torture and slavery that defy the imagination, Reuters quoted a UN official as saying.
Despite efforts to put "gender consideration" in UN humanitarian and peacekeeping missions, progress has been slow in achieving changes on the ground, Thoraya Obaid, director of the UN Population Fund, told the 15-member UN Security Council.
"We are here to speak about the unspeakable--the gender-based and sexual violence that is occurring on a massive scale in conflict and post-conflict situations around the world," Obaid said.
The council, in an all-day debate, was taking stock of its four-year old resolution, the first recommending women in war zones get special treatment and have a seat at the peace negotiating table.
The measure called for training of peacekeepers on protecting women and for adding special advisors on women and girls to peacekeeping missions, some of which has been done.
But so far women comprise only 1 percent of the soldiers and 5 percent of the police serving in peacekeeping ventures. And only two women serve as heads of UN missions among 25 men, said Jean-Marie Guehenno, the UN undersecretary-general for peacekeeping.
He said peacekeepers themselves had been guilty of abuse. "Our work cannot be considered complete as long as sexual exploitation or abuse is being committed by a single peacekeeper or humanitarian worker," Guehenno said.
Shortly before he spoke a UN watchdog report said investigators were looking into allegations of peacekeepers exploiting "young girls" in Bunia in the eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Secretary General Kofi Annan in a report to the council said recent incidents of sexual violence had occurred in Afghanistan, Burundi, Chad, the Congo, the Ivory Coast and Sudan's Darfur region, among others.
Although such violence was widely documented, he said the collective international response in relation to the sheer magnitude of the problem was highly inadequate.
Noleen Heyser, director of the UN Development Fund for Women, said rape was "systematically deployed as a weapon of war." In Haiti and East Timor, rape had been used to punish wives and female sympathizers of a perceived enemy.
She said the world had to make sure that those responsible for crimes against women were not rewarded with high profile jobs as a result of negotiated peace agreements.
The council ended its debate by issuing a three-page policy statement, read by British Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry, who organized the meeting. It asks Annan to submit an action plan, with time lines, by next October to implement programs across the spectrum of UN bodies, agencies and missions.
"The Security Council considers that an increase in the representation of women in all aspects of conflict prevention, peacekeeping and peace-building operations and humanitarian response is urgently needed," the statement said.

A woman buys Zulbia-Bamieh, traditional cookies for the fast-breaking meal (Iftar) during Ramadan. (Photo by Fars new agency)

Millions of women of all ages suffer from this all-too-common problem of incontinence during exercise.
Over 47 percent of active women experience incontinence (urine loss) at some point during their activity. The pelvic floor muscles need to be properly exercised and strengthened, or urinary incontinence may become even more intolerable.
Not only do women carry the concern of unexpected urine loss during activities, but typical feelings of frustration, helplessness and embarrassment are often present as well. Women may alter or completely stop doing activities where urinary incontinence may occur.
Many women still view urinary incontinence as a condition women have to deal with as they get older. Many spend hours during their day running, walking, attending exercise classes, playing with children. Women take pride in being physically fit, and having the ability to participate in the activities and hobbies they enjoy. In order to be physically fit, muscles must be exercised to become strong and toned. Just as any other muscle group in the body, the pelvic floor muscles must also be properly trained, exercised and strengthened to withstand the pressures of impact movements.
When abdominal pressure exceeds the maximum support the pelvic floor muscles can provide, urinary incontinence may be a consequence. High impact movements subject the pelvic floor to forces 3-4 times a women's body weight. The pelvic floor provides a support base for the pelvis, as well as keeping the bladder, uterus and rectum in place, which is important for continence. Pelvic floor muscles can only withstand a certain amount of force. Increased abdominal pressure and stress may result in urine leaks.
Solutions: Bladder control problems can be treated through prescription drugs, surgery, and behavioral therapy (such as pelvic muscle exercises). Studies have shown a 68-percent reduction in incontinence symptoms with drug therapy alone, while only 45-percent were satisfied with their surgery after five years. Pelvic muscle exercises can cure up to 80 percent of women with bladder control problems and should be the first treatment option. Practicing pelvic muscle exercises in conjunction with a biofeedback device increases success rates of drug therapy and surgery.

Close to half of Zambia's women have been subjected to physical or emotional abuse by their spouses or intimate partners, according to a recent report, allafrica.com reported.
The Demographic and Health Surveys (DHS), a US Agency for International Development (USAID) project that collects demographic and health data in developing countries has added questions on domestic violence and women's empowerment, allowing for in-depth analyses of the health and other consequences of gender relations.
The DHS report, 'Profiling Domestic Violence: A Multi-Country Study', finds high rates of domestic violence in all the countries studied, with over 40 percent of women in several countries reporting spousal or intimate partner abuse.
The number of women reporting physical or sexual abuse, through structured in-person interviews, was highest in Zambia, with 48 percent of respondents stating they had been subjected to abuse.
In most countries the highest levels of violence occurred in moderately wealthy households, and not, as was often assumed, among poorer households, the study found.
Although domestic violence had an obvious impact on the health and well-being of abused women, the report also showed that the children of abused women were more likely to suffer health problems.
"We know women in violent situations often have poor health, with some ending up as homicides and suicides, but this report also documents its impact on their young children," said gender researcher Dr Sunita Kishor.