Some 19.7 percent of women throughout the country and 19.4 percent in the capital are living under the poverty line, advisor to Tehran Governor General on women’s affairs said. Rezvan Nayyeri told ISNA that the human poverty index for women is 11.3 percent in Tehran and 21.4 percent across the country, giving Tehran the first rank and the most favorable condition among other provinces.
Nayyeri added Tehran ranks first in terms of women’s access to education at different levels.
She put the maternal mortality rate at 23.2 percent in Tehran and 37.4 percent nationwide.
Statistics show that the ratio of women heading households to the whole female population is 8.4 in the country and 8 percent in Tehran.
About 14 percent of socially distressed women are living in Tehran.
The deprivation index for women is 19.2 percent in Tehran and 24.2 percent countrywide.

The fund will grant loans to all working women in the future. (IRNA Photo)

A fund to support women’s job opportunities will be established in the central Yazd province, in an effort to provide backing for working and entrepreneur women, advisor to governor general Mahin Abbasi said.
She explained that the proposal had been approved by the provincial working group for youth and women and was under expert examination, ISNA reported.
“The plan will become operational with the cooperation of Bank Keshavarzi (agriculture bank). The amount of budget specified for the fund will be defined once expert studies are over,“ he added.
The advisor said both Keshavarzi Bank and the Governor General’s Office will earmark an equal amount to the fund, adding the top priority of the fund would be to support women entrepreneurs by granting bank loans. The scheme will later be generalized to all employed women.
She mentioned cutting red tape as one objective behind the project, complaining that excessive paperwork was a big hindrance to women’s employment programs.
He enumerated high profit rate of bank loans, finding eligible guarantors for loans and marketing products as the most important problems challenging women entrepreneurs.

Born on November 24, 1961, Arundhati Roy is an Indian novelist, author of The God of Small Things, for which she won the Booker Prize.
Roy was born in Shillong, Meghalaya to a Keralite Syrian Christian mother and a Bengali Hindu father. She spent her childhood in Aymanam in Kerala. She left Kerala for Delhi at age 16, and embarked on a bohemian lifestyle, staying in a small hut with a tin roof and making a living selling empty beer bottles. She then proceeded to study architecture at the Delhi School of Architecture.
Arundhati met her filmmaker husband in 1984, under whose influence she moved into films. She acted in the role of a village girl in the award-winning movie Massey Sahib, and wrote the screenplays for Electric Moon and In Which Annie Gives It Those Ones.
She began writing The God of Small Things in 1992 and finished it in 1996. She received half-a-million pounds in advances, and rights to the book were sold in 21 countries. The book is semi-autobiographical and a major part captures her childhood experiences in Aymanam.
Roy is also a well known peace activist. One of her first essays was in response to India’s testing of nuclear weapons in Pokhran, Rajasthan. The essay, titled The End of Imagination, is a critique against the Indian government’s nuclear policies. It was published in her collection “The Cost of Living,“ in which she also begins her crusade against India’s massive hydroelectric dam project.
Since then she has devoted herself solely to nonfiction and politics, publishing two more collections of essays as well as working for humanist causes.
In 2002, she was convicted of contempt of court by the Supreme Court in New Delhi for accusing the court of attempting to silence protests against the Narmada Dam Project, but received only a symbolic sentence of one day in prison.
Roy was awarded the Sydney Peace Prize in May, 2004, for her work in social campaigns and advocacy of nonviolence.

Director of Tehran Specialized Clinic for Breast Diseases said Iranian women developing breast cancer are about one decade younger (above 40 years) compared to cancer patients in most other countries (above 50 years), reported IRNA.
Shahpar Haqiqat added that in other countries women above 40 are advised to undergo clinical examination and mammography, while the recommended age for such examinations is 35 in Iran.
“Although the disease is classified as cancer, it can be successfully cured, provided it is diagnosed in an early stage when the malignant tumor is less than two centimeters in dimension and can be safely removed,“ she said, adding diagnosis and treatment methods employed in Iran can compete with those of advanced countries.
She recalled that formerly the cancerous breast of the patient was totally removed in a surgery, “whereas today only the tumor is removed. The same procedure is being applied in Iran.“
Haqiqat described “raising women’s awareness of their health conditions“ as the most crucial step in fighting off the malignancy and said, “We have been trying to reach the target groups through recurrent media programs in line with the Health Ministry’s policies.“
She advised women to stay away from fat and greasy foods, “because obesity is an important risk factor in breast cancer.“
Those seeking medical counseling on breast cancer may call (021)6466266 from 9 am to 16 pm on weekdays.

Head of the Assembly of Women Members of Islamic Councils said the body would discuss strategies for supporting socially vulnerable women at its fifth session set for July 7-8 in Qom, ISNA reported.
Sediqeh Qannadi added that a working group would examine ways and means of establishing local family councils, while another will study strategies to support vulnerable women.
According to Qannadi, establishment of provincial women assemblies as well as creation of women-exclusive parks will top the agenda of the session.
“The proceedings also include assigning research teams to analyze the assembly’s endorsements and draft bills for submission to the parliament, or compile the ratifications in a book,“ she explained.

Girls sing a folk song during the First Cultural Artistic Festival of North Khorasan Schoolgirls in Bojnourd on June 29. (IRNA Photo)

Local women suffer from anxiety and fear associated with poverty and strenuous jobs. (IRNA Photo)

Women in the southwestern province of Kohkiloyeh-Boyerahmad, particularly in rural districts, are largely denied their social rights, deputy governor general for development affairs said.
In a meeting of provincial women’s working group in Yasouj, Mehdi Roudashtian said local women are plagued by anxiety and fear associated with poverty and strenuous jobs, IRNA reported.
“It is the officials’ unquestionable duty to make every effort to help fulfill the rights of local women and encourage them to enter economic and political arenas with the purpose of empowering them,“ he reiterated.
Roudashtian stated that establishing cooperatives, offering skills training, promoting handicrafts and conversion industries for women provide some options for ensuring women’s growth in the province.
He added that to consolidate family foundations and empower women in social spheres, all efforts should start from rural districts.
Meanwhile, speaking at the meeting, director general of Agricultural Jihad Ministry’s Office for Women Affairs, Farzaneh Mafi, pointed to Kohkiloyeh-Boyerahmad’s rich human and natural resources, especially in agriculture, handicrafts and animal husbandry.
“All these potentials place the province in a unique position in terms of opportunities for providing women with a more socially active life,“ she stated.
“Women here have not received the attention and care they deserve, and need to develop self-assurance through training.“
According to Mafi, there are currently over 300 women cooperatives throughout the country, with their members ranging from 30 to 1,000.
Kohkiloyeh-Boyerahmad has five women cooperative companies with 750 members. Two more shall be founded by the yearend (March 2006).

Shoulder pain in women is frequently caused by muscle strain, tendinitis, arthritis or a condition called frozen shoulder, where the shoulder gets stiff and can’t move freely. Fibromyagia, which occurs more often in women than men, can also cause pain.
The fact that most women have less shoulder power than men doesn’t make them more prone to shoulder injuries. Most women’s shoulders are actually strong relative to their body size.
What can make women more susceptible to shoulder pain and injury, however, is that their shoulders are naturally more lax, or loose, than men’s. This can make women candidates for dislocation and impingement, in which tendons in the shoulder become pinched against a bone. Some people are more predisposed to this because the bone at the top of their shoulder has a little beak on it that is more likely to rub on the tendon. Others can develop it when tired muscles don’t function as they should and the tendon gets pinched as a result.
Women who play tennis, work as baggers in grocery stores or work at a computer keyboard are most likely to get shoulder pain.
Another common problem for women is frozen shoulder. For some reason, the ligaments that go around the ball-and-socket joint become inflamed. The pain causes a reduction in use of the shoulder. As a result, the ligaments don’t get stretched and the shoulder starts to tighten up.
You may be able to carry the world on your shoulders, but only if you keep them in good shape. Here’s how to do it.
-Stretch out. Before engaging in exercise or strenuous chores, warm up and stretch your shoulders to get them ready for exertion.
-Take breaks. When you use your muscles for a sustained period of time to do things like clip the hedge, paint a room or turn over the garden, muscle fatigue and pain can result. Take breaks and divide the task into segments instead of trying to do it all at once.
-Watch your work surface. Whether you’re working in the office or in the kitchen, make sure your work surface is at a height that’s comfortable for you. A surface that’s too low will cause you to hunch your shoulders and upper back, and one that’s too high will cause you to arch your back too much.
-Lift it right. When you lift something, pay attention to the position of your head. Bend at the knees to pick something up, and hold the item close to your body. (If your head moves forward, the weight is too heavy: don’t lift it at all.) If you’re lifting a child, have her climb onto a chair so you can pick her up from there.
-Strengthen yourself. The stronger the muscles in your shoulder, the more stable--and less prone to injury--it will be. Ask a physical therapist to put you on a shoulder-strengthening program. But make sure your therapist helps you adjust any weight machines to your particular size. Since weight machines designed for men are too big for a woman’s frame, you may need to customize the machine by adding extra seat cushions and back pads.
-See a doctor. If you develop shoulder pain, check with a physician if it lasts longer than a month.

China plans to officially make sexual harassment a crime as part of changes to the law that will also for the first time give the policy of gender equality a legal base, state media said.
Amendments to the law on the protection of women’s rights will state unequivocally that it is illegal to subject women to sexual harassment, the Xinhua news agency reported.
The amendments will also order all enterprises and government offices to take steps to prevent the occurrence of sexual harassment, according to the agency.
A draft of the amendments was submitted to legislators meeting in Beijing, Xinhua said.
The amended law will also explicitly state for the first time that gender equality is part of national policy in China, Xinhua said, citing lawmakers.
Sexual harassment is “a growing social problem“ in China, according to a report in the China Daily.
“The rising number of cases shows that women still occupy a lower position in society, and are therefore more vulnerable to exploitation and bullying by men,“ the paper wrote.
It said a “considerable number“ of women have been sexually harassed at some point and to varying degrees, causing emotional trauma or even personal injury.
In the case of career women, offenders typically abuse their authority, combining threats of discharge or defamation with inducements of promotions and pay rises to force female subordinates to submit to their advances.
Chinese women have suffered in silence because there are no explicit laws targeting and defining the issue, it said.