Azam Nouri is the mayor of a district of Teheran. At 36, she is the first woman to have reached such a seniorposition in local government. She was wearing the full black chador when we met. ``This is our culture,'' she said, flicking the swathes of material that lay across her knee. ``And it doesn't stop me working. We need to increase the spirit and self-confidence among young women. But then we also have to change the mentality of men.''Oddly, the Islamic revolution itself -- which took away many of women's legal rights -- is even seen by some women as an impetus to the development of feminism. It is Farveh, who reminds me that the revolution helped to get women out of their houses. Before Ayatollah Khomeini founded his theocratic state, many traditional Muslim families had not allowed their daughters to go to school or university or to go to work. But once the moral rules were instituted by the Government, the public world looked as safe as the private world. This movement out of the home has had a profound effect on Iranian women. From 35 per cent 20 years ago, official figures now put the female literacy rateat 87 per cent. From three female members of parliament in 1992, there are now 14.

The Khatami effect on women

After 20 years, he's talking to them

Ziba Jalali Naini is an unusual woman -- divorced, with two daughters, and runs her own publishing house. She believes there is a new spirit of feminism around, which is being encouraged by President Khatami, who was elected last year. ``When I first heard him speak,'' she said, ``I thought, at last, after all these 20 years since the revolution I've heard somebody talking to me. He said he believed women and men should have an equal stake in decision-making. After he won, women got the feeling that they are powerful, that they can change their destiny.'' Naini believes this surge of energy has revitalised feminist debate: ``It is here in the government now, but it is also around in society -- in the press, and in how ordinary women behave.''

Certainly, in a press where dissent is never tolerated, women have carved out an extraordinary place forthemselves. There are several newspapers and magazines run by and targeted at women, such as Zan (Woman) and an extremely popular magazine called Zanan, (Women). These promote what they call Islamic feminism.

Ayatollah Khadiva is one of the younger, more liberal clerics who is beginning to change the style of Islamic discourse in Iran. Not only is he eager to tell me that women can look to Islam for help in getting their rights, he is even ready to say that where Islam and women's rights conflict, the letter of Islamic law should shift as is starting to happen. Until recently a woman could never get custody of boys over two and girls over seven, but a few months ago a law was passed that means custody of boys and girls can be given to a mother after divorce if the father is proved to be an unsuitable parent. ``This happens even though our religion says it should happen another way, and I am very much in favour of this,'' he said.