"My Name is Iran" - A production of NPR and American RadioWorks

NPR Producer Davar Ardalan's great-grandfather created Iran's legal code in the 1920s. Davar has lived in Iran under both the Shah's reign and that of the Ayatollahs. In this hour-long special, she traces her personal journey and Iran's struggle for a lawful society, twenty-five years after the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

A century ago, Iran became the first country in the Middle East to bring together secular and religious law. In 1979, an Islamic revolution made Iran a theocracy and enshrined religious law as supreme. The changes were dramatic: women were stoned for adultery, children could be tortured, and the age of marriage for girls reduced to nine.

Now, a movement is growing within Iran to create a society that ensures human rights. Inside Iran's courtrooms, Nobel Peace Prize winner Shirin Ebadi and other lawyers are fighting for change. They've successfully changed the age of marriage for girls from nine to thirteen. Divorced women now can have custody of male children up to the age of seven. But they are confronting hard-line clerics who are adamant that the legal system remain based on their interpretation of the word of God.
Ardalan and co-producer Rasool Nafisi explore the ferment in today's Iran at a time when other nations in the Islamic world are debating how to balance secular and sacred law in a modern society.

Please go to this website for more: http://www.americanradioworks.org/features/iran/