KYOTO -- Born into an educated, politically active family in Iran, Fatemeh Hashemi defies the image of Muslim women often held in Japan.
"Ninety-nine percent of Iranians are religious. This says nothing against modernity," Hashemi, the eldest daughter of Hashemi Rafsanjani, president of Iran from 1989 to 1997, said in an interview Sunday.
"The Shiite sect has an element of dynamism and you can adapt yourself and the laws to new conditions. Religion is not a limitation or restriction for progress. Seventy percent of university students are female. The rate of literacy among women when the revolution took place (in 1979) was 32 percent. This has now changed to 84 percent," she said.