Iranian of the Day

TheSpec.Com: A burning desire to improve the lives of girls everywhere has catapulted 17-year-old Saba Ghahari from her Stoney Creek home to New York City today where she is at the United Nations fighting youth gender inequities and injustices.

Saba Ghahari, a Grade 12 Orchard Park Secondary School student, got a real eye-opener last summer when she visited Iran for the first time with her mother. The discrimination she saw girls suffering in that country lit a fire in her to advocate for the rights of girls worldwide, including Canada, where she says economic inequalities steer more females than males into a life of poverty.

"I find women (in Iran) are at the bottom status," she said in a telephone interview from New York yesterday. Her female cousins in Iran lead an unhappy existence, are forced to cover their hair and entire body and have much more difficulty getting into university than the boys, she said. All this, while "men can do whatever they want." >>>