ABSTRACT
A woman who enters a government building — a Ministry, or an Airport Terminal — anywhere in Iran will find herself undergoing a number of ritual procedures. Each such public space has a women's entrance, segregated from the men's. The ritual and the strictness of its observance vary with the nature of the space and the number of women present there. The closer to the seat of official power, and the more women there are — especially if they are from the secular-oriented middle classes — then the stricter are the rules of segregation and screening.
