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This article deals with a specific question: Where can we see the Iranian women when they are out of home? To answer such a question three different but interrelated studies were designed. First, a historical study about changes in the Iranian women’s access to public places and spheres was conducted, from which two main factors affecting such access emerged: academic education and employment out of home. Based on these two factors, four different types were constructed: educated and employed, educated but not employed, not educated but employed, and not educated and not employed. Then a set of qualitative interviews and a quantitative survey research comparing the four constructed types of women were conducted.
It was found that women’s access to public places related to their home activities and ‘public sphere of their own’ is generally common to all types. But access to public places not directly related to home activities and public spheres defined as “not their own”, was significantly higher in educated and employed type of women. It was also found that employment was more important than education and place of work was the most important public place toward which the Iranian urban women leave their homes