Speaking on Sunday morning at the opening session of the International Seminar on Women's empowerment through ICT, Azari Jahromi said empowerment of women is everyone's responsibility, but information technology, communications technology, and social networking sites have all contributed to this cause, creating opportunities for women's empowerment.
Elsewhere in his remarks, the minister of telecommunications emphasized that Information Technology and Communications Technology play a key role in empowerment of women, with latest government statistics showing that 45 percent of all mobile users and internet users in Iran being women, with this figure expected to increase in future years.
In further remarks, Azari jahromi said: "Women's presence in communications technology must be seen as an opportunity and not a threat. In order for women to enter information technology and telecommunications industry, they need financial support, and this why the Iranian government has set up 'a special fund' to support women entering this new area of technology and business".
Turning to rural districts, villages and small towns, Azari Jahromi said: "The ICT network must be extended to distant villages and rural locations, and empowerment of women must be given top priority. Both of these can be thought of as a form of social support."
Several senior officials and ministers from various countries attended the International Seminar on Women's empowerment through ICT, including the Indonesian government's minister for women, Johannah Susanah Yambasseh, Pakistan's deputy minister of communications, Amineh Soheil, the former Russian telecommunications minister, Nicolai Nikiferov, Iran's vice president for women and family affairs, Masoumeh Ebtekar, and communications technology ( ICT ) minister, Mohammad javad Azari Jahromi.
