Cultural campaign for women equality is a worthy cause which can be best carried out at the grass root level in a democratic society inside Iran. The virtual space or exile are not the best venues for such campaigns. That is why I think the biggest challenge of our time is political in nature. One may bring up the chicken-egg paradox and argue that these cultural issues breed the kind of backwardness, discrimination, and violence that characterizes the regime in Iran. That might be true to a certain extent in the same way as some may argue that Nazism or Fascism had their underpinnings in the European culture. The political project not only must go on but also given the first priority in my opinion because without the success of the political project, the social project for change has little chance of success.
I believe despite all our cultural deficiencies and chauvinistic males and so on we can do better than this. Some may even argue that many of the things that Shadi Sadr says about Iranian men, are things that western feminists might say about western men. Obviously most of us would trade their political system and democratic institutions for ours in a heart beat. The logical conclusion of Ms. Sadr arguments is that this regime, by virtue of representing our male chauvinistic culture, enjoys some degree of legitimacy although she may not have put it this way.