Maryam Mirzakhani: Rejection of gender stereotypes in light of science

Maryam Mirzakhani became the first female champion of the Mathematical Olympiad in Iran to win a gold medal twice in a row, the first Iranian American woman ever to become a member of the American Academy of Sciences, and the first woman to win a Fields Medal (known as the Nobel Prize in Mathematics has become a pioneer in overcoming cultural barriers and age-old gender stereotypes in the sciences.

In an ideal human world, the gender of a scientist should not be necessary at all. Nevertheless, in most societies, the foundations that determine the status, power, and social hierarchy of individuals and, therefore, the extent of their access to the necessary facilities to succeed in obtaining academic degrees depend solely on abilities, capabilities, motivation, and individual motivation effort. People are not community. Instead, our successes are still and often shaped by the intersection of all kinds of cultural and historical discrimination and stereotypes about gender, race, ethnicity, nationality, economic class, and so on.

If Maryam were not a woman, there would have been no need to specify her gender in all the news and related reports and call her "the first woman to win the Fields Medal." If Mary was not a woman, would her victory and her untimely death have attracted so much global attention? If Mary had not been a woman, the president of Stanford University would not have written in her mourning: "Mary passed away very soon, but the influence she left on thousands of women to be inspired by her to study mathematics and science will remain. »

If Maryam were not a woman, the type of clothing she wore would not have been debated theoretically and politically, and the publication of her photographs, along with the news of her global scientific achievements, would be a problem for the Republic-controlled media because her hair is not covered (despite being short). Islamic »Iran would not change.

• According to my specialty, Gender and Development Studies, let me talk and explain more about Maryam Mirzakhani's direct and indirect importance for human development (especially in education and advancement of women in the field of basic sciences) about her being a woman. In Iran's current economic, political, and cultural context, when the gender dimension is placed next to other dimensions of Maryam's brilliant characteristics and achievements, it increases her positive influence as one of the national and transnational celebrities.