Mariam Behruzi(born 1945) is an Iranian lawyer and former member of theIranian Majlis. In 1980, she was one of four women elected to thefirst Majlis, where she continued to serve until 1996. She worked to improve women's and family issues, successfully campaigning to have a committee on women's issues created within the Majlis. Behruzi also worked to have more women included in the judiciary, and her efforts resulted both in a reversal of a ban that prohibited women from studying law and a change in public opinion on women in law in Iran.Early life[edit]Behruzi was born in 1945 inTehranto a prominentclergyman. She completed high school and, despite being married at 15, studied at university. She had a son, who was killed in theIranIraq War.[1]Career[edit]After beginning university, Behruzi started to provide education on theQu'ranto Iranian women. She participated in the protests againstMohammad Reza Shah Pahlavithat led up to the 1979 Iranian Revolution in which the Shah and thePahlavi dynastywere overthrown. Though barred from political activity in 1975, she continued to participate secretly, and was jailed from 19781979.[1]In 1980, Behruzi was among four women elected to the first Majlis, the parliament that was established after the Iranian Revolution.[2]She, along with other women, helped found the Committee of the Family within the Majlis. They met regularly with the civil court judges, where they examined family issues and came up with ways to solve women's issues within the family setting.[3]Behruzi was particularly concerned with improvingdivorcecourts, which she found to focus too little on women and children and specifically to favor fathers incustodyissues. She also worked to improve the rights afforded to divorced wives. Behruzi also tried to establish a committee for women's issues, though this did not pass.[1]Behruzi was re-elected to the second Majlis, along with two of the three other women from the first Majlis.[4]Behruzi created theZeinab's Association(also referred to as the Zainab Soceity) in 1986 or 1987. This was a political party that focused on women's education and social and political awareness, and encouraged its members to pursue women's issues by pressuring the Majlis and religious leaders.[1][5]In 1991, Behruzi was one of nine women elected to the fourth Majlis. During her term, she continued to work on family and women's issues. She pushed to have women included in all of the Majlis committees, and passed a bill allowing women to retire after twenty years in thecivil service.[1]Behruzi campaigned, along with five other female candidates, for election to the fifth Majlis. She was by now well-recognized as a politician working to improve women's issues, and became more bold in her condemnation of a culture that diminished women's work. She was not elected, but her work resulted in the creation of a women's committee on the Majlis.[1]No longer a member of the Majlis, Behruzi began to work to have more women appointed as judicial advisors. This was a difficult issue, as men and women did not generally work together perreligious practice, a practice that she supported.[6]However, she used examples of women's contributions to the Islamic revolution, statements byAyatollah Khomeiniencouraging women to participate in all areas, and arguments rooted inIslamic feminismto argue for reversal of the prohibition on women working in the legal system that had been introduced when Khomeini came into power. She succeeded, and women were again able to study law. Her work has been credited with a broader change in views on women in the Iranian judiciary.[1]Behruzi also worked as an organizer of theIranian Women's Islamic Association, and chaired the Islamic studies program atShahid Beheshti Universityin Tehran.[1]