Mrs. Nataliya Yakunina, the Chairperson of Sanctity of Motherhood Program, accompanied by her assistant, Miss. Typitsyna Ekaterina, visited Alzahra University and met with Dr. Ensieh Khazali, the chancellor of Alzahra University, on Tuesday, January 31, 2017. In this meeting Dr. Safara, the director of Women Research Center; Dr. Tavassoli, deputy of research and international affairs of Social Sciences and Economics Faculty; Dr. Navarchi, director of chancellor’s office; Dr. Hanachi, director of International Academic Collaborations and Dr. Dastamooz, head of Russian Language Department of Literature Faculty were also present.

In this meeting Dr. Hanachi gave a brief introduction about Alzahra University and the introductory movie of the University was presented. Then each person introduced herself and Mrs. Nataliya Yakunina gave a thorough introduction about “The Sanctity of Women Program” and the projects they are about to launch.

In response to the question of Mrs. Nataliya Yakunina, regarding the fact that how Iranian women make balance between work and family, Dr. Ensieh Khazali mentioned that there is a two-year maternity leave for students and employees and mothers can take hours off to feed their babies. And she emphasized that about parenting should be discussed culturally and NGOs should help people understand the risks and reasons behind it.

The following points were among the main subjects which were discussed:

·       The SM Program will be having a conference in April and she proposed Alzahra University to take part in this program;

·       Dr. Khazali explained the “Mothers’ Day” o Iranian calendar and invited Mrs. Nataliya Yakunina to participate in the ceremony which will be held in Alzahra University.

·       Dr. Tavassoli proposed a comparative intercultural joint research program on maternity laws of Iran and Russia which was received gladly but since this program does not include researchers, they cannot help us directly with this project but they can make the connections between Alzahra University and other Russian Universities in order to conduct the research program.