The note of the head of the University Alumni Office following the death of Professor Dr. Maryam Pourreza is as follows:

Receiving the news of the death of a knowledgeable and popular doctor, scholar and outstanding professor of the Department of Gynecology, Obstetrics and Infertility of Tehran University of Medical Sciences, Dr. Maryam Pourreza caused Sorrow abounded.

She in 1953, in the entrance exam of the medical school, would get the first rank among women who volunteered to enter the field of medicine.

Maryam was seven years old when her father entrusted her to the French school of Jandark to study under the teachings of the nuns of these schools. She finished all her studies until she got her diploma in the same school and in the same year she got the first rank among volunteer girls in the medical school entrance exam.

Maryam said somewhere that although her father was educated abroad and a lawyer and studied at Cairo University and then Sorbonne in France, he was against her going to medical school! He also said that my father was a bigot and he didn't like me to sit in the same class with some young boys and study! After hearing the news of my acceptance to the medical school, my mother and uncle talked to him for a long time so that he allowed me to go to the school! That that I go and return with a personal driver. Later, he even allowed me to stay in the hospital for nights on duty with heavy conditions.

Maryam, however, was full of enthusiasm for education and patiently and soberly accepted her father's conditions and respectfully earned her father's trust to study in a period and time when girls' education was unusual and a kind of breaking tradition. Interestingly, his father's strictness never disturbed the loving and respectful relationship between him and his father.

During her studies at the medical school, Maryam was attended by professors such as Dr. Kihani, Professor Hakim, Dr. Niknafs, Professor Golgolab, Dr. Nematolahi and Dr. Giti in physiology, Dr. Shafa in microbiology, Dr. Mirdamadi in immunology, Dr. Armin and Dr. Shamsa in Pathology, Dr. Mojdehi and Dr. Bineshvar in the Department of Infectious Diseases, Dr. Maleki, Dr. Sharqi and Dr. Mohagheghi in the Department of Dermatology, Professor Shams, Dr. Alavi, and Dr. Zarrabi in Eye Diseases, Dr. Farhad in the Radiology Department. She experienced the great professor Mirspasi in mental diseases and Dr. Adib and Dr. Rashid Yasemi in forensic medicine and the presence of dozens of other great professors. He always remembered his teachers as good and great.

Maryam studied with excellent grades and married one of her classmates named Bijan Jahangiri in the last year of the college. Later, Bijan continued his pharmacology course and was employed as a faculty member at Tehran University.

One year after marriage, while his wife was pregnant, Bijan first went to Belgium and then to America to continue his studies, and Maryam started a specialized field of obstetrics and gynecology while she was pregnant.

She once again faced gender strictures and this time from the head of the women's department of the medical school to enter the women's speciality.

Yes, he faced the opposition and stoning of men who dominate this specialized field! Men did not appreciate the presence of women in this heavy specialized field.

Dr. Jahanshah Saleh, the head of the women's hospital, was the main opponent of Maryam's admission to the specialized course in obstetrics and gynecology. Jahanshah Saleh, perhaps out of benevolence and considering the conditions and limitations of women to enter this heavy profession, was against the entry of many women, especially married women, into this field, and Maryam was also married, and more importantly, her husband was not with her.

However, Maryam overcame this barrier and with the insistence and trust of Jahanshah Saleh, she entered the specialized course in obstetrics and gynecology. Being in a large family, a serious, disciplined  but kind and supportive father, an educated and cultured mother made Maryam a hardworking, purposeful and resilient person.

Maryam was fluent in French, so she went to Belgium and France to complete a supplementary course and completed the supplementary course of women's ultrasound and infertility in these two countries for several months.

She then worked as an assistant professor at Tehran University Medical School.

Maryam quickly went through the stages of advancement. He first became an associate professor and then became a university professor. She then became a member of the Board of Gynecology and Obstetrics and Infertility of the Ministry of Health and after a while he was appointed as the secretary of the board.

At the same time, Maryam Pourreza, in addition to her services in the university and academic environments, was not oblivious to providing services to patients in the public and private sectors. In this way, he served the people of his country for more than half a century, and finally, on the 29 of December 2022, he passed away and the book of her fruitful life reached the last page.

I offer my condolences to the university family, colleagues and the family of Pourreza Ghazal Ayaq, especially Mr. Dr. Jahangiri, his husband , and I wish eternal peace and God's mercy to that honorable lady.

                Dr. Seyedmansour Gatmiri

                    Head of Alumni Office

It should be noted that the memorial service of the dear deceased will be held from 11:00 am to 1:00 pm on Friday, January 6, at Raad Cultural Complex Hall, No. 74, Hormzan St., South Pirozan St., Shahrek Gharb. The participation of relatives, colleagues and friends in this ceremony is a reason for gratitude.

Seyed Mehdi Fazeli

International Relations Expert