E/C.12/1993/7 page 3 expressed at its fifth session in 1990 about the situation of certain minority groups, which have not been satisfactorily answered in the course of the present session: (a) Violation of the rights of the Baha’i community; (b) Violation of economic, social and cultural rights in addition to violation of political and civil rights; (c) Discrimination on religious grounds in the educational system; (d) Insufficiency of the education offered to the children belonging to the Kurdish minority; (e) Prohibition of the admission to university of Baha’is; (f) Restriction of freedom of debate and choice in the university institutions; (g) The situation of the Kurds and the disparities that exist between the different ethnic and economic groups in the enjoyment of their rights to education, to work, to travel, to housing and to the enjoyment of cultural activities. 6. The Committee expresses its particular concern with respect to the non-performance by the Government of Iran of its obligation under article 3 of the Covenant, under which the States parties undertake to ensure the equality of men and women to the enjoyment of all economic, social and cultural rights set forth in the Covenant. In that connection the Committee finds that the situations: in which women are not permitted to study engineering, agriculture, mining or metallurgy or to become magistrates; in which they are excluded from a very large number of specific subjects at university level; and in which they need their husbands’ permission to work or travel abroad; to be incompatible with the obligations undertaken by the State party under the Covenant. The Committee seeks further clarification as to which women’s rights have been "revived" in accordance with article 20 (i) of the Constitution. 7. In relation to the right to take part in cultural life, the Committee would also like to have more precise information on legislation and policies protecting creative freedom. In particular, the Committee expresses its grave concern at the negative implications for this right of the issuance of fatwahs. During the Committee’s examination of the report, several members drew attention in this regard to the case of an author, Mr Salman Rushdie. While appreciating that fatwahs are issued by the religious authorities and not by State organizations per se, the question of State responsibility clearly arises in circumstances in which the State does not take whatever measures are available to it to remove clear threats to the rights applicable in Iran in consequence of its ratification of the Covenant. The Committee calls upon the Government of Iran to affirm that it rejects the acceptability, in terms of its international human rights obligations, of the issuance of such fatwahs. It also requests the Government to assure the Committee that if