During the past two decades, simultaneous with the family revolution, there seems no place left for old viewpoints about the historical role of boys and girls in social life.

Girls are looking for new ways to materialize their wishes. After Khordad 2, and with the changing atmosphere, girls seem to have embarked on a path of drastically revising their social lives. Although in developing countries people do not overexert themselves to attain their social aims and try to change public perceptions and beliefs.

A girl's world is full of doubt, and every day is a new battle in order to get closer to aims and goals she is working to achieve.

Girls are taught to pay attention to others' interests, and are often reminded that they should not compete with men in the world.

Surveys show that 88 percent of Iranian mothers encourage their daughters to avoid independence and self-sufficiency and girls usually consider themselves less than what they are - with the numbers about boys indicating an opposite perception.

In a seminar aiming to analyze the present situation of Iranian girls, a UNICEF representative here had set an ambitious agenda, trying to convince Iranian girls gathered at the seminar that they deserve to be believed in, beginning with childhood.

Astonishingly, in response to a survey some 46 percent of girls said they prefer to be boys. The number stood at 54 percent in another survey conducted on the March 8, 2001 commemoration ceremony for women.

Also, research done for UNICEF revealed that girls' lack of interest to continue their education is mainly because of their sex. Dr.

Elaheh Hajari in her research on sexual beliefs of girls indicates that one of the reasons that girls leave school is the content of books, especially books taught at elementary schools. She says most books usually portray passive and traditional roles for women.

Furthermore, statistics cited by Hajari and her colleagues revealed that 26.1 percent of young girls prefer men's cliché beliefs. This kind of satisfaction covers 49.49 percent of girls, however, they believe that the real number is higher.

Young girls face contradiction whenever they consider a good female role model that exists in their inner circle.