It's a men's-only club in the tangle of auto repair shops on the traffic-clogged streets of Iran's capital, Tehran. Among them, workers toil in dim garages, welding and wrenching, fabricating and painting.

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That's until Maryam Roohani, 34, pops up from under a car's hood at a maintenance shop in northeastern Tehran, her dirt- and grease-stained uniform pulled over black jeans and long hair tucked into a baseball cap – which in her work, replaces Iran's compulsory Islamic headscarf for women, or hijab.

Buffing a blue BMW sedan in the shop until it shines, she couldn't be farther from the farms of her childhood. In the rural, tribal village of Agh Mazar near Iran's northeastern border with Turkmenistan, girls get married after hitting puberty and devote their lives to raising children.

"I have sort of broken taboos," Roohani said at the garage, where she carefully coats cars with attention-getting gleams and scrapes sludge from their engines. "I faced opposition when I chose this path."

The auto industry remains male-dominated around the world, let alone in the tradition-bound Islamic Republic. Still Iranian women, especially in the cities, have made inroads over the years. They now make up over half of all college graduates and a sizable part of the workforce.

A farmer's daughter, Roohani grew up laboring on the land like most other children in Agh Mazar. But unlike her five siblings, she had her eyes on her father's tractor, and developed an uncanny knack for driving it at an early age.

Even as she worked as a hairdresser and studied to become a makeup artist in Bojnurd, the provincial capital, a greater passion pulled her in: applying finishes to cars.

To the scorn of villagers and some family members, she traded used cars for extra cash and dreamed of working as a car polisher and detailer. Although relatives turned against her and cut off contact, her father had a more liberal attitude, supporting her despite the pushback and letting her postpone marriage to pursue her love of polishing.

There were no international car polish training programs she could find in the rolling wheat and barley fields of North Khorasan province, nor elsewhere in the country at the time. So she flew to Turkey, where she battled male skeptics to earn her car polishing certificate.

Armed with credentials, she set up shop in a small, rented space at a Tehran garage. Customers flocked to marvel at the area's first female car detailer, snapping photos and sharing footage on social media. Her Instagram account and online persona as Iran's "Miss Detailer" grew.

But her initial successes drew resentment from male colleagues – and at times, even sabotage.

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Some tainted her polishing pads with acid to burn the paint of her customers' cars, she recounted. Others tampered with her machines and tore up the costly pads that she purchased with her life's savings, she said. Complaints to the garage's owner went nowhere and without hard evidence, the police couldn't help either.

Roohani wanted to cut and run after that. But her reputation had grabbed the attention of a prominent Tehran auto shop, which suddenly offered her a job. For the past few years, she has lived out her dream as a professional car polisher, detailer and washer.

Roohani even now trains and inspires other women to do the same despite the obstacles. Her online videos include her hard at work polishing a vintage Chevrolet Chevelle or smiling over the hood of a freshly detailed jet-black BMW, so smooth that a plastic cup slides down it.

"I got excited the first time I saw (Roohani) because in Iran, with its limitations for women, we are not usually trusted to do such jobs," said Farahnaz Deravi, one of Roohani's trainees.

Interest in auto repair work has exploded in Iran since former US President Donald Trump withdrew from Tehran's landmark nuclear deal with world powers and imposed biting sanctions. To preserve its foreign currency, Iran banned the import of Asian and European-made cars, causing prices of the vehicles to quadruple. Iranians with the means to own expensive cars cherish them more than ever and pay hefty sums to maintain the status symbol.

Although Roohani's business is brisk, Iran's economy is struggling with a series of mounting crises, including international isolation and a raging pandemic. Roohani now imagines her future as a professional detailer abroad, and hopes to start her own business somewhere in Europe one day.

"The Iranian 'Miss Detailer' must shine out there," she said, smiling.

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For the first time in the history of the IDF Military Police, a woman has been promoted to the rank of colonel.

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Meital Ben Shushan, a mother of two from Yokneam in northern Israel, will serve in the Military Police Corps' main headquarters.

Ben Shushan first joined the IDF 20 years ago as a warden in an IDF prison for women. After finishing officers training, she served in a number of roles in the Military Police – several of which she was the first woman to hld.

"As far as I'm concerned, it's a question of strategy, leading important processes in the corps," Ben Shushan told Israel Hayom.

"It's taking care that our corps stays relevant and grows, that it helps the IDF as a whole with our goal, which is to win wars. It's dealing with people, handling work applications in various corps and outside them to maximize processes and improve them. It's taking the corps forward in every area," Ben Shushan said.

One event from her service remains engraved on her heart. In 2014, during Operation Protective Edge, she was put in command of the Military Police for all of southern Israel. She was six months pregnant.

"In an emergency, the Military Police is in charge of all staging areas, handling and directing traffic, setting up checkpoints. I was in charge of 1,000 soldiers and reservists," Ben Shushan said.

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A pair of female IDF soldiers, Cpl. Neomy Levy Ashkenazy and Cpl. Sapir Agiv, say they will petition the High Court of Justice if they are not allowed to try out for the elite Duvdevan Unit.

Agiv, a religiously observant woman, was dropped from the Israeli Navy's officers training course and is claiming she is being discriminated against because of her gender, as men who are dropped from naval officers' training are allowed to try out for Duvdevan, a special forces unit that is focused on undercover urban warfare, and if they make the cut, can begin the unit's grueling training course.

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A letter sent by Agiv's attorney, Yinor Bertental, points out that another highly classified IDF unit whose activity is similar to that of Duvdevan accepts women candidates.

"However, inexplicably, service in a nearly identical role in the IDF remains closed to women," the letter states.

In a post on her Facebook page, Agiv wrote, "I still can't get my mind around it – if I was with guys up to this point, if I met the same challenges they did and succeeded I the same physical challenges they did, there is no reason why I shouldn't have the chance to transfer to an elite unit like they do, because I'm a 'girl.'"

Bertental said, "The IDF still hasn't understood that there is no average women, just like there is no average man. The army's mistaken choice to sort and assign personnel based on gender identity groups effectively creates a glass ceiling for women."

The IDF Spokesperson's Unit issued a response to the corporals' demand: "In accordance with a decision by the chief of staff, since June 2020 a team of experts headed by the ground forces commander has been looking into the possibility of integrating women in more combat roles. At this time, female soldiers whose participation in naval officers training was stopped have the possibility of taking on a number of significant roles, including combat roles in which women currently serve."

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In January 2019, she announced her intention to enter politics and joined Yesh Atid. When the party joined forces with Gantz's Israel Resilience party to form Blue and White, she was slated 10th on its roster.

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Barbivai had opposed Gantz's decision to join Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's government following the March elections, something that was in breach of one of Blue and White's main campaign promises. The fact that he chose to do so, she told Israel Hayom, hurt his electoral base.

"I was upset by that move. I'm sure he did it thinking it was the best possible move, but I've always thought this was a unity government born in sin; that chances of this becoming a functional government are slim. And it was, of course, a significant violation of our campaign promise."

Q: Do you believe Likud and Blue and White share equal responsibility with respect to how the unity government has been functioning or is Netanyahu solely to blame?

"Blue and white is also responsible for this situation. This is one government with two heads, which fails to produce any kind of effective decision-making process."

The coronavirus crisis and the recession it triggered "mean that now of all times; when we need to have a small and highly efficient government – an effective government that knows how to make decisions - we are saddled with an inflated government that doesn't know how to do that.

"The damage to the public's confidence [in the government] is one of the most severe we have even known," she said.

Q: Where do you think the government failed in managing the coronavirus crisis?

"The most serious thing is the lacking decision-making process and the fact that the public has become somewhat invisible. Who focuses on annexation in Judea and Samaria or on commissions of inquiry against incumbent judges in the middle of the battle against the corona pandemic? Is there anyone who thinks that makes sense?

"I have no doubt that Netanyahu's policies on how to handle the corona crisis are based on political interest and seek to distract [from his legal troubles]. The public has no faith in the leadership. Netanyahu has failed miserably and the public is paying the price."

Q: Do you think this government will live out its days?

"That depends on what suits Netanyahu. The tensions we are seeing between the coalition partners reflect the detachment form the public's needs. You can also see how the knives have been unsheathed in Likud.

"There are good people in the Likud and I'm convinced that they, too, find it difficult to operate under a prime minister that has three indictments pending against him. I'm surprised none of them has left."

Q: How would you rate the opposition's performance? It is functioning?

"The opposition comprises different parties and each one wants to retain its character. Yesh Atid puts up a fight against the government. Things have been turned on their head and we, as the opposition, look out for the public. The coalition is using the tyranny of the majority against the opposition's bills, which serve the public's interest."

Q: Do you think Yesh Atid leader Yair Lapid has what it takes to become the prime minister?

"Yes, he does. In the year and a half that we have been working together, he has proven to me and to the other members of the faction that he is determined and that he can create an agenda and pursue it, and lead an excellent group of people. He has the skills to be an excellent prime minister.

"I have no doubt that, given the chance to lead, we would do so immeasurably better than the current government."

Q: You were recently named head of the Subcommittee for Personnel in the IDF under the Knesset's Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee. This gives you the opportunity to scrutinized personnel issues in the military.

"Absolutely, the challenges the IDF faces in terms of personnel are vast. They include questions like how to keep the best people in the military, the ramification of cutting mandatory service short, how we make sure our reserves are always at the top of their game, and many more. The chief of staff also understands that one of the most important issues today is personnel."

Q: How is the IDF in 2020 different from the one you joined in 1981?

"Well, 30-40 years ago, over 80% of the disciplines in the military were off-limits for women. Today, the main obstacle holding back women who rank as captains and lieutenants colonel is that they are told that they haven't held a series of positions that are basically only open to men. The fact that I followed the same [military] path as men in similar positions made it possible for me to be promoted to head of the Personnel Directorate."

Q: Is it time for the IDF to open all roles to women?

"Of course. I think the primary mission the IDF must deal with is making all disciplines and positions open to women. I think that Chief of Staff [Lt. Get. Aviv Kochavi] should lead the initiative on that. Combat and operational units have roles that exclude women and there's no reason in the world not to change that."

Q: How many women evade conscription by declaring that they are religious, thus getting an exemption form service?   

"Currently, 44% of women don't serve in the IDF, compared to 31% of the men. But public discourse only focuses on the men who don't join the IDF.

"The data clearly shows an increase in the number of women who declare they are religious to get an exemption from service. On the other hand, there is an increase in the number of national-religious women who do enlist and pursue a meaningful service in a variety of roles."

 Q: Do you think we will see a woman named Israeli Air Force or Navy commander? Will we one day have a female chief of staff?

"We'll have a female IAF or navy commander before we'll have a female chief of staff for the simple reason that we already have female pilots in the air force and female battleship commanders in the navy.

"For a woman to become the IDF chief of staff she'll have to work her way up. Once we see that she could make it all the way to the chief of staff's office."

Q: Is politics a temporary post for you or do you plan on a long political career?

"I came to the Knesset to stay and make an impact. My fellow Yesh Atid MKs and are the last gatekeepers standing.

"I feel that I have a personal responsibility to be part of the group that safeguards the Knesset, whose position is being steadily eroded. Our role has never been as important and we need to be at the decision-making junctures and acts in the public's interest."

Barbivai, 57, was born in Ramla, in central Israel, and grew up in the northern town of Afula. Her father immigrated from Romania and her mother from Iraq. She is the eldest of six siblings, and once a week she visits her mother and the rest of the family in Afula.

"I grew up in the periphery, and when I visit Afula I can see up close the differences between central Israel and the periphery. There is no reason to perpetuate these gaps and I am fighting to reduce them. There is a lot to do in this area in terms of healthcare, education and caring for the elderly," she says.

When asked what made her not only pursue a military career but one in which she made history with her 2011 promotion to the rank of major general, Barbivai said, "When I enlisted in the IDF a whole new world opened up for me. I was the first one in my family to join the military. I've always loved interacting with people, so I gravitated toward the Personnel Directorate – I was really interested in the field of human resources.

"Ten months after enlisting I was an officer. I felt that the military gave me an unlimited opportunity to pursue something I'm good at and things took off from there.

"I didn't necessarily have a career path in mind – one promotion always followed another. I never aspired to get to the top but I did feel that I was given the opportunity to express my skills and that no one and nothing was holding me back.

"I always knew that if I focused on the mission at hand and execute it to the best of my ability, it will be enough to shine through."

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