I don't know we should call it "respecting women's rights" or just "tolerance toward women" in Gilan, especially in Rasht, the capital of this northern Iranian province, anyway other Iranian peoples don't consider it as a good thing!
http://parisagolchi.spaces.live.com/ : About 90% of Iranian jokes make fun of one racial minority within Iran or another. Turks are stupid, Esfehanis are stingy, Rashtis are without shame when it comes to their women, Ghazvinians are homosexuals.
It has been always a question for Iranains what its reason is!
http://67.192.94.187/main/blog/sashas-0 : The north of Iran is the last part of Iran that was coerced into Islamn (200 years after the Arab invasion). They say the jokes for the people of Rasht and call them begearat (spiritless) because the Rashties respect the women's right and equality between the two genders. That is somehow hard to understand for the rest of other Iranians who are more infected by Arabic and Turkish culture and still think women have no rights.
It is interesting to read it: Women in Iran