KATHMANDU, May 31, 2005 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) – Writing a new chapter in the Muslim history of mountaineering, two Iranian women climbers conquered the top of Mount Everst, the world's highest peak.

"These are the first Muslim women to reach the summit of Everest," a mountaineering historian told Reuters on Tuesday, May 31.

Farkhondeh Sadegh, a 36-year-old graphic designer from Tehran, and Labeh Keshavarz, 25, a dentist from Zabedan, scaled the 8,850-metre (29,035-feet) mountain on Monday, May 30, from the Nepali side of the mountain that straddles the border with China.

"It is a very big thing for women in Iran. Because of weather conditions, most climbers here expected to hear the Iranian team would be returning unsuccessfully," Mohammad Hajabolfath, the editor of Iran Mountain Zone, a Web site for climbers, told The Scotsman.

The Iranian women, part of a 21-strong team including seven women, arrived in Nepal in mid-March to conquer the world's highest peak, but their expedition, like many others on Everest, was hampered by treacherous weather.

Earlier this month, the Iranian team was forced to lower down the mountain after facing a huge avalanche.

"We opened the tent to see what had happened but a great deal of snow came into our tent," said a gloomy dispatch sent to EverestNews Web site recently.

"We are in base camp now and waiting for good weather to climb," the report ended.

The Iranian women climbers used the South Col route, used by New Zealand beekeeper Sir Edmund Hillary, the first to scale Mount Everest in 1953, Nepali official Rajendra Pandey told Reuters.

The two Iranian climbers were accompanied to the top by four other climbers, he added.

Some other Iranian woman climbers could summit the peak as well since there are at least five more women climbers in the Iranian team.

"About a dozen climbers from different countries have scaled the mountain on Tuesday. But it is not clear yet if there are more women among them," another official told Reuters.

Mountaineering, long popular with Iranian male climbers, has been gaining popularity among Iranian women, as an activity which doesn't require them to take off their hijab.

Last year, the Iran Mountaineering Federation invited climbers for the Everst expedition to apply for with some 69 women climbers responding.

The applicants were subjected to grueling fitness tests in Iran, which is home to Mount Damavand, a dormant, snow-covered volcano and the Middle East's highest peak which heights 18,605ft.

The Iranian women's conquering Mount Everest is the first in 30 years since Junko Tabai, a diminutive Japanese housewife, became the first woman to scale Everest.

A total of 102 women, including the Iranians, are among more than 1,600 people from 65 countries who have climbed Mount Everest since it was first scaled by Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953.