Baku, Azerbaijan, Aug. 1
By Farhad Daneshvar – Trend:
While President Hassan Rouhani is expected to introduce the members of his new cabinet in coming days, rumors have swept Iran suggesting that no females would assume any ministerial seats within the next administration.
Mohammad Ali Abtahi, the former vice president under Mohammad Khatami and a well-known pro-reform figure, has told Trend that President Rouhani’s refusal to nominate female ministers would decline his popularity in the country, in particular among women.
“President Rouhani during his electoral campaign promised to appoint female ministers. [Former President Mahmoud] Ahmadinejad earlier paved the way for employing women in the government. If Mr. Rouhani refuses to use women ministers, his popularity among the people will dramatically decline,” Abtahi told Trend.
Abtahi further added that President Rouhani has allegedly decided to refrain from using females in the cabinet.
Back in 2009 Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed Marzieh Dastjerdi as the first Iranian female cabinet minister since the foundation of the Islamic Republic in 1979.
Women seized 62 percent of university seats in the Iranian calendar years between 2008 and 2011. However, the females formed only 3 percent of the MPs in the same years.
Now about 40 year after the formation of the Islamic Republic many blame the country’s political system for its refusal to appoint women to senior posts.
Although Iranian women had a key role in the 1979 revolution, they failed to keep their role in the country’s political system after the formation of the Islamic Republic.
However, a couple of outstanding women like Masoumeh Ebtekar, Shahindokht Molaverdi and Marzieh Shah-Daei have held senior posts in the government.
It appears that the Iranian society still remains traditional, but some developments regarding the women rights seem to take place in the country. For instance, the women currently have an active presence in the country’s city councils.