Is Iran Expanding the Rights of Women?

• 02.10.2016, 18:46
•  Region,  Near East,  World

mantlethought.org

Iranian Minister of Petroleum, Bijan Zanganeh, for the first time appointed a woman as his deputy and the managing director of Iran's National Petrochemical Company (NPC).

In the letter of appointment the Minister explains his decision with the change of the situation after sanctions, with modernization of technologies, attracting foreign investment and increasing exports.

In recent years, the Islamic Republic of Iran has somewhat softened its attitude towards women. So, in December of last year on the post of Ambassador of the Islamic Republic in Malaysia a woman was appointed. She was the former spokesman for the Iranian Foreign Minister Marzieh Afham. Iranian President on this occasion said that the news "should be seen as a demonstration of opportunities in the country for Iranian women", TASS reports.

"The recent appointment of a woman as the Iranian ambassador clearly shows that the gender issue does not matter when it comes whom to entrust large-scale, long-term obligations," Iranian President said.

It should be noted, that before the Islamic revolution, Iranian women had great privileges, and that is why during the revolution women played in it a very important role, taking part in public protests and street demonstrations as a part of many women's organizations. However, with the new government in Iran, which chose conservative Islam and Shariah as a new ideology of the country, most of the rights granted to women were abolished or outlawed.

The new law requires that women cover their body and head according to Islamic regulations. Farruhru Parsa, the first woman minister of Iran (she was the Minister of Education of Iran), was executed at the time of the Islamic revolution. Interestingly, it was thanks to her, that women in Iran received the right to vote in 1963 and the right to put their candidacy in the elections (in the current parliament of Iran there are 3 female deputies). Luckily, Islamic authorities have not abolished this right as well.

Today, women make up 44 percent of the electorate in Iran, but they do not use this potential to protect their own interests.