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Ahmadinejad to appoint female ministers

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President Ahmadinejad is having a hard time governing in the wake of the disputed presidential election. There have been objections to his choices for cabinet ministers. Now he’s announced he wants to appoint two women ministers. If they’re approved, it would mark the first time since the Islamic revolution that women have been chosen to be part of Iran’s government. The World’s Laura Lynch reports.

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LISA MULLINS: I’m Lisa Mullins and this is The World, a co-production of the BBC World Service, PRI, and WGBH in Boston. Iran’s president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, appears to be facing a rebellion in his parliament. There are objections to his choices for cabinet ministers and he has delayed formally nominating anybody. Ahmadinejad has announced that he wants two women among his ministers. If they are approved it would mark the first time since the Islamic Revolution, 30 years ago, that women have been chosen to be part of the government. As The World’s Laura Lynch reports, not all Iranians see the move as a step forward for women.

LAURA LYNCH: In every protest against the government that followed June’s disputed elections women were there in their thousands spilling onto sidewalks, venting their anger, calling for change. For so many of them change meant more freedom, freedom to express themselves, to pursue careers, and to choose what kind of clothes to wear including the headscarf. Now a breakthrough with word that at least two women may make it into the president’s cabinet. But take a closer look says Massoumeh Tormeh. She specializes in Iranian politics at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London.

MASSOUMEH TORMEH: If you look at this as two women being proposed for ministerial posts, we should be celebrating that because it’s women’s status in Iran and we would think that perhaps this would help women’s rights in Iran. But in fact the two women who have been chosen are hardline conservative Islamic thinkers and in that way no different to any of the men ministerial proposals.

LYNCH: Tormeh points out that both women, Fatemeh Ajorlou and Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, want laws to make it even more difficult for women to get divorced, get custody of their children, or have an abortion. Ajorlou also advocates punishing women who ignore the Islamic dress code. Given all that it’s likely their views clash with the woman who galvanized much of the opposition in the election.

ZARAH RAHNAVARD: [SPEAKING FARSI]

LYNCH: Zarah Rahnavard, wife of opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi, made it clear to me in this interview in Tehran during the campaign, while she wasn’t interested in serving in government; she believed it was critical to fight for women’s rights. Rahnavard’s criticism of the government was pivotal. She herself was a revolutionary working to overthrow the Shah three decades ago. One of her targets back them was the country’s last woman minister, Mahnaz Afkhami.  Afkhami was the minister of women’s affairs under the Shah. She now lives in exile in Maryland.

MAHNAZ AFKHAMI: I believe that the women who participated in the revolution, and they did in large numbers, many of them actually were pushing for more rights. They were pushing for more freedoms. They were pushing for more equality and not less and that’s why the disappointment was so great when the revolution ended up in taking away the rights that they had already gained.

LYNCH: Afkhami acknowledges the Shah’s regime was seen as corrupt. She also felt the anger of the revolutionaries. She escaped but her other former female cabinet colleague was executed, convicted of what the revolutionary government called prostitution.

AFKHAMI: Prostitution is a code word for activism – at least it was during the early part of the revolution. And for instance the fatwa that Ayatollah Khomeini issued when women gained franchise was that political participation for women is tantamount to prostitution.

LYNCH: But over the years women in Iran have become increasingly politically active even when it’s meant risking jail. Massoumeh Tormeh believes that may be why Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has signaled his willingness to give women a seat at the cabinet table.

TORMEH: I think the reason why he’s doing this is because over the past four years of his presidency he has been seen to have been antagonistic towards women. The number of women who have been arrested, taken to prison – women’s rights activists I mean – has increased tremendously during the past four years. And women have had a very adverse opinion of Ahmadinejad.

LYNCH: Still there’s no guarantee even these conservative, hardline women will make it to the inner circle. The nominees still have to be approved by parliament and the Islamic establishment has never allowed a woman to be a leader even of cabinet department. For The World I’m Laura Lynch in London.

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