Women in President Rouhani’s Government
While expectations were high for the Rouhani government to appoint a few women or at least a woman as minister, after introducing his cabinet, the hopes faded away. There were criticisms addressed at him for not appointing a woman on a ministerial level. However, he appointed Elham Aminzadeh as deputy of president in legal affairs. Massoumeh Ebtekar has also been appointed as vice president and head of Environmental Protection Organization. Other women have also been appointed as deputy minister level and secretary general level. Marzieh Afkham’s appointment as the Spokesperson of the Foreign Ministry was among the major female appointments of the Rouhani government for she represents the image of Iranian women internationally. A female ambassador is to be introduced for the East Asia region as well.
Mohammad Ali Najafi, head of the Cultural Heritage Organization, appointed Homeira Zamani Farahani as head of the tourism affairs. Mahdokht Borujerdi has also been appointed as General Director in Public Relations affairs of the Ministry of Science.
President Rouhani has asked his ministers to appoint at least one woman as deputy minister according to close circles to the president. He had asked Zahra Shojaee, the former Vice President and head of the Office for Women’s Participation of President Khatami’s government, to give a list of women who are experts and competent for deputy position of the relevant ministries. Elaheh Koulaee (former MP) who is a reformist has been nominated for deputy of the Science Ministry, Ashraf Boroujerdi (head of the women’s affairs department of the Interior Ministry during President Khatami’s term) has been nominated for deputy of Interior Ministry, Zahra Sadr Azam for deputy of Ministry of Culture and Soheila Jelowdarzadeh (former MP) for Ministry of Labor.
In his speech at the parliament, Hassan Rouhani spoke of political moderation, and specifically advances in women's rights. During his presidential campaign, Rouhani pledged to create more jobs for women. As he did not meet the expectations based on his statements, women activists and those watching the government’s acts in enhancing women’s position during the cabinet selection period, were quite critical of Rouhani’s performance. They had criticized Rouhani for nominating only men for his 18-member cabinet.
Fatemeh Rakei in an interview with ISNA news agency earlier expressed her “deep concern over the lack of female political participation in President Rouhani’s cabinet.”She noted: “Our expectation from our elected president is to consider women’s capacity as ministers in his cabinet, expecting him to nominate at least five women as ministers”.
Yet, other activists such as Shahla Ezazi, sociologist at Women’s Study Center of Tehran University, mentions that the appointment of Elham Aminzadeh is a “good step” in battling the discrimination felt by Iranian women in the workplace.
Most of the women activists advocating women’s rights and their presence in high-ranking positions in the government indicate that this should be based on the competency and merit of the professional women of the field and not merely because of giving them a seat.
President Rouhani has taken other steps in showing his commitment in enhancing women’s position and participation in all fields and social levels. Rouhani greeted Shirin Gerami, the first Iranian female triathlete who took part in the sport's world championship. He wrote: “Shirin Gerami, 1st female triathlete to have participated in world championship wearing Iran's colors GenderEquality." In a follow-up tweet he wrote: "forward, hope, equality, progress, pride". She finished 76th out of 87 athletes in her age group.
The process of appointing women has been a trend in the past governments: former president Ahmadinejad (2005-2013) had appointed Marzieh Vahid-Dastgerdi as minister of Health and earlier former president Khatami (1997-2005) had called on women’s further participation and presence in high ranking government positions-he had appointed Massoumeh Ebtekar as vice president and head of Environmental Protection Organization. Thus, expectations were that president Rouhani would take a step further and appoint at least one female minister and a few for vice-president and deputy minister levels.
Although appointing women in high government positions is becoming a trend, still there are hesitancy and criticisms towards this aim among the more traditional groups. Ayatollah Allamolhoda, member of the Expediency Council, had criticized the appointment of Marzieh Afkham as a woman who would represent the Islamic Republic’s views among the international community and considered it against Islamic values. He addressed president Rouhani to act beyond the interests of certain political parties and include the views of the more Islamic/ right-wing (Hizbullahi) groups. Thus, enhancing women’s public roles is still a challenging subject.
While according to women activists and feminists President Rouhani’s government has not prioritized women’s public participation and equal opportunities in socio-political realms, it is taking slow steps and moving forwards towards this end. The fact that there have been major steps towards moderation and easing the former strict political atmosphere reflects that the Rouhani government is concerned with gender equality and related subjects as elements that mark “moderation” in society.
In a sign that hardline policies are being eased following Rouhani's inauguration, the Judiciary freed Nasrin Sotoudeh, a prominent Human Rights activist, and about ten other prominent prisoners in the past week. Most of them were linked to mass protests after the controversial 2009 presidential election.