|
Iranian Women Push Their Agenda
TEHRAN, July 1 (IslamOnline) - Amid speculations of a major Cabinet reshuffle in the reformist President Mohammad Khatami's second term, many Iranians are looking to see whether women will take up any seats in the next council of ministers, press reports said.
Following the moderate cleric's landslide reelection on June 8, women have been pushing for more powerful portfolios in Khatami's new Cabinet and have urged him to put an end to discrimination and injustices against them, theThai-based Asia Times reported Monday.
Last week, some 163 members of parliament asked Khatami to choose women as ministerial heads in his next Cabinet, as they hailed him for eliminating "un-Islamic" attitudes toward women and uplifting their status since he first became president four years ago, the newspaper said.
"The least we expect from the president is to appoint more women in high managerial posts, because there are some capable women who can perform tasks as deputy ministers or directors-general in various ministries," said Fatemeh Rakei, a member of Women's Front in the Iranian Parliament.
"Although we have had competent male managers in the past 20 years, men must admit that many of the present problems of the country have been as a result of [their] mismanagement," said Fatemah Khatami, a reformist member of parliament.
"Today, women want their rights," she explained, pointing out that there has been little change in the percentage of women specialists and managers since 1966, despite the rise in the number of women graduates.
These comments reflect the latest demands by women in Iran for equal opportunities and access to key jobs and positions. They also highlight the changes in perceptions of women in Islamic society here, as well as more outspokenness by women about inequalities they experience, the newspaper said.
The environment of more freedom of expression under Khatami has encouraged women to get into leadership positions in local governments and to take concrete action to call for legal changes.
"Women have always been looked at as second-tier ingredients and constituents and rarely appreciated in the prevalent political and social structure in Iran," the English-language daily, Iran News, said in an editorial on Monday.
Saying Cabinet and other top posts should in the end be filled on the basis of competence and skill, it said that Iranian society should make use of the contributions of women - who make up half the country's 62 million people - as much as they do of men's.
"What have the current batch of ministers done for the nation? A fair review and survey demonstrates that if things have not gotten worse during their tenure, they have definitely not shown any improvement or positive growth either," the paper added.
It backed calls for women to be considered candidates for key posts, warning Khatami not to "repeat the recurrent cliche with the symbolic deputy minister post for women this time around."
Women may well expect more changes under Khatami's second term. Although the Interior Ministry has not released figures on the number of women voters in the June poll, they were instrumental in Khatami's landslide victory in May 1997 and his re-election this month.
An opinion poll conducted by the Islamic Republic News Agency (IRNA) a couple of days before the June poll in Tehran showed that 81.8%of men and 83.6% of women would take part in the elections.
Iran's pro-reform parliament, which has only 11 women members, has placed a number of bills in its agenda to protect women's rights, the paper said.
They include debates to change all laws which discriminate against women. Women make up about 60% of university students today, but their share in the workforce is still small.
The largest percentage of government-employed women are in the ministries of education and health. A few are in industrial and technical areas like the ministries of energy, industries, and mines.
Iranian women have wider political claims today due to a string of factors, including the rise in the number of literate women in the last decade and achievements in birth rate reduction.
Today, women lobby groups also intend to field, for the first time, women lawyers for seats in the Guardian Council, the paper said.
According to Rakei, the judiciary chief has welcomed this, and the names of at least four women will be submitted to the body soon. Rakei says that Iranian women do not have the necessary legal protection at the courts and face many legal impediments, so that having women in the council and in the judiciary would help reform this.
"We have also asked women to be appointed to the heads of the courts and judicial headquarters," she was quoted as saying.
Attitudes have also been changing toward women's employment out of the home, and more and more women are being admitted in governmental and non-governmental institutes of higher learning.
|
