17+1 Women in the Tenth Parliament

After 37 years since the revolution, the representation of women in the parliament has slightly changed, with the names of 17+1 women emerging as winners in the tenth parliamentary elections. This statistic is considered a record for the number of women elected to the parliament, as the total share of women in the seats of the nine previous parliaments has only been 3 percent. Now, the tide has turned in favor of women. So far, 13 women have won in the first round and 4 in the second round, and if their election results are confirmed by the council, they will head to the parliament. Among them, only one person's status is uncertain. "Mino Khalighi," the third candidate from Isfahan, has faced disqualification from the Guardian Council, and so far, the government of Hassan Rouhani is undecided about issuing her credentials. This issue has turned into a major political and legal controversy. Hassan Rouhani has stated that when a representative has successfully gained the people's vote, no institution has the right to intervene, and only the parliament should decide on her credentials. Despite this stance, the fate of this 31-year-old candidate remains unclear. However, whether she manages to enter the parliament or not, the quantitative and qualitative change in the women's faction of the parliament is certain. 14 women were elected in the first round of the parliamentary elections, although the issuance of credentials for one of them is still in limbo. The women who are set to sit in the semicircle designated for women in the open session are mostly from the Hope Coalition list belonging to reformists and government supporters, with 6 being independents. Except for Soheila Jaloudarzadeh, none of them have prior experience in representation. However, during the election campaign, their programs and speeches were completely different from the performance of the women representatives of the ninth parliament, none of whom succeeded in gaining votes. The composition of women in the seventh, eighth, and ninth parliaments was entirely conservative, and during their tenure, laws were passed that activists in the women's movement deemed "anti-women." Among the ninth parliament's resolutions was the Family Protection Law, which allowed men to remarry without their wives' consent. Similarly, the proposal to prevent Iranian women from transferring citizenship to children born from marriages with foreign men was a controversial resolution from the eighth parliament. In the ninth parliament, resolutions such as the remote working proposal for women or the separation of girls and boys in universities faced widespread opposition. The criticisms were so extensive that even Maryam Behroozi, a conservative figure and ally of the women representatives in the parliament, stated during the approval of the "multiple wives" proposal in the eighth parliament that "the presence of women in the parliament has become decorative and ornamental, and unfortunately, they have made no effort to change the status of women in society." Fatemeh Rakeei, a reformist political activist, also criticized the performance of the 9 women members of the ninth parliament, stating: "Most of the women representatives in this parliament not only did not work adequately on women's rights but also remained silent as defenders of anti-women ideas and endorsed them. Their performance will remain in the memory of history." These stances regarding the quality of women's presence in the parliament and the reduction in the number of women increased efforts to change the situation on the eve of the tenth parliamentary elections. The result was the formation of multiple campaigns and groups and extensive negotiations with responsible institutions and individuals. A group of women's rights activists and reformist women launched a campaign on November 5 of this year to change the male face of the parliament. The founders of this campaign emphasized that they are trying to send representatives to the parliament who believe in the equality of women and all citizens. Their goal was to elect at least 50 women to the parliament, and with this reasoning, they both identified and encouraged qualified women for representation and entered negotiations with reformist political groups. However, the reformist coalition, although they agreed to allocate a share to women in the electoral lists, were not in favor of the extent that the campaign sought. What are the backgrounds of the women who won in the two rounds of elections? For more details, click on the photo. However, just when political factions were preparing to finalize the electoral lists from among the female candidates for the tenth Islamic Consultative Assembly, the widespread disqualifications by the election monitoring bodies disrupted all their calculations. What do the statistics say? Although the surprising disqualifications limited women's access to power, the reality is that the composition of women in the Islamic Consultative Assembly has never matched the demographic statistics of women. Women's share in the nine parliamentary terms since the Iranian revolution has been nearly 3 percent. Even as the number of candidates for parliamentary seats in Iran increased, the share of women did not change. The fifth parliament holds the record for the highest number of female representatives with 14, while the first to third parliaments each had 4, ranking at the bottom. This situation prompted government officials in the women's sector and activists to take action months before the elections for the Assembly of Experts and the Islamic Consultative Assembly to change the existing conditions. First of all, in June of last year, it was reported from within the parliament that Ali Larijani, the Speaker of the Parliament, proposed to 9 female representatives to coordinate with the Guardian Council to draft a plan to increase women's presence in the parliament. According to this plan, at least one woman from each province would be guaranteed membership in the parliament, meaning at least 31 representatives would head to the parliament. Laleh Eftekhari, the spokesperson for the women's faction in the parliament, told the "Women’s Magazine" that their plan was different from gender quotas in favor of women. This model, which has been implemented in neighboring countries like Afghanistan, resulted in a significant increase in the number of women in parliament. More than a year after this announcement, there has been no news about the women's faction's plan, and this issue has been forgotten. Government failures At the same time that the Speaker of the Parliament was presenting his proposal to the women representatives in the parliament building, a few streets away, Shahindokht Molaverdi, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, was engaged in correspondence with the Expediency Discernment Council to devise measures for the gradual increase of women in the Islamic Consultative Assembly and city and village councils during the formulation of Iran's overarching electoral policies. However, her efforts were also fruitless. So far, there has been no news of reforms in electoral laws in favor of women. Social realities of women Based on Iran's commitment to the Inter-Parliamentary Union in the 1990s, women's share of the parliament should reach 30 percent by the end of 2015, or else some privileges that this union has granted to parliaments will be revoked. Based on this commitment, women's activists sought a 30 percent quota from the reformists' electoral list. However, at this stage, a question arose regarding the political potential and social realities of women in the current situation. Is there hope or a model for increasing women's political participation within the framework of the current constitution and civil laws? Members of the electoral campaigns believed that such potential exists, and one of their tasks was to identify qualified women across the country and train them for candidacy. Finally, with the start of the legal registration period, a very large number of women headed to registration locations for parliamentary candidacy, and in an unprecedented event, 1,400 women declared their candidacy. However, it was not only women who showed interest in the upcoming elections; the relative opening of Iran's political space after the 2013 presidential election and a return of relative hope to political and social circles encouraged not only women but also men to participate in the electoral competitions. More than 12,000 people registered, a figure that is a record in the history of the Islamic Republic. However, on the other hand, the Guardian Council's monitoring bodies disqualified nearly 60 percent of these individuals during the initial qualification review. This event was surprising for reformists, women's activists, and even Iranian government officials, leaving them facing a depletion of their forces. Trapped in traditional jurisprudence The issue of women's participation in politics has existed since the early days of the revolution's victory to this day. The experience of over three decades of the Islamic Republic shows that the Iranian government has remained steadfast on its stance regarding women's issues, even when it has compromised or changed its opinion on other matters. A group of legal experts and analysts believe that existing laws in Iran are not in favor of women. For example, legal and jurisprudential interpretations of the term "political man" in the presidential election law have prohibited women from competing in presidential elections. Additionally, laws regarding divorce, blood money, inheritance, and child custody are detrimental to women. These critics argue that the clerics in power hold a traditional jurisprudential view that does not tolerate the principle of equality and guardianship over women. According to this view, women are deemed unworthy and unqualified to participate in the management and leadership of the country. However, some argue that Shiite jurisprudence is dynamic and can be interpreted in ways that are consistent with contemporary conditions. One of these interpretations emphasizes the importance of women's presence in governance. Legal and religious discussions about women as half of Iran's population remain a protracted and ongoing issue. Currently, with the changing political composition of the parliament and the entry of women with different ideological and political inclinations, the expectations of women’s society from them are to lift restrictions and amend and pass laws in favor of women.