A Raisi Administration Official Calls for Women's Legal Experts to Join the Guardian Council

An official from Ebrahim Raisi's government has urged Ahmad Jannati and Gholamhossein Mohseni Ejei to nominate female legal experts for membership in the Guardian Council. Sakineh Pad, Raisi's assistant for "Rights and Social Freedoms," wrote on her X account: "In a letter to the esteemed Secretary of the Guardian Council, I pursued the presence of elite women and legal experts in the Guardian Council's research institute to benefit from the expertise of specialized women in decision-making centers." The text emphasized: "I also requested the esteemed head of the judiciary to include female legal experts in the group of six legal scholars of the Guardian Council." This request comes at a time when the presence of women in politics and bodies like the Guardian Council has become a "taboo" in the Islamic Republic, and despite the absence of legal prohibitions, women's participation in these areas is hindered. An examination of the discussions among the clerical members of the Guardian Council on various topics shows that they consider any position that places women in decision-making roles to be against "Sharia" and believe that women are generally unqualified for "guardianship over men." In this context, the Mehr News Agency reported in May of this year: "In the Islamic Republic of Iran, there is no restriction on women's presence in influential political institutions and various governing sectors, but to date, no woman has been appointed to the Guardian Council." Abbasali Kadkhodai, the former spokesman of the Guardian Council, also stated in a television program in May of this year that there is no legal prohibition for women to join the Guardian Council, "but the culture of society does not accept this issue." He also emphasized that if the head of the judiciary introduces someone, membership is possible, but this has not happened so far. The newspaper "Etemad" also reacted to Kadkhodai's remarks, stating that some legal experts and political activists believe that despite the absence of legal prohibitions, women are never introduced for membership in the positions of the council's jurists, and if there is a will in this regard, attention should first be paid to the position of the legal scholars of this council and focus on that. This newspaper emphasized that the answer to the question of legal prohibition is the same as it was: "There is no prohibition," but there is no sign of implementation, and none of the "judges of judges" have broken such a tradition that has no legal prohibition. According to the Constitution of the Islamic Republic, six legal members of the Guardian Council are proposed by the head of the judiciary, who is directly appointed by the "Supreme Leader," to the Islamic Consultative Assembly, which selects the legal members of the Guardian Council from among them. The other six members of the Guardian Council, who are clerics, are directly appointed by Ali Khamenei, the leader of the Islamic Republic.