Azam Taleghani: 20 Years of Protest Within the Framework of Law

Until before Farvardin 1376 (March 1997), she was a woman like other Muslim women politicians. She had served as a representative of Tehran in the first Islamic Consultative Assembly and had organized her activities in the women's domain since 1991 with the establishment of the Islamic Revolution Women's Society. She published the magazine Payam Hajar with a specific audience and took responsibility for educating a group of female heads of households. However, in 1376, when she quietly entered the Ministry of Interior building, the image of the most political child of Ayatollah Taleghani changed for the people of Iran. She now considered herself a religious-political man who could clarify the issue of Article 115 of the Constitution and the word 'men,' which had previously referred to men. Article 115 of the Constitution states: The President must be elected from among the religious and political men who meet the following conditions: of Iranian origin, subject to Iran, capable and prudent, with a good reputation, trustworthiness, and piety, and a believer in the principles of the Islamic Republic of Iran and the official religion of the country. Reza Alijani, a national-religious activist residing in Paris, responds to the question of why Azam Taleghani considers herself qualified as a political man, saying, 'Perhaps there are others besides Ms. Taleghani who hold this view, meaning they believe women should also have the right to run for the presidency and consider themselves as such. But Ms. Taleghani has a characteristic that she may have inherited from her father, which is her courage and persistence.' Azam Taleghani, 72, is the daughter of Ayatollah Mahmoud Taleghani, a prominent cleric of the Islamic Revolution and the first Friday prayer leader of Tehran. Her political activities began before the Islamic Revolution. While working as a school administrator in Tehran, she was arrested in 1975 and sentenced to life imprisonment by a military court. Thus, she became the first revolutionary Muslim woman to receive such a heavy sentence. Nevertheless, political activists of that time believed that issuing such a sentence was more about exerting pressure on her father, Mahmoud Taleghani, than punishing her political activities. Azam Taleghani's activities in the women's field also date back to the years before the revolution. She founded the first serious women's organization, the Women's Society, which changed its name to the Islamic Revolution Women's Society in 1992 and continued its activities officially. The establishment of this organization led to a change in the conditions of women activists. Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a women's rights activist residing in the United States, comments on the impact of Azam Taleghani's activities on women's issues: 'Consider the early days of the revolution when all the radical Islamic groups were gathered under the Islamic Republic Party to have a political participation opportunity. And all leftist, national-religious groups, if they were not in exile or imprisoned, had no political space for their activities. In that situation, Azam Taleghani entered the scene as a Muslim opposition woman, creating a bridge between the spectrum of revolutionary Muslim women within the framework of the regime and the completely opposing spectrum of secular leftist women.' In 1376, Azam Taleghani's candidacy did not succeed. In a statement published after her disqualification in the magazine Payam Hajar, she wrote: 'It can be inferred from the context of the speech that the disqualification of women was not due to their gender or being women, but because these women were not considered political and religious personalities.' In the same statement, she emphasized, 'I will continue my efforts until a clear and transparent interpretation is announced by the Guardian Council.' However, in 1384, she did not remain silent against her disqualification in the presidential elections. Six years after the suspension of the magazine Payam Hajar, she staged a sit-in on Pasteur Street. Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh notes that it was there that Azam Taleghani actually took the lead. She sent a message to our organization, I was then at the NGO Women's Training Center, saying that we want to hold such a sit-in. We also invited women from other sectors, including secular groups and the Women's Cultural Center, to participate in this coalition. As a result, the sit-in on Pasteur Street was the first time, initiated by Ms. Azam Taleghani and inviting groups like ours, which had civil and reformist inclinations, and leftist and secular groups represented in the Women's Cultural Center, came together. Attendees at this sit-in recall that three groups of women stood separately from each other. Newspapers that covered this news for the first time used the term 'Iranian women's movement.' Attendees at the Pasteur Street gathering said three groups of women stood apart. Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh considers this sit-in as a foundation for the women's gathering in Khordad 84 (June 2005) in front of Tehran University, a gathering that Azam Taleghani did not attend. Previously, in 1382 (2003), after the announcement of the death of Zahra Kazemi, an Iranian-Canadian photojournalist in Evin Prison, Azam Taleghani staged a three-hour sit-in in front of Evin Prison, explicitly asking everyone not to accompany her. When I ask Reza Alijani whether acting alone in political activities is part of Azam Taleghani's political identity, he says, 'Based on my relatively close experience, I do not have such an interpretation of her. She has never played a discordant role within the framework of the national-religious collective and the council of activists. She has always been with the collective, as well as in women's activities. I remember when the publication of Roshangar in 1388 (2009) began a collective effort and called on women to participate in a demand-oriented manner, despite her illness and physical problems, she made her way to Ms. Lahiji's office and the gathering. That meeting and its photos exist. But perhaps this is a kind of pioneering for what she believes must be done; in this situation, she does not wait for others to take action. In some places, they may not want others to bear a cost; they enter the scene themselves. However, she has participated in collective activities in the Council of National-Religious Activists, in the Islamic Revolution Women's Society, and in many other places. Of course, everyone has positive and negative traits. We all do. I do not want to portray Ms. Taleghani as free from flaws.' Azam Taleghani returned to the field in 1396 (2017) after two periods of hiatus in candidacy. Images of her trying to ascend the steps of the Ministry of Interior using a walker were widely shared on social media and were seen as a sign of her steadfastness in determining the interpretation of political men in the Constitution. In her discussions, she reiterated that in the draft Constitution signed by Ayatollah Khomeini, there was no mention of the gender of the president, and this was added to the Constitution at the insistence of Ayatollah Golpayegani. Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh believes that Azam Taleghani's persistence stems from her jurisprudential and political knowledge: 'Ms. Taleghani is aware of the mechanism of jurisprudence and pressuring Shari'ah. Usually, a mufti or fatwa issuer gives their fatwa based on real demand. That is, the clergy cannot issue a fatwa in a vacuum that women can enter the presidential candidacy unless there is an external example to exert pressure. A woman must come and say I am a man, this is my past, I have always acted within the framework of the Constitution. To refute the issue of her political manhood, she should not give the political system an excuse and then ask them to approve her candidacy. At that time, they have no excuse other than to say that you cannot because you are a woman, and then Azam Taleghani can exert pressure to ask where in the Quran does it say that women cannot reach leadership. In fact, the discussion is about leadership at the level of the Islamic world. It is not just about the Constitution.' Although some analysts attribute the lack of initiative of any of Iran's religious political women to their lack of self-confidence, Reza Alijani considers Azam Taleghani's approach as a sign of her understanding of civil society and her efforts to change social conditions, stating: 'Women and all those who are victims of class, gender, ethnic, linguistic, and religious discrimination can only achieve their goals with patience and perseverance, and people like Ms. Taleghani can be one of the inspiring models of this kind of perseverance and pursuit that we lack in our political scene. Especially considering the culture that is gradually becoming dominant, a culture of self-centeredness and a culture that wants every individual to see their work efficiency in the nearest and shortest time and even appear more prominent than before.' On Friday, Farvardin 31, the names of six approved candidates for the 1396 (2017) elections were announced. Six candidates among whom Azam Taleghani's name was not included. In a phone call, I asked her what she would do this time with her disqualification. She replied, 'As far as the law allows, I will protest.'