Female Clerics in Iran Suffer from Food Poverty

Mahmoudreza Jamshidi, the head of women's seminaries, states that female clerics in Iran "suffer from food poverty" and that some seminaries "lack the ability to address the main problems of their students." According to the Mehr News Agency, Mr. Jamshidi made these remarks on Wednesday, December 23, during the opening ceremony of a seasonal meeting of provincial managers of women's seminaries. Currently, there are over 480 women's seminaries active in Iran, which, according to Jamshidi, receive "very little support." This member of the Society of Teachers added that "the seminaries for women are affected by the country's problems just like other sectors." According to Mohsen Khalaj, head of the Center for Development and Renovation of Women's Seminaries, there are currently 60,000 female clerics studying religious sciences in Iran. The budget for the Policy Council of Women's Seminaries in 2015 was about 152 billion tomans, which officials consider insufficient. Despite receiving financial aid from the government, seminary managers claim that this support is inadequate and does not imply dependency on the government. In 2011, Mahmoudreza Jamshidi had also stated that government funding for seminaries does not equate to a connection with them, asserting that "government money is the money of the Supreme Leader." Mr. Jamshidi added that "a lack of close ties with the clergy cannot be resolved by government funding; financial aid to seminaries is spent on construction, and this money is not a favor to the seminaries." In July 2013, Ibrahim Fayyaz, a university professor and sociologist, stated in a television program that "clerics with an income of 300,000 tomans spend half of the year fasting."