Guardian Council Spokesman: Qualification of Female Candidates for Assembly of Experts May Be Possible

The spokesman for the Guardian Council says his 'interpretation' of the 'behavior of the jurists of the Guardian Council' is that when women have been invited to the qualification examination, it means that the possibility of meeting the other conditions also exists. According to a report by the state news agency IRNA, Najatollah Ebrahimiann, on Saturday, January 8, also stated that he cannot comment on 'each female candidate' individually, but in general, the issue of qualifications must be examined. Reports indicate that 16 women have registered as candidates for the Assembly of Experts elections, but it is unclear how many of them have been invited to the jurisprudence examination. No women have participated in previous sessions of the Assembly of Experts, and no women have been presented for election in any of the four previous elections. Meanwhile, Mohammad Yazdi, the head of the Assembly of Experts, and Ahmad Jannati, the secretary of the Guardian Council, have criticized the registration of 800 candidates for the Assembly elections, including the registration of women. The spokesman of the Guardian Council reiterated that the qualifications of candidates who did not participate in the Assembly of Experts examination may be 'established,' but the absence of candidates who do not meet the 'scientific level' required by the jurists of the Guardian Council 'deprives' them of the 'tools to establish their jurisprudence.' According to the state news agency IRNA, Mr. Ebrahimiann stated that it is possible that 'based on the powers granted to the jurists of the Guardian Council by law, the jurisprudence of a candidate could be established even if that individual did not participate in the scientific examination.' He added: 'If a candidate does not have the scientific level required for the jurists to confirm their jurisprudence without needing their participation in the scientific examination, the candidate's absence from the examination deprives the jurists of the tools to establish their jurisprudence.' In recent days, the absence of several prominent candidates for the Assembly of Experts, including Hassan Khomeini, Morteza Aghatehrani, and Mahmoud Amjad, from the examination held by the Guardian Council has made headlines. Meanwhile, Hossein Shariatmadari, the representative of the Supreme Leader in the Kayhan newspaper, criticized Hassan Khomeini's absence from the examination and advised the Guardian Council not to make an 'exception' in confirming his qualifications. He also announced that one of the 'prominent members' of the Assembly of Experts' board had invited Hassan Khomeini to participate in the examination. However, the Entekhab website, referring to phone calls made by its reporter to Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi, Mohammad Ali Mohammadi Kermani, Ahmad Khatami, Ghorbanali Dary Najafabadi, and Hashem Hosseini Bushehri, reported that these five members of the Assembly's board stated they had no contact with Hassan Khomeini. Previously, several news sites, including the Tasnim news agency, reported that the Guardian Council had invited Hassan Khomeini to participate in the Assembly elections via SMS, but Ali Khomeini stated on Tuesday, January 15, that no invitation or SMS had been sent to Hassan Khomeini by the Guardian Council. Following Hassan Khomeini's candidacy for the Assembly of Experts elections, some appointees of Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, including Ali Saidi, the Supreme Leader's representative in the Revolutionary Guards, and Sadegh Amoli Larijani, the head of the judiciary, criticized the designation of Hassan Khomeini as 'Allameh' by Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani earlier this year. However, according to the Jamaran website, Morteza Javad Amoli, the son of Abdullah Javad Amoli, one of the religious authorities in Qom, referred to Hassan Khomeini as 'Ayatollah' in a letter and expressed 'happiness' over his candidacy for the Assembly of Experts.