Rouhani's Order to Increase Women's Share in Management 'Not Implemented'

Fatemeh Zolghadr, a member of the Women's Faction in the Islamic Consultative Assembly, states that only 17% of Iran's managerial capacity is held by women and that Hassan Rouhani's directive to allocate 30% of management positions in government agencies to women 'is not being implemented.' In an interview with the official news agency of the Islamic Consultative Assembly, Khaneh Mellat, she criticized that despite the efforts of the Women's Faction and the president's directive to increase the number of female executives to 30% by the end of the sixth development plan, its execution has not been realized yet. Zolghadr did not mention the reasons for the non-implementation of this directive, but Masoumeh Ebtekar, the Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, recently announced that there are still 'sensitivities' and 'juridical ambiguities' regarding women's presence in certain positions within the Islamic Republic. Ebtekar referred to the existence of 'glass ceilings' for women's participation in some roles and added that 'it cannot be explicitly said whether there is a prohibition in jurisprudence or Sharia regarding this.' She mentioned her own management experience in the Islamic Republic, stating: 'When I was first appointed as Vice President during the reform period, the question arose whether it had religious legitimacy or not? However, no jurist said that this issue is problematic from a jurisprudential perspective.' Fatemeh Zolghadr also pointed out the existence of 'discriminatory views' regarding the allocation of management positions to women, stating: 'According to documented statistics received from the government, about 17% of managerial positions have been assigned to women.' She further announced the employment participation rate of Iranian women as '16%' and deemed it low compared to other countries. According to her, this participation rate is low and 'indefensible' while '63%' of university seats in Iran are held by women, and for this reason, the Vice Presidency for Women and Family Affairs should pursue the implementation of increasing women's managerial share. This representative identified 'changing incorrect subcultures' as the main axis in changing the approach to women's employment. Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi has been the only female Minister of Health in Iran's history and is currently the only woman who has reached the ministerial level during the Islamic Republic and during Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's presidency, although she faced opposition from clerics such as Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpaygani and Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi. Before the 1979 revolution, Farrokhroo Parsa and Mahnaz Afkhami were two women who respectively achieved the positions of Minister of Education and Minister of State for Women's Affairs. Although women were a significant part of Rouhani's supporters during his two administrations, no ministerial positions were allocated to them. In August 2017, while defending his proposed ministers in parliament, he stated, 'I really wanted to introduce three women as ministers in the twelfth government, I had considered their individuals and their positions, but it did not happen. God willing, this issue will be compensated in future terms and opportunities.' Despite not introducing a female minister for his twelfth cabinet, Rouhani appointed three women to his vice presidency and assistant roles. These three women were Masoumeh Ebtekar, Vice President for Women and Family Affairs, Laya Joneidi, Vice President for Legal Affairs, and Shahindokht Molaverdi, Assistant to the President for Citizen Rights, who was removed from the government following the enactment of a law prohibiting the employment of retirees. In the eleventh government, Ebtekar was the head of the Department of Environment Protection, and Elham Aminzadeh held the position of Assistant for Citizen Rights. While Rouhani has stated that the government's duty is not only to create employment for men and that no one can tell Iranian women to stay at home and not work, the leader of the Islamic Republic issued a 16-article decree in 2016 titled 'General Policies of the Family,' calling for the promotion of 'the role of motherhood and homemaking for women and the role of fatherhood and economic responsibilities for men.'