Strong Response from Rouhani's Deputy to Claims of Providing Information on Divorced Iranian Women to the UN

The Deputy President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs described the statements of a former parliament member and member of Ebrahim Raisi's campaign regarding the provision of information on 'divorced Iranian women aged 20 to 25' to the United Nations for work in Antalya, Turkey, as 'pure fabrication and distortion.' Shahindokht Molaverdi, Deputy of Hassan Rouhani, threatened on her Facebook page that the remarks of Fatemeh Alia, a member of the 9th Parliament and part of Raisi's campaign, are 'subject to legal action' and that the Women and Family Affairs Office will 'not rest until providing documented evidence to prove this baseless claim.' Molaverdi emphasized that the Women and Family Affairs Office has not provided 'even a line of information' to the UN Population Fund, 'let alone information about divorced women aged 20-25, which has not been aggregated anywhere.' She wrote: 'If the brothers who are republishing this dialogue claim to have been aware of this action by the office at that time, they should raise their hats higher and salute their honor and dignity for not having spoken out until now.' Rouhani's deputy attributed the publication of Alia's speech video to 'think tanks' that, according to her, were formed with 'exorbitant costs' to attack the government during elections. Fatemeh Alia, a former member of the 9th Parliament and part of Raisi's campaign, stated in a recently released video that the Women and Family Affairs Office had provided 'information about women, especially divorced women aged 20 to 25' to the UN Development and Population Fund. Alia also claimed that the UN Development and Population Fund is seeking to employ these women in the tourist region of 'Antalya' in Turkey under the pretext of entrepreneurship. She also asserted that this issue has been addressed in the 90th Article Commission of the Parliament. In 2014, during the 9th Parliament, several representatives criticized a memorandum of understanding between the Women and Family Affairs Office and the UN Population Fund. Among them, Fatemeh Rahbar, a conservative member of the 9th Parliament, stated at that time: 'In the planning of the United Nations, issues such as the recognition of unconditional sexual freedoms of individuals, reduction of fertility rates, and slow population growth are mentioned as the basis for women's economic empowerment, the advancement of communities in various fields, and the key to combating poverty, which explicitly considers fertility and childbearing as obstacles to the progress of women, families, and society.' The Deputy President of Iran for Women and Family Affairs had previously deemed the criticisms of the 9th Parliament representatives regarding this memorandum as incorrect. In the memorandum of understanding between the Women and Family Affairs Office of Iran and the UN Development Fund, the parties agreed to cooperate on issues such as forming a database of women and female-headed households and organizing study trips to countries with successful programs in the field of female-headed households.