The Guardian Council has Excluded Women from Electing and Supervising the Leadership

There are 86 of them. 86 men who have been responsible for overseeing the actions of the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Republic since 2006. They are tasked with determining the successor to Ayatollah Khamenei, the Supreme Leader, in the event of any incident, and according to religious law, this successor must be male. However, the electoral law for the Assembly of Experts does not mention the gender of candidates or members. They must all meet general conditions such as being known for their piety, jurisprudence, political and social insight, familiarity with current issues, belief in the Islamic Republic, and having no history of political or social misconduct. But why has no woman been elected to this assembly in all four previous elections? We discuss this with Sediqeh Vasseghi, a professor of jurisprudence and Islamic law residing in Sweden: "According to what is stated in the body of the laws of the Islamic Republic, can Iranian women be candidates for the Assembly of Experts and, if elected, become members of this assembly? Unfortunately, the approval of laws related to the conditions of the Experts and their election process has been entrusted from the beginning to the first jurists of the Guardian Council. This means that the laws enacted and approved in this regard have only been formulated by six individuals and have not needed to be presented to the Islamic Consultative Assembly according to the law. Essentially, the approval of laws of such importance by a handful of people is the greatest weakness and flaw of this assembly. The laws of a country should be approved by the parliament, and the representatives elected by the people should review and approve them. You know that the jurists of the Guardian Council are also directly appointed by the Supreme Leader. This means that the approval of laws related to the conditions of the Experts and their election process is not approved by the people. And of course, there have never been any women among these jurists of the Guardian Council, which is a significant flaw. It seems that there is a dual approach regarding the presence of women in the Assembly of Experts. While the law does not mention any prohibition or permission for women to be in the Assembly of Experts, there have been two specific instances of opposition from members of the Guardian Council regarding the presence of women in the Assembly of Experts. Zahra Safati, a senior professor at the women's seminary, stated in an interview with Kayhan newspaper that she once registered for the Assembly of Experts elections but withdrew her candidacy due to the opposition of Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani. Ms. Safati said that this religious authority told her that the candidacy of women for the Assembly of Experts should not become a 'precedent'. Ismat Savadi, who has registered as a candidate for the Assembly of Experts in this round, told Iranian media that she had previously registered as a candidate for membership in the Assembly of Experts and was not disqualified, but according to her, the Guardian Council sent a letter stating that women cannot be members of the Assembly of Experts. Do you think the members of the Guardian Council really have the authority to add this interpretation and commentary to the legal texts? Unfortunately, the Constitution has given such authority to the Guardian Council. However, we women criticize this issue that the Guardian Council and no other institution in the Islamic Republic has the right to exclude women, who make up half of the country's population, from candidacy in the Assembly of Experts or any other institution. The exclusion of women from the Assembly of Experts, which is responsible for electing the leader and supervising the actions of the leadership, actually questions the legitimacy of the leadership. This is because half of the country's population, namely women, have no role or share in electing the leader and supervising the leader. Excluding women undermines the process of electing the leader. Ms. Vasseghi, the requirement of jurisprudence is also one of the conditions for candidates. Given the limited number of female jurists, how much does this condition affect the presence of women in the Assembly of Experts? In my opinion, this is an unreasonable and unjustified condition. To elect a jurist, we do not need so many experts. Those who gather in the Assembly of Experts should be able to recognize other qualifications in leadership. Whether the leader has the ability to manage the country or not? Whether they have political power, political analysis, insight into global and domestic affairs, oversight of economic matters, and the ability to enforce justice in the country? Therefore, the Experts should themselves possess various specialties to be qualified to elect someone as a leader. You add to this that half of the population of Iran, namely women, have been completely excluded. This is a very significant deficiency. It seems that the female jurists who are present and active in Iran do not have much interest in participating in political activities. Ms. Safati has stated that just as the responsibility of judgment has been lifted from women, so has the presence in the Assembly of Experts. Do you think these religious teachings have influenced women who have reached high religious ranks, or is it really that the number of women willing to participate in these elections is not large enough to expect their presence and activity? The very point you mentioned, that women who have studied in the seminary and read traditional jurisprudence think that the responsibility of judgment or governing the country or similar matters has been 'lifted from their shoulders'; let’s pay attention to this phrase. Who has lifted such responsibilities from women? It is clear that this expression is male-centric. Men, with their own judgments and the thoughts they have about women, have excluded women from such responsibilities. I absolutely disagree with the notion that women cannot participate in these matters. The arguments made to exclude women from responsibilities are very weak. Unfortunately, such discussions have occurred in our traditional jurisprudential sources. Given the traditional view of women, women should contest these issues and should not accept such things so easily. Ms. Vasseghi, it seems that the list of people who express their agreement with the presence of women in the Assembly of Experts is increasing. In addition to Ayatollah Dary Najafabadi, Ayatollah Mahdavi Hadaei, Hojjatoleslam Mohammad Taqi Fazel Meybodi, and Hashemzadeh Harisi, a member of the Assembly of Experts, have stated that in their opinion, women can be members of the Assembly of Experts. We should also add the name of Ayatollah Mousavi Bojnourdi to this list. With this apparent inclination towards the presence of women in the Assembly of Experts this year, do you think the Guardian Council might change its usual procedure and allow women to run in this election? Fortunately, in the view of many officials, reforms are gradually taking place step by step. We should not overlook this. Even among the clergy, the perspective that existed towards women years ago has changed. This should be taken positively. Of course, I wish the members of the Guardian Council would also gradually change to align more closely with the people's views and become more familiar with the changes in people's perspectives. In any case, both the Iranian society and the international community expect changes regarding the promotion of women's rights in Iran, and the insistence on preventing the advancement of women's rights is a major mistake that I hope will be corrected. In any case, we need skilled economic, political, and cultural individuals in the Assembly of Experts who can have oversight, and women have the right to hold half of the seats in the Assembly of Experts just as they have the right to hold half of the cabinet and half of the Islamic Consultative Assembly.