Women of the Ninth Parliament

The Ninth Parliament is nearing its end, and the green seats of Baharestan will soon welcome new representatives. However, the proposed bills, approvals, and the performance of women in the Ninth Parliament will remain recorded in books and minds. Out of a total of 288 representatives in the Ninth Parliament, only 9 were women, and among these 9, only three held positions in one of the 17 parliamentary commissions, excluding the Women's Commission. The women; Laleh Otakhari, Zahra Tabibzadeh Noori, Nira Akhavan, Fatemeh Aliya, Fatemeh Rahbar, Mahnaz Bahmani, Shahla Mir-Golouyi Bayat, Halimeh Ali, and Sakineh Omrani were able to defend the demands of their constituents and the people of Iran as a whole in the Ninth Parliament. Among these women, four had previous experience in the Eighth Parliament, and Laleh Otakhari had a history of representation in the Seventh, Eighth, and Ninth Parliaments as a member of the Stability Front. One of the first actions of these women upon entering was to change the name of the Women's Faction to the Women's and Family Faction, as they believed that women in this Parliament were family-oriented and that the discussion of women could not be separated from family issues. Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh, a women's rights activist residing in the U.S., believes that the general direction of the right-wing representatives of the Ninth Parliament has been to reinforce the maternal aspect of women and strengthen their domestic role, defining women solely within the institution of family: "It can be interpreted that the positioning or general direction of the right-wing representatives of the Parliament, especially the women, has been to reinforce the maternal aspect of women and strengthen the passive and domestic side of women, not even family. Therefore, when we say Women's and Family Faction, the work of these 9 women was not in favor of the family. It was in favor of women's domesticity, in favor of the aspect of women that should stay at home and give birth to male lions." Generally, no clear protests from the women of the Ninth Parliament have been heard regarding political issues in the country. The least vocal representative of this term is also a woman; Nira Akhavan. However, among these women, Laleh Otakhari is more newsworthy. She is a member of the Cultural Commission and has serious criticisms of the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. She appears on the cinema program 'Haft' and sits opposite Rasoul Sadr-Ameli, a film director, and despite stating that she does not watch many films, she discusses the negative portrayal in Iranian cinema and social boundaries. Ehsan Mehrabi, a former parliamentary journalist residing in Germany, states about Laleh Otakhari's background: "Ms. Laleh Otakhari, who has recently become more famous due to her letter to Erdogan's wife, did not engage much in political or controversial discussions in previous parliaments and the Ninth Parliament, focusing instead on issues like forming a Quran and Ahlul Bayt faction in the Parliament or matters more related to religious topics." Laleh Otakhari, who heads the Quran and Ahlul Bayt Commission, is one of the advocates of hijab and defenders of the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice plan. In her conversation with the multi-media network Arman, she states: "If this young lady thinks that if she comes out today with this attire, millions may move in front of her husband, brother, or father with similar or worse attire, it means that if she harms a few, millions harm their lives, their family, their happiness, their children, their future; all of these are at risk. She definitely does the math and comes back." But let's address the bills of the Ninth Parliament concerning women, which have faced almost no serious opposition from the women of the Parliament. The approval of the Family Support Bill, the Protection of Chastity and Hijab Bill, amendments to population control laws, the proposal to reduce working hours for working women, and insurance for housewives are among the issues that bear the signatures of most of these women. Ehsan Mehrabi considers the 9 women of the Ninth Parliament as lacking initiative in bills and proposals related to women: "In issues related to women in society, where women's activists had demands, the perspective or position of the women representatives in Parliament was usually opposed to other women activists. In some cases, their positions were even more severe than those of conservative male representatives. In most cases, including women's entry into stadiums, acid attacks, the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice, and other issues related to women's freedoms, the women representatives of the Ninth Parliament held positions similar to those of the male representatives and never had a different stance or could independently advance issues concerning women." Fatemeh Rahbar, head of the Women and Family Commission, described the Family Support Bill as one of the most progressive laws of the Islamic Republic of Iran in a debate with Elaheh Koulaei, a member of the Coordination Council of Reformist Women and a representative of the Sixth Parliament. Mehrangiz Kar, a lawyer and women's rights activist residing in the U.S., believes that the 9 women in Parliament did not represent the voice of Iranian women: "It is expected that these few women who pass through the filter and enter Parliament dedicate part of their time to many women's issues and become the voice of women. In my opinion, if these women had any voice, it was not the voice of Iranian women but rather their own voice and the voice of the men who helped them enter Parliament. This voice is completely anti-equality of women's and men's rights, and we can even claim it is against improving the legal status of women, emphasizing women's domesticity and motherhood. Even in this case, it has not helped women to be capable mothers, as it prevents employment for women, and naturally, a woman who is financially incapable cannot be a good mother either." The uncontroversial women of the Ninth Parliament have also remained silent on many social events related to women's issues. Issues such as the prohibition of women from entering stadiums, which peaked with the arrest of Ghoncheh Ghavami, a young Iranian-British girl, in June 2014, faced a reaction from Laleh Otakhari. In a conversation with the multi-media network Arman, she states: "The entry of women into stadiums is an inappropriate prescription and a false appetite; it is a misleading address that the enemy is twisting for us. I can say that the main demand of our people, if not more, is not this." Despite representatives like Kamaleddin Pourmohammadi considering entry into clubs as a fundamental right of women, the Women's Faction explicitly states that they do not believe in women's presence in stadiums. Or the issue of acid attacks on women in Isfahan, which, despite public gatherings in front of Parliament, faced parliamentary silence. Aside from Ms. Fatemeh Rahbar and Halimeh Ali, who did not comment at all on this issue, the other women representatives attributed it to foreign and alien factors, stating that the coincidence of this event with the implementation of the promotion of virtue and prevention of vice plan indicates its suspicious nature. Perhaps the years of the Ninth Parliament will be remembered more for the issues of the nuclear deal, sanctions, and disagreements over negotiations; however, during these four years, bills related to women's issues were also approved. The question is, if we look back at the activities of these 9 women in the coming years, which word will come to mind? Mahbubeh Abbasgholizadeh states in this regard: "If we look at the record of the women representatives of this Parliament, we can consider it a betrayal to the women’s community rather than a service. This betrayal can be explained as follows: in a situation where the community's attention was on sanctions and the nuclear deal, the economic crisis was the primary issue for the people, and basic needs prevented people from focusing on their secondary needs, we see that the women representatives of the Parliament were able to take advantage of social negligence to the detriment of women as much as they could. From the separation of women in stadiums to the population issue, to acid attacks, to the issue of remote work for women, to limiting women's employment, to the family bill, and all these negative and reactionary achievements, even if we want to compare them with the First Parliament, which was during the revolution, the record of women in this term of Parliament has been the worst and most treacherous record in the entire history of the Parliament after the revolution." Mehrangiz Kar, a women's rights activist, also points out that with the male-dominated Parliament and the small number of female representatives, the approval of this Parliament's bills cannot be justified by the small number of female representatives: "I tell you that if these 9 women or even two of these 9 women or even one of these 9 women wanted to create an opening in expressing the status of women, they could have spoken in the place of a representative who can go and speak before the agenda and at least create some change in that space. In proposals that are very harmful to women, the signatures of the women in Parliament are often underneath." Perhaps the people will vote for more women in the upcoming elections, and perhaps the women who take their seats will have better listening skills, sharper tongues, and more courage to pursue the various demands of women in Iran.