<TITLE: Suffrage, Gender and Citizenship: Women Parlamentarians in Iran: A Show of Power?
ACADEMIC DOMAIN: social sciences
DISCIPLINE: political history
EVENT TYPE: presentation
FILE ID: CPRE09C
NOTES: continuation of and continued in CDIS090, session also includes presentations CPRE09A-B/D

RECORDING DURATION: 22 min 40 sec

RECORDING DATE: 16.10.2006

NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: circa 45

NUMBER OF SPEAKERS: 1

S6: NATIVE-SPEAKER STATUS: Persian/Farsi; ACADEMIC ROLE: senior staff; GENDER: male; AGE: 31-50

SU: unidentified speaker>


<S6> okay i'll go straight to the women parlamentarian in iran er but i would like to argue that even (this) (xx) presence of women parlamentarian in iran's parliament er has it been a show of power has it been more of a show itself and what they have achieved and what have been the impediments to improve their bargaining power within the er polity of of iran in which my colleague explained the overall polity with respect to women's presence okay erm the first male majlis in iran the parliament majlis is parliament which we call it er from the first er constitutional er monarchy in early 20th century was established in 1926 but universal suffrage was in 1963 started in provincial elections er from 1967 to the time of revolution in 1979 four parliaments have been established the overall er understanding of these four parliaments is that first very minimal eligible voters has taken part in in these elections partially due to the reason which was mentioned er low education within the society and especially the demography of the population was mainly er rural-centred population in which for example in 1979 time of revolution 30 per cent of the population are in urban areas 70 per cent in rural area today after almost three decades this is vice versa 72 per cent of the population are in urban area and 28 per cent in rural area then this can be argued that these four parliament elections mainly was an urban phenomenon rather than a a an overall er national phenomenon the 20 per cent of the eligible voters took part which only ten per cent of this 25 per cent were women voters a very minimal part social participation of the women those who have been elected which i'm going to mention er tha- their numbers later on is mainly class-based er those either from noble families or upper-class or upper middle-class er of urban er inhabitant and industrialist who were elected it was very feasible that there is two divided societies one was mainly the religious-rooted or religiously influenced families who had perceived this election of the of of the government's political procedure more of a secular issue then er even though their intention might have been partially secular partially democratic but the majority of the population perceived this as a secular issue and then guarded themselves of intervening in this er democratic or social process , if you see majlis 21 22 23 and 24 which was actually after a year of er er elaboration faced the time of revolution we will see three per cent three per cent about six per cent and seven per cent of the elected members were from women . er in post-revolutionary era i will divide it in four intervals one is the war period the the iraqi (goes to) war with iran 1980 to 88 the second period is post-war or the construction period which is mainly the era of president rafsanjani or as a centrist government and third is president khatami a reformist government and fourth is a return to conservativism of president ahmadinejad er during the war period let's say higher revolutionary upheavals it's a major revolu- post-revolutionary era but er within the public and in particular within the government officials and politicians values of self-denial devotion sacrifice is very much high and the war itself has mobilised the country's resources thus it's a dismissal of women's social problems to be raised in parliament er even though there are bills n- number of bills have been passed in parliament but none instrumental er it's mainly the the management of war which is the the main issue being discussed in the parliament however at the same time because the let's say the revolution and the main motor of revolution had been to provide an equal opportunities for social welfare to everyone rural and urban area education and health become the main er issues of the of the government policies edu- free education in constitution of iran there's a free education up to PhD level one can go er to university free of charge to finish his or her doctorate the girls and womens had actually mobilised themself to use this this phenomenon out of which was mentioned er and i just if i point out one one one more point on this er because of the too much er request to enter into university in iran there is an entrance national exam for universities , this year which the test took place in in the result was er disclosed in september 72 per cent of acceptees are women girls it's a very high percentage and in iran we (xx) government what to do and this is an increasing actually er phenomenon which is increasing year by year because by constitution it should be equal opportunity then twice government took a bill to the to the parliament to prevent in some fields or limit the entrance of girls but the parliament rejected as it was against the constitution this shows that that the young girls have tried to mobilise to use this er state policy of free education and on health it was mentioned on the on the er family planning successful family planning programme which now i believe it's er growth rate is about one per cent i mean declining from 3.9 in late 80s to one per cent <SU> 1.2 </SU> 1.2 per cent er was a successful er fam- okay after revolution in the war period we see over 70 per cent turnout of eligible voters which is natural because it was a very popular revolution then public thought it's their cause then they have to decide what they want okay then if we see to the majlis we see a sudden declining of the parliamentary er wo- female parliamentarians in first second and third majlis it's about i think four in first majlis four in almost second and four in third majlis the declining from 18 of the latest er pre-revolutionary parliament , while social participation of the women is very feasible their er wish and will to send women parliamentarian in parliament is very minimal er and it's very interesting that almost in all elections in iran the female participation in elections never had been less than 50 per cent of the overall voters , okay , characteristics of the elected female parlamentarians , in the first three parliament they are very ideologically attached er very strong from re- from religious strong families (they are) conservatives and er one or two of them with political affiliation er in the first three parliaments only one MP is very much politically active and er non-gender conscious MP more with with male er MPs on political issues but interestingly all these female MPs are gender-conscious even though they are from different political conservative parties but they are united in following gender issues in the parliament but because of the ideological attachment of of these MPs in three parliaments they are very much er in in in er defending women's islamic rights in the family er through their ideological attachment they would follow to the equality based on the er islamist er ideology but overall one can say that they were not mobilised within their parliaments and er they were er rejected in in in many times by male er dominated parliament and and in one case as one of the MPs argues female MPs that they tried with two other female MPs to put a motion but they were unable to bargain with the male parlamentarians to push it through , and the first development er socioeconomic development plan which er took place during the the war women's issue has no place still women's issue is no issu- no major issue or the or the state feels that er it's not nothing is special to focus es- specifically on the women's issue the second era is post-war era which is during the president rafsanjani's era is 88 to er 199- er 6 eight years two presidential term , his government is more of a centrist-modernist government er that's the reason in his his cabinet we see from conservatives to reformist he's more of a centrist approach and because he is very influential within the er religious circles er we see a shift in post-war era er on the er demands of women from self-denial devotion into more of economic and sociopolitical demands the war has finished now is the time for (requests) , er two civil institutions are being established during er this centrist government one is a socio-cultural council of women which mainly is civil institution focuses er on the er upgrading women's status formalising er an appeal to the government which (xx) presented to parliament and second is in 1992 the office of women's affair which is a was er president post which is still er continues as was said the name has been changed to f- women's and family affairs . okay this is the fourth and fifth majlis during which the centrist government is on power as we see in majlis four the number of er MPs increased two per cent if you see the the brown one is the number of candidates referring to male candidates er in majlis five er we see a shift both in the number of candidates to about close to six per cent of the overall candidates and over six per cent of the elected members here are females an increasing trend of more participation as candidates as well er elected MPs , okay we have nine women members in fourth majlis the average age are declining er from 55 to 46 average of the first three parliament and for the first time we have four deputies from out of capital the first three majlis MPs all were related female MPs were from capital er that i believe in a sense shows that how much education has a role to play in such gender-consciousness in a or gender-sensitivity and the third er category is they are very highly educated comparing to the first three majlis which are more or less religious-educated females in this one we have er so much secular education of women MPs in the fifth majlis shift to fourteen MPs er average age again declining to 37.5 make it younger these are a new young generation with less attachment to so much ideological background er gender-conscious islamism this new phenomenon er is is rising in iran because more or less feminism had been equal to secularism but we see in iran a new phenomenon of muslim feminist and islamist feminist being raised and then we see that secular feminist hand in hand with islamist feminist are moving for equality between male and female in iran this become a new phenomenon that we will see later on in other muslim countries (it) becomes a movement er for the first time the fifth majlis MPs are very critical female MPs to the previous colleagues of theirs in the four previous majlis and they argue that the the previous four majlis MP (clo-) lacked er er power and resilig- resilience to comfr- confront impediments by the male MPs er and the the fourth category of this fifth majlis are contrary to previous majlises that almost all female MPs were from a political background we see er almost half of them independent MPs who have won by themselves in iran the er party system is not very much active in parliament election there are parties who run and er introduce nominees but mainly public vote based on the personal er characteristic of an individual er nominee then we will see er mostly independent er M- female MPs in the fifth majlis , er their er these female er deputies , they were successful to to establish a special commission of women and family affairs in the parliament this is the first civil is the first political institution within the parliament which mobilises the er pro-gender effort within the parliament to successfully pass the bills or bargain with the rest of the parliament their approach is a modern interpretation of islam and actually er the daughter of president himself which is er which became the first runner in capital in the fifth majlis she argues for a proportion of seats and says half of the parliament should be belong to the women because half of the voters and half of the population are women during reformist era of president khatami we will see a new humane interpretation of religion by president and a new youth generation who hadn't seen the war hadn't faced themselves revolution they are young educated very much internationally connected through internet they become a force and political reform becom- becomes the motor of the government this er government which opens the door for a better equality of male and female er and and er more gender issues to be raised in iran they face resistance by conservative forces both in religious circle as well as council of guardians council of guardians is a a senate forum all bills should go there it's half religious authorities half lawyers and legal authorities (xx) contradicts religion (the) the half of religious (coalition) it's an appointee but the legal part is an elected semi-elected okay this this is the era we see a very strong resistance of er ideologists vis-à-vis reformist we see the sixth majlis it's er the the er candidates are over seven per cent but the number of er MPs declined declined by two , seventh majlis interestingly this is a majlis in which a conservative return in the government we see both a conservative return in majlis we see er there are two reasons the . er political economist argues that er it was reason for this return one is because of the foreign U- and main US pressure on reformist government of president khatami led to a disappointment of er the public vis-à-vis the reformist government's output and this majlis it's a conservative parliament in line with government and now for the first time we have a conservative government a conservative parliament a conservative council of guardians in line with one another we have 12 er female MPs of whom nine has PhD then it shows a growing er highly educated people are running for fo- er okay let's look at the (comparative) bills passed by (the) majlises as we see in fifth majlis is the highest and i believe the most successful parliament in with respect to the women's issue even though sixth majlis is the highest outspoken and the highest intellectual body with so much enthusiasm er for major change vis-à-vis the gender issues (was) established but they were unseccessful because of the resistence of the council of guardians and religious circles to be successful in passinf the , okay , the comparative results , i think this will be the last (xx) , er three kind of governments parliaments have been established (in post-revolution) a conservative government and majlis which was during the war era it was very inactive with respect to women's issues many bills was passed but it had nominal effect they didn't tackle major issues of of er gender problem then a reformist government and majlis which is the sixth majlis both majlis and government were reformist but it was a conservative council of guardians very active with respect to women's issues but resistance by council of guardians tired eff- tireless efforts with no concrete result even though there were so much progress but it was far from the expectation of both governments and the female parlamentarian (role) but president rafsanjani's government a centrist government and conservative majlis which is the fifth majlis no significant bills but it was a move forward and that was mainly due to the bargaining power of government in support of women parlamentarian against council of guardians the government helped the women parlamentarian as it was a centrist movement to move forward er er vis-à-vis er bettering the situation of women in iran , okay er let's overall this (is) the conclusion i believe that female population of iran is gender-insensitive iranian women don't feel electing women to the parliament will help to remove their problems they are very much er technocratic-centred-minded that feel whoever has the high amenity with high experience can can better serve them at the parliament that's one problem with respect to the female population , second er within the intellectual and politicians female politicians there is a united gender-conscious er body almost everyone no matter with what political affiliation and even with what religious affiliation the approach they are very gender-conscious they might differ in the depth of actions but they are very much gender-conscious and third there is a male-dominated bodies in almost all political dec- political decision-making circles which is the main impediment in front of the gender movement in iran thank you </S6>
