Jonah was kind enough to allow me to read the news this morning between 2:30am EST and 5am EST. Below is the best coverage on a story that broke this morning -- does the constitutional qualification rajal for candidates for Presidency of the Islamic Republic also refer to women? From the English section of Women in Iran, which isn't in the media coverage, discussed below.
A Gathering to Ask for Women PresidencyIn a gathering today, nine members of the committee of women from Society of Iran of Tomorrow declared their opposition to the lack of clarification in the definition of the word “men” in the Islamic Republic Constitution and informed the presidential election commission.
In an Interview with the Iranian Student’s Press, Farah Khosravi, the president of the Society of Iran of Tomorrow, at the beginning of the gathering said, “We asked this question from the authorities four years ago, and we have been repeating it this year. About a month ago we also sent an inquiry letter to the Council of Guardians, but we did not get a response. We are hoping that their silence means they are going to give us a positive response.”
She also added that Islam is more open-minded and ahead of other religions in dealing with women’s issues. “It used to be that governments forced people to define women’s roles in the society in a certain way, but today, if a country is thinking about reform it has to consider women in politics. Otherwise it can’t traverse the path of globalization.”
She continued, “It should not matter whether the movement is led by women or men, but we want them to acknowledge the equality of the sexes and pay attention to women’s roles in the political arena. This is the first women’s movement led by the Society of Iran of Tomorrow and we will stay hopeful until the presidential election.”
Khosravi also talked about the Presidential Election. “In the previous presidential election (2001), I nominated myself as the only woman candidate and was one of the 11 presidential nominees in the country. Many authorities contacted me and asked me to decline the position because I was a woman. So I accepted.” She discussed the future plans of the Society of Iran of Tomorrow as to increase recreation, agriculture for women and said, “If another political candidate has these plans in his political agenda, we will be supporting him. However, we are attempting to have a woman candidate in the upcoming election.”
She elaborated the word “men” as it is written in the Iranian constitution explaining that it is a very general term, which in essence includes men as well as women. “Just like how the word man in English means human being as a whole, so is men as used in the Constitution, but so far it has only been used to refer to men. Because the authority figures were always male, they never paid attention to women’s rights, and we have some future plans to change that. I think we have more power than we are using.”
It was also recognized at the gathering that women have long been involved in the political decision making processes and execution of law, and that today they are among the most responsible members of the society. Additionally, it was mentioned that the genius and talent the Iranian women have shown over the course of years proves their reliability and merit.
At the end of the gathering it was concluded that the clarification of the word “men” could get Iranian women involved in the highest executive political offices in the society and would enable Muslim Iranian women to run for office of the President. This gathering was scheduled to take place in the vicinity of one of the government buildings, but instead it took place at Laleh Park and ended at 11 o’clock.
The following slogans were used in the gathering:
- We elect so we must be elected.
- Today men and women move together towards reform. (from Imam Khomeini)
- To respected officers: after 25 years please answer this question whether women are allowed to run for the President.
- Everyone take notice that even in Afghanistan and Pakistan women have the right to run for the President. How about women in Iran?
- Women’s abilities are not less than those of men, but women need space to flourish. (President Khatami).
Translated by: Shahrzad Farshi
This is "below".
Which of the following is surprising to find in the sites Google picked up as having content related to a statement by Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the Guardian Council, that women may stand in the May election for President of the Islamic Republic? Its news right?
The BBC, the Seattle PI, Al Jazeera, Reuters, Iran Focus, Radio Free Europe, Newsday, South African Broadcasting Corporation.
If you picked Iran Focus, you win. What surprises me is that a PMOI front is cited, even algorithmically, as a source of news. Any kind of news. Even inside-the-koolaid-pitcher news. The breakdown of coverage is all of the real news outlets ran the story -- the qualification rajal could also refer to women, and Iran Focus ran a subsequent retraction. I suppose it is possible that the spokeman for the Council of Guardians gives exclusive retractions to the Washington Offices of the 101 Fighting Keyboarders, Mujahideen-e-Khalq Division.
After all, in theory, all the vote-not-recounted Florida votes in 2000 went for Bush, and all not-allowed-to-vote-by-technical-means, and vote-apparently-corrected-by-software, and vote-not-recounted Ohio votes in 2004 also went for Bush.
I'm going to update this through the weekend as time allows. I'll cover the election data to date and summarize the diplomatic offensive.
Update I: I'll be damned! The Islamic Republic New Agency is running the repudiation. The MEK got it right. One extra-large helping of crow served over a bed of old coffee grounds for me.
Update II: OK. IRNA was running the GC relenet very early this morning (EDT), then ran the GC's retraction by mid-morning. Make it a half-portion of crow on a bed of old coffee grounds.
Posted by EBW at January 22, 2005 10:21 AM | TrackBack