By Masih Alinejad

As Iranian presidential candidates visit the election department of the Interior Ministry, they pass by the State Security Forces roaming the crowded street. These days, unlike just a short while ago, the moral police do not arrest or harass women who do not adhere to Iran’s strict dress code. This is one of many signs that the elections are on their way in Iran. Young women – with made up faces, tight clothes and hair sticking out from under headscarves – who would normally have no right to appear in public in that fashion, are now viewed as key potential voters.

The Guardian Council has never approved a woman to run for president under its various interpretations of the Islamic Constitution. Therefore, the only way to have a female voice and presence in the executive is for the president to appoint a woman as a cabinet minister. However, no woman has yet been able to sit in cabinet meetings. Former president Mohammad Khatami did invite two women (Masoumeh Ebtekar and Zahra Shojaie) to join his administration as vice presidents, but not as ministers, and their duties concerned mainly environmental and women’s issues. Currently one woman, Fatemeh Javadi, serves as a vice president in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s administration.

These days, however, the presidential candidates are all promising to appoint women as government ministers. And while the position of “First Lady” is not defined as it is in some other countries, reformist candidate Mir-Hossein Mousavi has his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, at his side in campaign rallies and meetings. It is still not customary for couples to join hands on the stage and in public, but the mere presence of his wife on the campaign seems to excite young women and attract many of them to Mousavi’s camp.

Some women political activists believe these acts of “kindness” towards women – by the candidates and by the security forces – will end as soon as the election is over, just as they have in previous election seasons. As Fatemeh Karrubi, the head of the Organization of Iranian Women, said to reformist candidate Mehdi Karroubi during one of his first campaign meetings: “Iranian women are tired of hearing slogans and they ask the next president to deliver executive positions to women.”

Having prominent women in the next president’s administration and cabinet could be beneficial to the women’s movement’s efforts to achieve equal rights. Iranians who suffer from sexual discrimination and unequal rights believe that by entering the political arena and occupying executive and decision-making posts, they would be better positioned to fight unjust laws. Leaders of the “One Million Signatures Campaign” for women’s equal rights, for example, have contacted women members of the parliament – even though women MPs are considered conservative – to stop the parliament from passing legislation allowing men to take a second wife without asking the permission of their first wife. Women went to the Majlis and let the male-dominated institution hear their protest.

Many women leaders are critical of Iranian elections, citing the presence and interference of the Guardian Council. However for the sake of women’s rights, they have no choice but to meet and negotiate with elected officials and their appointees to advocate for their cause. As such, prominent women activists have joined and campaigned for reformist candidates. Jamileh Kadivar, a reformist member of the sixth Majlis who had been rejected as a candidate by the Guardian Council in the past, is now the head of the women’s headquarters for Karroubi’s campaign.

Many traditional women, on the other hand, support Ahmadinejad, including several members of the Majlis. These are the same women who tried to pass legislation shortening the office hours of women, in an attempt to weaken the role of women in the workplace, or who tried to reduce the number of seats reserved for women in colleges and universities. These women have taken steps to reduce and eliminate the role of women in Iranian society, instead of strengthening it. Most of the support among women for Ahmadinejad and his parliamentary faction comes from the rural areas where they are concerned about the Revolution and its goals and values.

Iranian women have become a focus of the presidential candidates, and promises are made to gain their support. The consensus among women, however – especially young women – is that once the election is over, the State Security Forces will once again impose fines and arrest women for violations of dress codes. They fear that the promises of a woman minister will be forgotten and all the sweet talk and hope regarding equal rights will become empty campaign promises.

Iranians will just have to wait and see if women who are highly involved in the campaigns can hold their respective candidates accountable for their promises about women. Women continue to wonder if any of these candidates will, for the first time in contemporary Iranian history, select a woman for a cabinet position – and introduce her to the public before the election.

Pictured above: Two young Iranian women.

Note: This article was translated from Farsi. The opinions expressed reflect those of the author, and not necessarily those of the National Democratic Institute or The Century Foundation.

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Published on May 21, 2009