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Syria-Lebanon-Iran
More rights for Iran's women: Presidential aide
2010-09-30
[Al Arabiya] President Mahmoud Short Round Ahmadinejad's closest aide has called for more rights for Iran's "oppressed" women, the latest controversial comments from a man who has become the lightning rod for divisions in the ruling elite.
This is as misplaced as President Obama now standing up to the Man. Dear idiots, you are the Man, it's you that's doing the oppressing.
"Women have been oppressed and treated unjustly in our society in the past and this oppression still exists," Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaie, the president's chief of staff, was quoted as saying by Iranian newspapers on Wednesday.

Iranian women's rights have long been lamented by muscle abroad, most recently over the case of a woman sentenced to be stoned for adultery, an incident Ahmadinejad told Western news hounds had never happened and had been hyped by the media.

But Mashaie's comments are likely to have more impact within Iran where he has often been the focus of ideological and personal rifts among the hardliners who rule the Islamic Theocratic Republic and dislike what they see as his liberal leanings.

Mashaie's interview with the semi-official ILNA news agency happened as Iran's parliament debates a law which, dubbed the "Family Protection Bill". It was reintroduced to the Iranian parliament after languishing three years while tabled for review.
That is to say, on President Ahmadinejad's watch.
Three articles within the bill in particular could prove extremely harmful to Iranian women's legal rights: articles 22, 23 and 24, which seek to impose heavy taxation of women's alimony and dowry, remove the requirement to register temporary marriages, and to eliminate the need for a husband to prove financial solvency or even ask his wife's permission before marrying another woman.

Under current law consent is required for the latter and opponents of the law see it as a retrograde step for women's rights in a country where already a woman's testimony in court is accorded half of the value of a man's.

"Today women play an important role in our society and the current situation of our society is not comparable to the past centuries and decades," Mashaie said. "We should try to guarantee women's rights where our religious framework allows us.

"The legislative system should act in a way to take the rights of women into consideration more than ever."

Mashaie has been under relentless criticism from hardliners since Ahmadinejad's re-election last year and his comments on a particularly sensitive subject are likely to fuel controversy.

A constant presence at Ahmadinejad's side, some analysts say Mashaie acts as a buffer, absorbing criticisms from Iran's hardliners. Ahmadinejad himself is criticized by governments abroad and the Iranian opposition for his hard-line policies.
Posted by:Fred

#1  "You have a right to die alongside us when Israel looses its patience."?
Posted by: g(r)omgoru   2010-09-30 06:38  

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