Famous Iranian Female Lawmakers May Miss Next Majlis
Sayed Hadi Mousavi- Tehran
The ninth Iranian parliamentary election took place with a huge turnout of 64 percents of the eligible voters. The interesting point when looking to the results is that only three women have been elected in the first round.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced that according to the final results, around 31 million ballot papers have been cast in boxes.
The figure also shows a 13% increase in public turnout compared with the eighth and seventh parliamentary elections in Iran.
The turnout was so high last week on Friday that the Ministry was made to extend the deadline four times. Polling was really heavy since 8 a.m. on Friday and in many polling stations, large numbers of the people had queued to be the first to cast their vote in the ballot box even three hours before polling centers opened.
According to the statistics released by the Interior Ministry, 225 seats -three from them to female candidates- had been won outright with the remaining 65 going to a run-off.
From small constituencies, two women entered the ninth Majlis: Mahnaz Bahmani from Sarab and Shahla Mirgalou from Saveh. The third woman is Nayere Akhavan-Bitaraf from Isfahan who was elected for the fourth time with 165810 votes.
Effat Shariati from Mashhad and Eshrat Shayegh from Tabriz will have to face a run-off.
In the capital Tehran, only five male candidates were able to secure seats and 50 candidates will compete for the remaining seats. From these 50 candidates, 9 are female -among them four members of the previous Majlis.
Zohre Tabibzadeh Noori, the former president and head of "Center for Women and Family affairs" lead the female list with 395656 votes.
The results from Tehran indicates that in the top thirty of the list, apart from Tabibzadeh Noori , four Principalist member of the previous Majlis can be seen that they're only placed 24th, 28th, 29th and 36th.
The interesting point is that Tayyebeh Safayi , the head of the women fraction of the Majlis, didn't get enough votes even to take part in the run-off.
Laleh Eftekhari, the spokeswoman of the fraction has a relatively better position with 330019 votes finishing fourteen in Tehran.
Soheila Jelodarzade, a reformist former three terms parliamentarian also complete in the run-off from Tehran, although she doesn't have much chance as she finished 42nd with only 221350 votes.
Previous Majlis terms
The Iranian women got the right of voting and being elected for the first time in 1962. From the victory of the Islamic Revolution, nine parliamentary elections have taken place in each term a number of female candidates were elected, largely depending on the overall political situation.
In the three first terms, four women entered the Majlis. The maximum number of it was the fifth term with thirteen members and after that a decline happened.
From the initial 5405 candidates that had subscribed for the ninth Majlis, 428 were female candidates (8 percent). With the current results, a minimum three seats will be won by them. If all of them enter succeed in the run-off, a new record will be set.
Under the second term of presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi an Iranian university professor and former parliamentarian became the first female government minister since the Islamic Revolution. The parliament hadn't given the vote of confidence to two other female nominees.
Most of the experts believe that tackling women issues needs a more powerful presence of them in the parliament. The awareness of male lawmakers should also be raised so that they help to draft proper laws.
Insurance for housewives and breadwinners and those with unsupportive householders, job security for women especially after maternity leave, increase of maternity leave, providing security for women and dealing with domestic violence were the most important issues that were discussed and laws were drafted about them in the eight term and it's expected to be followed in the next Majlis.
The Interior Ministry announced that the run-off will take place in May.
The ninth Iranian parliamentary election took place with a huge turnout of 64 percents of the eligible voters. The interesting point when looking to the results is that only three women have been elected in the first round.
Interior Minister Mostafa Mohammad Najjar announced that according to the final results, around 31 million ballot papers have been cast in boxes.
The figure also shows a 13% increase in public turnout compared with the eighth and seventh parliamentary elections in Iran.
The turnout was so high last week on Friday that the Ministry was made to extend the deadline four times. Polling was really heavy since 8 a.m. on Friday and in many polling stations, large numbers of the people had queued to be the first to cast their vote in the ballot box even three hours before polling centers opened.
According to the statistics released by the Interior Ministry, 225 seats -three from them to female candidates- had been won outright with the remaining 65 going to a run-off.
From small constituencies, two women entered the ninth Majlis: Mahnaz Bahmani from Sarab and Shahla Mirgalou from Saveh. The third woman is Nayere Akhavan-Bitaraf from Isfahan who was elected for the fourth time with 165810 votes.
Effat Shariati from Mashhad and Eshrat Shayegh from Tabriz will have to face a run-off.
In the capital Tehran, only five male candidates were able to secure seats and 50 candidates will compete for the remaining seats. From these 50 candidates, 9 are female -among them four members of the previous Majlis.
Zohre Tabibzadeh Noori, the former president and head of "Center for Women and Family affairs" lead the female list with 395656 votes.
The results from Tehran indicates that in the top thirty of the list, apart from Tabibzadeh Noori , four Principalist member of the previous Majlis can be seen that they're only placed 24th, 28th, 29th and 36th.
The interesting point is that Tayyebeh Safayi , the head of the women fraction of the Majlis, didn't get enough votes even to take part in the run-off.
Laleh Eftekhari, the spokeswoman of the fraction has a relatively better position with 330019 votes finishing fourteen in Tehran.
Soheila Jelodarzade, a reformist former three terms parliamentarian also complete in the run-off from Tehran, although she doesn't have much chance as she finished 42nd with only 221350 votes.
Previous Majlis terms
The Iranian women got the right of voting and being elected for the first time in 1962. From the victory of the Islamic Revolution, nine parliamentary elections have taken place in each term a number of female candidates were elected, largely depending on the overall political situation.
In the three first terms, four women entered the Majlis. The maximum number of it was the fifth term with thirteen members and after that a decline happened.
From the initial 5405 candidates that had subscribed for the ninth Majlis, 428 were female candidates (8 percent). With the current results, a minimum three seats will be won by them. If all of them enter succeed in the run-off, a new record will be set.
Under the second term of presidency of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi an Iranian university professor and former parliamentarian became the first female government minister since the Islamic Revolution. The parliament hadn't given the vote of confidence to two other female nominees.
Most of the experts believe that tackling women issues needs a more powerful presence of them in the parliament. The awareness of male lawmakers should also be raised so that they help to draft proper laws.
Insurance for housewives and breadwinners and those with unsupportive householders, job security for women especially after maternity leave, increase of maternity leave, providing security for women and dealing with domestic violence were the most important issues that were discussed and laws were drafted about them in the eight term and it's expected to be followed in the next Majlis.
The Interior Ministry announced that the run-off will take place in May.
