Earlier this week, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi was sworn in to President Ahmadinejad’s cabinet as health minister, making her the first female minister in the history of the Islamic Republic of Iran. When addressing Parliament, she spoke of the need to increase women’s participation in politics and in national affairs, and of the “miracles” that can be performed when men and women work together.[1] Two other women were nominated for the cabinet positions of welfare and social security minister and education minister respectively, but they were rejected by Parliament.
Ms. Dastjerdi is a longtime activist for women’s health in Iran. She received an M.D. from the University of Tehran in gynecology, and is currently a member of the editorial board of the Tehran University of Medical Sciences’ Journal of Family and Reproductive Health. Ms. Dastjerdi has been active in Iranian politics since 1992, when she was elected to the fourth Majlis – Iran’s legislative body – as the representative of Tehran. In 1993 she, along with other politically like-minded physicians, founded the conservative political party the Islamic Association of Physicians. In 1997, she was appointed chairwoman of the Majlis Committee on Women, Family and Youth. She is best known for her proposal to segregate hospitals based on gender to be in accordance with Sharia law. Her plan recommended the establishment of separate hospitals for men and women, where female hospitals would be staffed only by women and female patients would be treated by female physicians. The plan was soundly criticized by doctors and healthcare professionals as unfeasible for its high cost and the shortage of female specialists.
For more information, see http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8235264.stm or http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1210905/Iran-parliament-elects-female-minister.html
[1] “Iran Backs its First Woman Minister” BBC News (September 3, 2009), http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/middle_east/8235264.stm
