Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Sunday attempted to soften his hardline image by nominating three women to his Cabinet following June’s disputed election.
As a new trial began of 25 more activists and opposition supporters, Ahmadinejad named Fatemeh Ajorlou, a member of parliament (MP), as social welfare minister and Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi as health minister, with a third woman to be named later.
“With the 10th presidential election, we have entered a new era ... Conditions changed completely and the government [make-up] will see major changes,” Ahmadinejad said on state television.
PHOTO: AP
He also said Heydar Moslehi, his adviser on clerical affairs, would be nominated as intelligence minister. There were unconfirmed reports that the country’s chief nuclear negotiator, Saeed Jalili, would be named foreign minister.
Like Ahmadinejad, Jalili has taken an uncompromising stance in Iran’s dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which it defends as being for peaceful purposes.
But it is Ahmadinejad’s intention to have three women ministers that stands out in a society where women politicians are thin on the ground. There are only eight women among Iran’s 290 MPs.
During the election campaign, the defeated reformist candidate, Mir Hossein Mousavi, and his wife, Zahra Rahnavard, who holds a doctorate in political science, galvanized younger and female voters with promises to eliminate discrimination, abolish the “morality police” and “help the youth to think freely.”
Rahnavard emerged as the unlikely star of the presidential campaign. Ahmadinejad used a televised debate between the candidates to question the legitimacy of her doctorate. She then astonished the political establishment by accusing him of lying, debasing women and abusing his office, and threatened to sue him.
By seeking to promote women in his Cabinet, Ahmadinejad has taken on board the increased political clout of Iranian women, but the appointments — which have to be approved by parliament — are unlikely to appease reformists as both women named by Ahmadinejad are considered hardliners.
Mousavi announced plans over the weekend to create a political organization called the Green Path of Hope to restore constitutional rights. He said volunteer and social networks would form the mainstay of the organization, which he plans to be able to function legally within the political framework.
Mousavi said its goal would be to “defend the rights and votes of citizens that were crushed in the election.”
Following Ahmadinejad’s unexpectedly large majority in the June vote, hundreds of thousands of Mousavi’s supporters, wearing green, took to the streets claiming the election was fraudulent, in defiance of a government ban on political demonstrations.
Hardliners are increasingly calling for Mousavi to be put on trial along with hundreds of the regime’s opponents. During Sunday’s trial, one defendant, Mehrdad Aslani, accused Mousavi of planting the idea of election fraud in the mind of supporters. There have been no official indictments against Mousavi.
Earlier this month Iran held two other trials for more than 100 reformist politicians and activists accused of attempting to overthrow Iran’s Islamic system, including Hossein Rassam, chief political analyst at the British embassy and an Iranian citizen. The opposition has denounced the trials as a sham.
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