Dastjerdi: "An important step for women"

Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi

Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi, the first woman to become a cabinet minister in the Islamic Republic of Iran, described her appointment yesterday as “an important step for all women.” ISNA cites Ms. Dastjerdi saying: “I think women have attained their longtime dream of having a woman in the cabinet to follow through on their demands…”

The first Iranian woman to become a cabinet minister in Iran was Farrokhrou Parsa who became the minister of education in 1968. Mahnaz Afkhami who became the minister of women’s affairs in 1976 was the next Iranian woman to become a cabinet member.

Farrokhrou Parsa

The conservative dominated parliament of Iran gave its vote of confidence to only one of the three women in Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s proposed cabinet on Thursday. Dastjerdi will take over the ministry of health. She is a gynecologist, a former Member of Parliament and director of one of the branches of University of Tehran’s medical sciences department. She is a proponent of segregated hospitals for men and women.

Farrokhrou Parsa, the first Iranian woman to become a cabinet minister was executed by the Islamic Revolutionary court in 1980 for charges of corruption and the spread of obscenities in education. She was the first female executive and deputy minister in Iran and she was the founder of Iran’s most famous university.

Mahnaz Afkhami at the UN

Mahnaz Afkhami, former minister of women’s affairs, left Iran after the 1979 Revolution for the US, where she currently resides. She is the founder of Women’s Learning Partnership.