While some politicians and activists in Iran hoped that the new president would combat gender discrimination by appointing women to top political positions, women’s rights activists remain skeptical and view the issue from a different perspective.

Their skepticism proved justified when President Masoud Pezeshkian announced the names of his proposed ministers on August 11 and there was only one woman on the list.

Four Iranian women’s rights activists and academics – media activist Tahmineh Ardakani and sociologists Fatemeh Sadeghi, Fatemeh Alamdar and Bahareh Arvin – recently discussed the state of gender equality. The event was hosted by the Free-Thinking School, a civil society institute in Tehran that facilitates political debates on YouTube.

Tahmineh Ardakani expressed optimism, saying that the election of Massoud Pezeshkian as Iran’s new president could potentially lead to a reduction in gender inequality both in society and in the cabinet.

However, Fatemeh Sadeghi disagreed with this view, arguing that gender segregation in Iran is a broader social and political problem and does not only affect women. She stressed that women’s political power, street violence against women because of the hijab, and issues such as women’s sports must be societal priorities. Sadeghi also criticized previous reformist and moderate governments for their inaction, pointing out that they often accused conservatives of blocking progress while admitting they themselves have no intention of taking action. She expressed skepticism about the current government’s ability to bring about meaningful change, comparing the Cabinet Steering Committee to a council of elders that is out of touch with the demands of the younger generation.

Another sociologist, Fatemeh Alamdar, stressed that gender inequality is not unique to Iran. She cited a UN study that indicates that nine out of ten people worldwide have outdated views on gender roles. She noted that women in Iran face much greater economic and political inequalities than in many other countries. Iran ranks poorly in the World Economic Forum’s Gender Gap Index. Nevertheless, she pointed out that Iranian women are well educated and one in three PhD students is a woman, which leads to high expectations about their social status.

Alamdar said that women’s economic participation is only one-sixth of men’s contribution to economic activities. On the other hand, even in developing countries, women have four times more seats in parliaments than Iranian women. According to the World Economic Forum, Iran, Chad, Algeria and Afghanistan are at the bottom of the list globally in terms of gender gap. The inequality between men and women is much greater in these countries than in the rest of the world.

Bahareh Arvin, another Iranian academic and sociologist, said that a large part of society is not interested in the presidential election. Some probably decided not to vote because they did not hear positive promises during the campaign. She said that in order to prioritize action, we need to see whether poverty or unemployment affect women more than issues (such as hijab and inequality) that are exclusively women’s issues.

In a relevant development on the role of women in government, former MP Parvaneh Salahshouri told Rouydad24 The website states that even the vice president for women’s affairs said that women appointed to the post would not have executive powers. Ms. Salahsouri suggested that a women’s organization must be established in Iran to safeguard women’s rights. She questioned the mechanism by which state officials are selected mainly from men, saying that women in Saudi Arabia are in a better position than Iranian women in this regard.