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| Simin Sabri |
Currently, out of 290 members of Iran’s Islamic Consultative Assembly (Parliament), only nine are women. Ahead of the February 26 elections, women’s rights activists in Iran have launched the “Changing the Male Face of Parliament” campaign to increase the number of female representatives in the legislature.
In an interview with Voice of America, Southern Azerbaijani psychiatrist and women’s rights activist Simin Sabri evaluated the positive and negative aspects of this campaign. She pointed out that the issues faced by non-Persian women were not given enough attention in the campaign and emphasized that gender and ethnic discrimination are intertwined, both being crucial concerns.
Non-Persian women’s rights activists argue that women living in provinces far from Iran’s central regions are much more excluded from socio-political participation compared to those in the center.
According to a report by Mehrkhane, an online newspaper in Tehran focused on women’s issues, women have only managed to enter the parliament 78 times across nine parliamentary elections since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. Taking into account that some women have been elected multiple times, only 50 women—65.3% of whom were from Tehran—have served as MPs in the history of the Islamic Republic.
Currently, only one of the nine female members of Iran’s parliament has been elected from Iranian Azerbaijan. Mahnaz Bahmani represents the city of Sarab in East Azerbaijan Province.
As an advocate for applying quotas in different fields, including parliamentary elections, to support communities that have faced long-term oppression and discrimination, Sabri emphasized that quality is just as important as quantity.
“In all democratic or even developing countries, it is accepted that because women have historically been oppressed and excluded from political arenas, they cannot compete equally with men. That is why quotas are applied to ensure women’s representation. So, in a country like Iran, even increasing the number of women in parliament is an achievement. However, experience shows that focusing only on numbers does not lead to the desired goals,” said the activist, who currently lives in exile in Norway.
Sabri highlighted that non-Persian women in Iran face discrimination in various areas, including gender and linguistic rights. She argued that both women’s rights activists and Turkish language rights advocates are, in fact, working toward the same goal: eliminating violence against women.
“Intersectionality explains how multiple forms of discrimination overlap... Fighting for language rights is actually also a fight against violence toward women. Ensuring language rights can bring mother-tongue media, such as radio and TV, to remote villages. This, in turn, can improve the health of Turkish women and help prevent child marriages. Sometimes, different types of discrimination overlap so much that we don’t know which one to prioritize,” Simin Sabri added.
Link to the original interview in Turkish on the Azerbaijani section of Voice of America:
Simin Səbri İranda "Məclisin kişi simasını dəyişdirmə" kampaniyası haqda