Tehran Municipality's Gender Segregation Campaign Sparks Public Debate In Iran

Tehran Municipality's Gender Segregation Campaign Sparks Public Debate In Iran. (Memri).

In mid-July 2014, the Tehran municipality, under mayor Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, began implementing gender segregation in its institutions.

Its move is part of the power struggle over Iran's cultural character between the ideological camp, which is headed by the Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei and to which Qalibaf belongs, and the pragmatic camp, headed by Expediency Council chairman Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani.

The issue surfaced on the public agenda after a secret memo circulated by the Tehran municipality was leaked to the press. In it, the municipality instructed its senior officials to remove women from posts such as bureau chiefs, secretaries, typists etc.[1]

Responding to public criticism, Qalibaf clarified that this did not mean dismissing female employees but separating women and men in public spaces in order to avoid a situation where women spend more daytime hours with unrelated males than with their husbands and children.

The gender segregation plan in the Tehran municipality touched off a sharp media polemic reflecting the gap between the ideological and pragmatic camps. Members of the ideological camp, including Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) officials, senior ayatollahs, Majlis members, Iran's broadcasting authority, officials in the judiciary, and others praised the Tehran municipality's measure and urged that it be adopted throughout the country.

In contrast, senior officials of the pragmatic camp, chief of them Hashemi Rafsanjani, President Hassan Rohani, and ministers in Rohani's government, as well as female human rights activists, jurists and journalists, voiced firm opposition to the gender segregation plan and claimed that it contravened Islam and the opinion of the revolutionary regime's founder, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini.

The position of the ideological camp was expressed by Tehran deputy mayor Morteza Talai in a press conference with journalists, in which he got into a heated argument with several journalists who objected that the plan contravened both the Iranian laws and public opinion.

An opposing view was expressed by women's rights activist Fakhr-Al-Sadat Mohtashemipour, the wife of political prisoner Mostafa Tajzadeh, who argued that the policy is an insult not only to women but also to men, because it assumes they are unable to control their impulses.

Below are excerpts from their statements, and some others:

Senior Ayatollah Jafar Sobhani said: "There is no doubt that free interaction between women and men, girls and boys – even if and they are highly devout and appropriately dressed – has repercussions that will never prove beneficial to society, the individual and the family unit." He regretted that "instead of being met with praise and encouragement, this revolutionary measure provoked criticism by interested parties."[4]

On August 8, 2014, President Rohani declared that, "from the government's standpoint, there is no distinction… between men and women, and posts should go to the most qualified [candidate]. Is it feasible to make half of Iranian society – namely women – unemployable based on various excuses? Our women are modest, and Iranian society is Islamic and moral. Iranian women are leaders in the field of morality.^[9] 

On September 7, 2014, Rohani added: "At the start of the [Islamic] Revolution, when the universities [re]opened, some wanted to erect walls at Tehran University's classrooms to separate girls from boys. When the Imam [Khomeini] got wind of this, he was irritated and rebuked them, [saying] 'What is the meaning of this?' Such measures will only disgrace Islam and weaken religious directives."[10]

Culture Minister Ali Jannati said: "Gender segregation does not go hand in hand with our religious values… I instructed senior ministry officials to inform me of any infraction committed in this domain so we can take care [of it]."^[11] 

"The following are some of the explanations that Tehran's deputy mayor provided yesterday in defending the municipality's action to journalists...

"Morteza Talai: 'In principle, this gender segregation plan responds to the atmosphere in society. No senior [regime] official seeks to separate women from men. The measures are performed out of respect [for women and for the sake of their] well-being and peace of mind. We in the municipality placed three women together [in the same room]. Is this segregation? It could also happen that, at a musical performance, men would be required to sit on one side and women on the other. The important point is that even raising this issue [i.e., questioning segregation]  is a deviation. We must not undermine such valuable measures intended to ensure women's safety. These things [namely the criticism] are political.'

"Talai asked one of the women journalists present: 'Would you be willing to enter a room where 100 men would shove you?' The journalist responded: 'I would prefer that nobody either prohibit me from entering this room nor force me to.'

Tailai said 'as a devout man, I will not let a girl be sent to a place where anybody can look at her as he wishes. I told my wife, I'm going to work, and there are three girls there, two of them divorced. Are you ok [with that]?' And she said: 'I'll break your legs. As a woman, I want my husband to be safe.' You want to impose your mistakes [on society] due to your mistaken assumptions, but my devoutness does not permit me to allow this, and I don't care what others [think].'

"A journalist remarked, 'That is your personal opinion', and Talai answered: 'Your opinion is also your personal opinion, and you have no right to impose it on others.'

Female Human Rights Activist: The Gender Segregation Program Is Intended To Send Women Back To Their Homes.

A plan like gender segregation in the workplace contravenes the approach of the Imam [Khomenei], who firmly opposed gender segregation in the universities and adopted an intellectual approach befitting the circumstances of the time and place. I hope some people who are ostensibly faithful to the Imam [Khomenei]  pay closer attention [to this].

"From the beginning of the Islamic Revolution, women had an active social role. For example, they marched ahead of the men in the demonstrations of millions [in the Islamic Revolution of 1978-79]. Gender segregation will not make the workplace better, but will deflect society from its natural course and will have [negative] repercussions. We are an Islamic country and therefore we must respect... human dignity.

"Who said that we have to surround women with a fence? If those who introduced the gender segregation plan at the workplace [think they] are right, let them conduct a survey to establish what the people's opinion is.

"Such plans have already proven themselves [bad]. We must fight them, because they are a prelude to sending women back to their homes, which is at odds with social conditions, since Iran has progressed and many of the women are highly educated. The female Majlis members should come out against this program…"^[13] Read the full story here.