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Sara Samavati

Farideh Mashini is the chairwoman of the Women’s Committee in the Jebhe Mosharekat ‎‎(Participation) front. She spoke with Rooz about the level of women’s participation in ‎politics. “We have tried to show that women who enter politics are not stooges of men,” ‎she said.‎

Rooz (R ): In your talks about women, you have reserved about 30 percent of the ‎organizational posts for women. How has this move been received inside the party?‎

Farideh Mashini (FM): This is a problem. Even though this quota has been set, there are ‎parts of the country where the idea has not been welcomed. In other parts of the country ‎the quota is not met. Because of this, there was a request that we not make this quota ‎mandatory and leave it to the actual circumstances. But we protested to this arguing that ‎in that case nobody would work for it to fulfill the women’s posts. While it may be true ‎that in some places women are not ready to take on political activities and posts, we have ‎tried to show that those women who do, they are not the stooges of men and act ‎independently. Furthermore, we have presented good women role models to show that ‎they can be good politicians or political activists. In addition, we have shown that through ‎women’s participation, women’s goals and demands can be met. In short, our goal has ‎been to create the drive and motivation for women to participate in political issues, and at ‎the same time remove the barriers that prevent this from happening.‎

R: Creating the right motivation may be the important step, because quotas can be created ‎by mere legislation or internal bylaws. What specifically are the plans to create this?‎

FM: While we do not believe in separating men from women, and thus disagreed with ‎creating a separate women’s group in the Jebhe Mosharekat, we agreed that in some parts ‎of the country where there was a demand, to create women’s groups and develop the right ‎staff and individuals for it. Another goal that we worked on was to make political parties ‎accept that women’s issues were everybody’s issues, not just women’s. In other words ‎we wanted political parties to partly to stop engaging only in those issues that had ‎political weight and in fact take on the tangible social issues that permeate our nation. ‎Examples of such issues are those relating to the family, gender quotas, and universities. ‎It is through these issues that we can encourage women to participate and come on board.‎

R: Have the women in the Jebhe Mosharekat or in the reform movement in general tried ‎to coordinate their work with the secular women’s groups?‎

FM: We have honestly extended our hand of friendship to all groups and have had ‎discussions with many, of course based on our own beliefs and views. On subjects where ‎there is common concern, we listen to the calls and views of the other groups and strive ‎to cooperate together. On some issues such cooperation is difficult to attain, but still, ‎what is important and key is that we recognize them and the issue, even if we disagree.‎

R: Do you think secular women too are making a similar effort? Do they too look at ‎women’s rights issues through the same perspective that you do?‎

FM: Some of them do. Others who have made their own classifications and demarcations ‎try less. But all of these are honorable and we respect them. We believe there are two ‎important issues in this regard: The first is the primacy of women’s issues, and the second ‎one is that since the majority of Iranians are Muslims, we refrain from getting into the ‎differences when we discuss religion or gender identity issues. We think it is very ‎important that women and groups in our society – ranging from housewives to educated ‎ones – should not have the view that having a religious identity contradicts their gender ‎identity and being. Through our religious interpretations, we believe that there is no such ‎contradiction or disagreement.‎