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Five women take on the Ayatollah's legacy

SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Monday, February 14, 2000

NICOSIA -- The Iranian reformers list for the upcoming parliamentary election on Friday includes five women.

The five women, who are standing on the list of the Islamic Iran Participation Front, stressed that they are placing political and legal equality with their male counterparts firmly on the Islamic republic's political agenda.

The Islamic Iran Participation Front [IIPP], is the leading pro-reform party in support of President Mohammad Khatami. The 30- seat list also includes six clerics.

"We want an end to current discrimination and a lifting of the obstacles which have prevented women's participation in the country's political decision-making since the revolution," said one of the five candidates, Fatemeh Haqiqat-Jou.

"Our society amd women must be freed from cultural and social burdens, such as imposed marriages or inequalities in Islamic laws," said Haqiqat-Jou, adding that "Islam sees women and men equally".

Outgoing MP Soheila Jolodarjadeh, who is also a candidate in the upcoming elections, stressed that most injustices involve Iranian women.

"We will change all social laws with the help and agreement of the religious authorities in order to establish equal rights between men and women," she said, calling for a more prominent political role for women.

The IIPP on Wednesday, overhauled its slate of candidates for the Feb. 18 elections, placing the president's brother, Mohammad-Reza Khatami, to head the list.

Mohammad-Reza, who stepped down as his brother's deputy health minister to stand in the elections, replaced Mehdi Karubi, a former Islamic radical who was shifted down to 16th on the 30-strong list.

"Thanks to young people, women, families in difficulty, and all those who voted for Khatami two years ago, who want to prolong his victory by voting for his supporters, those faithful to him," Mohammad-Reza said during an election rally.

The brother of Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, the leader of the regime's revolutionary orthodoxy, is also an IIPP candidate.

Monday, February 14, 2000

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