One of the special features of the tenth round of elections for the Islamic Consultative Assembly is the attention to changing the gender composition of representatives. A group of women activists in Iran have launched a campaign to change the male-dominated face of parliament by increasing the number of female representatives in the future. The goal of this campaign is to increase women’s political participation and promote gender balance through the gradual growth of seats allocated to women in parliament. This article aims to examine the impact of this campaign on achieving women’s demands, smoothing the path to gender justice, and its success in promoting women’s political participation. The main focus of this article is to criticize the emphasis on quantity over quality and the neglect of structural constraints in parliamentary reforms in achieving gender justice.

The scarcity of female representatives and senior political managers in Iran is an undeniable reality and a reflection of the chaotic situation that women have found themselves in within the Islamic Republic and its traditional discourse. Currently, there is no female minister in the executive branch. Governors are also exclusively male. The highest executive position for women in the current political situation is the vice presidency and governorship.

The number of female representatives in the ninth parliament is nine. This number is less than the highest record of female seats in the fifth parliament, which had 14 female representatives. In terms of quantity, the situation of women in parliament was better before the revolution. In the last term of the National Consultative Assembly, twenty representatives were seated in a single seat.

Iran not only has one of the lowest gender equality indices in parliament in the world, but it is also among the lowest in the Middle East region.

Given this situation, the effort to increase the number of seats in parliament for women is a positive step. However, this slight growth alone will not lead to significant and sustainable changes and also requires simultaneous attention to qualitative factors. These qualitative factors can be categorized into three main axes: a positive stance towards gender equality and opposition to the discourse of women’s degradation to a second-class status, belief in democracy and political development, and finally, possession of political abilities and skills.

Before discussing quantitative indicators, it seems useful to mention the relationship between politics and gender. Politics can be seen as a struggle for power and control over society, whether it is considered as a means of organized effort or as a pursuit of public good, freedom, and justice. However, being a man or a woman is not a determining factor in this context. But in situations where women have faced serious challenges in terms of their political and social capabilities due to the dominance of a patriarchal system, gender balance becomes relevant. As long as the tangible and hidden presence of the paradigm of gender inequality persists, this issue remains significant. However, ultimately, politics in the realm of democracy is about the selection of ideas and programs, and gender should not play a role in it. The writer also defends temporary positive discrimination in political parties, where women are given a quota in all decision-making bodies. However, due to reasons beyond the scope of this article, the gender quota in parliament is not considered a useful measure

It is natural that women benefit from gender composition changes in parliament in favor of gender equality when those who enter parliament are universally against gender discrimination and strive to use their representation capacity to facilitate gender justice. Those who, for any reason and from any perspective, do not believe in gender equality demands and their power as a foundation for women’s rights as human beings, do not have a place in parliament. Their presence not only does not benefit, but also contributes to the continuation of patriarchal patterns in power and social organization. If women like Fatemeh Rahbar, Zahra Tabibzadeh, Fatemeh Alia, Ashrat Shayegh, and others reach dozens of seats in parliament and even occupy half of the seats, it will not have a positive outcome for women, and women will act against women in the power structure. Regarding positions, it should be noted that it is not only the fundamentalists and extremist figures of the government who are considered, who explicitly oppose the gender

Some of the female reformist forces who retreat from their positions against gender justice and religious leaders, and their reformist power in the field of women’s issues is quickly discharged and does not bring any positive results, also face a similar fate. A look at the experience of the Women’s Deputy in the Moderate Government is enlightening. Despite her honesty in accepting gender equality, whenever the religious leaders oppose women’s demands, she is forced to back down by the government’s leader and openly states that they will not pursue these demands out of respect for the religious leaders. A similar position was also taken by Ms. Ashraf Boroujerdi, who was the Deputy Minister of Interior during the reformist era, in an interview where she stated that Rafsanjani and Khatami, in order to appease the religious and conservative leaders, did not choose a female minister and instead, Ahmadinejad has taken advantage of this and disregarded their wishes and respect for the religious leaders by insisting on

Respecting authorities and essentially every group and social status is necessary, but more importantly, respecting truth and justice. If respecting authorities means approving of injustice and trampling on the rights of half of society, then this act is no longer called respect, but rather submission and retreat in the face of disrespectful demands.

The majority of reformist women or those who consider themselves Islamic feminists are faced with this paradox and do not have much practical capacity to solve the problems of Iranian women. The paradigm of patriarchy has no connection to the principles and foundations of Islam and remains among other issues related to the circumstances and patterns of the past. A significant part of religious reform is the dressing of patriarchy in the face of Islam, which requires courageous and enlightened religious authorities and clergy. The presence of women who succumb to the attacks of some authorities who hold backward and outdated views does not have a lasting positive impact on the women’s movement.

Another important factor in political positions is women who are supposed to go to parliament. The women’s movement is an important part of Iranian civil society, the survival and growth of which depends on the formation of democracy and the observance of human rights standards. The small growth of women in parliament should not overshadow this issue. Women who are defenders or victims of religious tyranny and who consciously or unconsciously strengthen political authoritarianism will not bear the burden of Iranian women and emphasizing the desirability of increasing their numbers in parliament will not address the issue correctly.

Another important element is having political and organizational abilities and skills. One of the pitfalls that can reduce the relationship between women and politics to a stereotype or essentialism is referring to the positive role of women’s self-esteem in politics from an essentialist perspective. Although in the short term, the presence of women may have a better capacity to avoid the pitfalls of politics due to their limited experience in the field, in the long term, gender in politics is not necessarily a positive concept. Politics is a trans-feminist issue. In the real world, women in politics are not on one side and do not have a unified camp, but are distributed among different orientations, interests, and ideologies, just like men. Of course, if political presence aims to eliminate gender inequalities and reject the practical pattern of male domination, naturally, the majority of women will be in a unified camp. However, this camp is not necessarily based on gender segregation, and men also have the possibility of being present in this categorization

The political ability of women should be viewed from both the perspective of deserving leadership and practical merit. If women included in lists do not have acceptable performance and necessary capabilities, their presence will be merely decorative and showy, which will ultimately harm women’s political participation and society’s attention to gender balance. Women’s presence in political positions will only become institutionalized when it breaks down gender-based stereotypes of male dominance and proves their competence and abilities in practice. Otherwise, their weak and token presence will turn into an anti-women force and have the opposite effect.

However, focusing on qualitative issues alongside quantitative growth does not cover the entirety of women’s political participation equation in Iran. Candidacy in elections and increasing the number of female representatives is only useful when it is properly and accurately formulated and has realistic expectations. Changing the male-dominated face of the parliament and even women taking the majority of seats in the parliament does not directly and automatically lead to improving the status of women and changing unjust gender laws. In fact, there should not be an excessive value placed on women’s presence in executive and legislative positions in the power structure of the Islamic Republic. The representative in the current power structure does not have a central role in women’s political participation. The Islamic Republic is a non-democratic government with a closed legal structure and a regressive ideology. The basis of the system’s legitimacy is based on a fundamentalist interpretation of Islam and ideological traditionalism. The source of this legitimacy is linked to the deprivation of women’s fundamental rights and a secondary view of them, and any

Therefore, gender justice at the legal level requires a large social movement and linking with the strategy of structural reforms and fundamental changes in power structures. Increasing the number of female representatives and changing the gender composition of the parliament is a movement towards government-centered reforms and top-down changes. This movement has a lasting impact on improving the situation of women and empowering them when tactics and leverage are in the hands of a community-centered strategy in the women’s movement. One of the reasons for the stagnation of the women’s movement in recent years is the increasing neglect of the capacity for activist activities.

The current campaign to change the male-dominated face of the parliament can bring about a continuation of the top-down views of the government. In this case, considering the positions of the faces that have the potential to pass through the Guardian Council’s filter, there is concern that the women’s movement will be more constrained by the government’s views than ever before. The way to overcome this problem is to use the potential increase in the number of women who hold high political positions in the government, to make a realistic assessment of the situation and emphasize that women’s political participation goes beyond being representatives and ministers. The most important criteria for effective women’s political participation are increasing the number of women in leadership and decision-making roles in political groups and social movements, especially those with a fundamental view of political developments.

This approach leads to strengthening the women’s movement in Iran by considering both quantitative and qualitative growth of women relying on seats of power, and achieving a better outcome for it in the future. However, this path is not without challenges and has its own pitfalls that require a separate detailed discussion. Overall, it can be said that quantitative growth in the current social and political conditions in Iran is a positive matter in itself, but its function is limited and does not lead to significant and meaningful transformation. A proper explanation of the issue, along with attention to qualitative factors and avoiding falling into the trap of government-centered approaches, can make better use of the mentioned capacity.