An Iranian woman fills her ballot during the local elections
Friday Feb. 26, 1998 in a neighborhood on the outskirts of Tehran. Iranians
cast ballots in the nation's first election of local officials in 20 years.
About 330,000 candidates, including 5,000 women, are contesting the elections
for Islamic Councils.(AP Photo/Enric Marti)
Iran's municipal elections a resounding success for
women
TEHRAN, March 2 (AFP) - Iranian women have put up a strong showing in
the country's first ever municipal elections, a trend highlighted by the
victory of reformist President Mohammad Khatami's sister.
Fatemeh Khatami told AFP Tuesday she garnered 16,000 votes, three times
more than her closest rival, in the central desert town of Ardakan, the
home of the Khatami family, and where the president was born.
"I considered that my age prevented me from undertaking such activities,
but the people encouraged me to stand," said the 61-year-old mother
of six.
"I have always worked to propagate culture and religion, but now
we shall have to provide remedies for people's problems," she said.
"It's still too early to say what we're going to do but what is
certain is that I want to be of service to the people," she added.
Her election is a reflection in part of her brother's popularity, and
the respect in which the Khatami family is held locally, but it is also
symptomatic of the success of women candidates throughout the country as
shown in results so far from Friday's poll.
The success of the women was particularly striking in that they accounted
for only were a small minority of candidates -- just 4,000 of the 300,000
hopefuls standing.
Preliminary figures indicate that two women won council seats in the
holy city of Qom, 130 kilometers (80 miles) south of Tehran.
Women did very well in the northern province of Gilan on the Caspian
where 25 women were elected out of the 37 standing in various localities.
In Shiraz in the south, a woman standing as a reformist took second
place, while in Bahar, a large town in the western province of Hamadan,
women reformers came first, second and third.
In Urumiyeh, capital of the Turkish frontier province of West Azerbaijan,
a women reformer is leading the poll.
The female vote contributed largely to Khatami's success in the 1997
presidential election, and the overall results of the municipals so far
shows that his backers reformists still have the wind in their sails.
In Tehran, seen as the key battleground between reformers and conservatives
Khatami supporters are set to win at least 12 out of the capital's 15 seats.
Abdollah Nuri, a former interior minister impeached by the conservative
parliament last year after allowing pro-Khatami demonstrations which led
to clashes with hardliners, is leading the count.
Apart from Nuri, four other top aides of the president were also well
ahead -- including a woman, Jamileh Kadivar, wife of Culture Minister Ataollah
Mohajerani.
And in counts in the provinces, reformers appeared well-placed in all
of the three-quarters of councils which had published some results by Monday,
giving them a solid power base from which to challenge the conservatives'
domination of parliament in general elections next spring.
In a speech to a women's university in Tehran Tuesday Khatami spoke
once again in favour of "equality of rights between men and women,"
and said women should be evaluated in their public and professional life
"in accordance with their qualities, regardless of their sex."
Iran already has 13 women members of parliament, and one women vice-president,
Massumeh Ebtekar.
However, the selection bodies which have to vet candidates have always
turned down women standing for the presidential election or for the Council
of Experts, which appoints the country's supreme spiritual leader.
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