Tehran – Iranian Interior Ministry on Tuesday in Teheran said that more than 580 of the candidates running in parliamentary elections in Iran this month were women.
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Hussein-Ali Amiri, the Ministry Spokesman, said the number of women running for election had doubled since the previous vote four years ago.
He said that more than 1,000 women had originally registered as potential candidates ahead of the vote on February 26.
Amiri said that the pro-reform politicians close to President Hassan Rowhani had set their sights on reducing the gender gap among parliamentary candidates.
“How can a country talk of development and progress, while ignoring the 50 per cent of women in the population.
Amiri said that Rowhani and his supporters had faced headwinds from the country’s hard line Ayatollahs, who together with conservative politicians had dominated parliament in the previous three legislative periods.
Reformers are aiming to build a coalition with the conservatives’ moderate wing, which will essentially rob the Islamic clerics of any real power. (dpa/NAN)