Tehran, August 22: Iranian clerics have raised objections to President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s decision to include three women in his new cabinet, the conservative daily Tehran Emrouz reported on Saturday.
Ahmadinejad named Sousan Keshvaraz, Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi and Fatemeh Ajorlou as his ministers respectively of education, health and welfare, and social security in his 21-member cabinet line-up.
“Although it is a new idea to choose women as ministers, there are religious doubts over the abilities of women when it comes to management. This should be considered by the government,” said Mohammad Taghi Rahbar, the head of the clerics’ faction in the 290-member conservative-dominated Iranian Parliament.
He said the faction, whose view has yet to be officially declared, would seek the opinion of the country’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei on the issue.
Rahbar said that if Khamenei remains “silent” on the issue, Parliament “will note the clerics’ view during the vote of confidence.”
Ahmadinejad’s new cabinet line-up, which boasts 11 new names including the three women, will face a vote of confidence on August 30.
Rahbar said leading Iranian clerics such as Grand Ayatollah Nasser Makarem Shirazi and Grand Ayatollah Lotfollah Safi Golpayghani were of the same opinion and wanted Ahmadinejad to reconsider his decision.
–Agencies