Document Type : .

Author

• Nemati Nooraldin

Associate Professor of History, University of Tehran, Tehran, Iran

Abstract

Parliament as a modern social institution has a long background in Iran, relative to other middle eastern countries. After the constitutional revolution, women gain more influence in cultural, social political and administrative arenas, and this did not decline after the Islamic revolution, and even decreased in some levels. Women’s participation had major improvement in the fifth Islamic consultative assembly (1375-1379 SH) both in quantity and quality. In this period, female representatives number reached to 14. These representatives with some help from the others formed committees on women, youth and family issues, and expand lawmaking from these especial prospective. They helped improve the status of family and women, with active involvement in writing drafts, representing bills on the floor and inter-assembly duties. This research is trying to answer how female representatives of the fifth assembly made it easier for other women to participate in social activities. The paper is based on the hypothesis that they did these with discerning knowledge of their own status, and with supporting the social institutes, focused activities in the assembly, and passing or changing laws, worked to further women’s causes in the society.

Keywords

• The Islamic Council
• the fifth parliament
• female representatives
• women's issue
• the constitutional law

The role and function of women in the Islamic Council of the Fifth Period (1375-1379 AH)

Extended Abstract

Parliament as a modern social institution has a long background in Iran, relative to other middle eastern countries. After the constitutional revolution, women gain more influence in cultural, social political and administrative arenas, and this did not decline after the Islamic revolution, and even decreased in some levels. Women’s participation had major improvement in the fifth Islamic consultative assembly (1375-1379 SH) both in quantity and quality. In this period, female representatives number reached to 14. These representatives with some help from the others formed committees on women, youth and family issues, and expand lawmaking from these especial prospective. They helped improve the status of family and women, with active involvement in writing drafts, representing bills on the floor and inter-assembly duties. This research is trying to answer how female representatives of the fifth assembly made it easier for other women to participate in social activities. The paper is based on the hypothesis that they did these with discerning knowledge of their own status, and with supporting the social institutes, focused activities in the assembly, and passing or changing laws, worked to further women’s causes in the society.

   Few researches have been done about the function of women representatives in the Islamic Council. In this context, most of the existing writings are works published by the "Research Center of the Islamic Council" and for the researcher, especially the researcher in the field of history, they have the double character of source-research. the study "Laws, Plans, Bills Related to Women and Family in the Islamic council 1375 to 1379, Fifth Period", which was written by the efforts of Shahnaz Rajabi and his colleagues and was published by the "Islamic council Research Center Publications", is from this category of texts. in such a situation, the need for serious and methodical research on the issue of women in the Islamic council is felt more than ever.

   In the present study, which is focused on the issue of women in the fifth parliament with a historical approach, the author has used a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods to advance the research. Qualitative research method is considered more when describing the process of elections and passing laws in parliament, and quantitative research method when evaluating and analyzing statistics and presenting tables. The purpose of writing the present study is to answer the question of what consequences the activities of the female representatives in the fifth term of the Islamic Council had for women in the society. The hypothesis of the research is that women representatives helped to improve the position of women in society by supporting civil institutions and purposeful activity in parliament, by approving and amending laws.

   Finally, by collecting and evaluating the available data, it was concluded that in the fifth parliament, during 387 public meetings, 359 items out of 971 plans, bills and principles were approved. Of these, 51 plans and bills were related to the issues of women, family and children, of which 37 items were approved. With the increase in the number of female representatives (14 people) and the formation of the Women, Youth and Family Commission, the focus on women, family and children issues increased. During this period, important laws on issues such as employment, marriage, divorce, custody, children's rights, education, medical treatment and training, women's part-time work, job security, and financial and sports support were approved by the parliament and approved by the Guardian Council. These laws provided the way for Iranian women to progress and become more and more active in the political, cultural, social and economic fields.

Key words: The Islamic Council, the fifth parliament, female representatives, women's issue, the constitutional law.