LONDON (Thomson Reuters Foundation) – Iran is planning to name a female ambassador and a spokeswoman for the first time since the creation of the Islamic republic in 1979, local media reported on Tuesday.
"The first spokeswoman and the first female ambassador will be appointed and start their work soon and it is a success for the Islamic Republic of Iran's foreign policy," Foreign Ministry spokesman Seyed Abbas Araqchi told a press conference in Tehran.
Hassan Rowhani, a moderate cleric who succeeded Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as Iran’s new president on August 4, earlier this month appointed a woman, Elham Aminzadeh, as his vice-president for legal affairs, FARS news agency reported.
News of the appointments comes just weeks after a woman was barred from taking up an elected post as city councilor in Qazvin, 100 miles north of Tehran, for being “too sexy”.
During his electoral campaign, Rowhani promised to improve the Islamic Republic’s dismal record of human and women’s rights and expectations reportedly are high both at home and abroad for him to deliver on his promises.
Under former president Ahmadinejad, Iran approved its first woman minister in the 30-year history of the Islamic republic.
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