Shahrzad News: There are over six hundred female judges in Iran, most of them working in family courts. They do not however have the right to make rulings until they have been approved by a male judge.
According to Ali Nazari, head of human resources and employment at the Iranian Ministry of Justice, eighty qualified female judges were employed by the country’s civil courts last year, but only as assistants to male judges.
According to the Iranian Women’s Network, 150 women passed exams last year qualifying them as judges, and were then interviewed by the Justice Department, which has promised that some will be among the five hundred judges that make up the Arbitration Council.
In 2010 the Tehran public prosecutor asked five female judges to visit Evin political prison and report on the women being held there. Afterwards 124 were released, to the fury of conservatives.
Discrimination against Iran’s female judges is widely attributed to Islamic Sharia law, which forms the basis of the the country’s justice system. The clerical establishment’s view that women are unfit to act as judges always prevails.
