August
5 , 2000
AP
News
Iran -- A woman has been appointed a district governor for the
first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution, the official
Islamic Republic News Agency reported Saturday.
Interior Minister Abdolvahed Mousavi Lari appointed Rahmat
Ruhani Sarvestani as governor of Sarvestan, a district near
Shiraz, the agency quoted a ministry statement as saying.
The status of women in Iran
has improved since the election of reformist President
Mohammad Khatami in 1997. He appointed a woman as one of his
vice presidents.
Women can hold public office
in Iran, a role that is barred to them in many predominantly
Muslim states.
About
58 percent of first-year students at Iranian universities were
women in 1999, according to official figures.
