Khamenei hints at limited easing of women's rights

Tehran : Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has signalled a willingness to reinterpret Islamic law in favour of women's rights, but not following Western convention, his official Web site and state-run television reported on Thursday.

Khamenei's comments come amid criticism of Iran by international human rights groups for persecuting women's rights activists.

"Some issues about women, which exist in religious jurisprudence, are not the final say. It is possible to interpret new points through research by a skillful jurist," the website quoted Khamenei as saying on Wednesday during a speech to commemorate national women's day. The supreme leader has final say over all state matters.

Restrictions

Iran's Islamic law imposes tight restrictions on women, like requiring them to have a male guardian's permission to work or travel. Women are not allowed to become judges, and a man's court testimony is considered twice as important as a woman's. Despite such restrictions, Iranian women have more rights than their counterparts in some other Muslim countries. They can drive, vote and run for most public offices.

Khamenei praised the role of women in Iran and said the emphasis on their maternal role in Islam 'does not mean opposition to the presence of women in various aspects of social life at all,' the website reported.

But he also criticised activists in Iran who have been pushing for a foreign conception of women's rights, according to video footage of his speech broadcast on state-run television on Thursday.

"In our country ... some activist women, and some men, have been trying to play with Islamic rules in order to match international conventions related to women," Khamenei said. "This is wrong." Human Rights Watch recently criticised Iran for sentencing several women activists to prison for participating in a rally in June 2006 to protest discriminatory laws against women.

The women were part of 'Change for Equality,' a group campaigning for specific reforms, including making women's testimony in court carry the same weight as that of men, equality of inheritance rights between men and women and the elimination of polygamy.

Khamenei also singled out Westerners for criticism, saying they had 'discredited' women by using them to fulfill 'illegitimate' sexual desires.