| Submit your comments on this article |
| Terror Networks & Islam |
| Female Iranian hardliner shows her mettle |
| 2005-04-26 |
| An Iranian woman can be relied upon to turn out and shout "Death to America!" alongside men, so why not also be a president of the Islamic republic? That is the challenge being laid down by Rafat Bayat, a regime loyalist who's the only woman seeking to stand in Iran's June 17 presidential election. "Yes, I do shout 'Death to America!', although I have nothing against Americans," says Bayat. "As long as the Americans commit satanic acts, they will remain the Great Satan," the calm 48-year-old adds. "Wasn't Iraq a satanic act? And the creation of al-Qaeda? And September 11, a scenario dreamt up by the Americans as a pretext to come to the Middle East?" Bayat may be able to blast the United States with the best of the male revolutionaries, but she happened to have spent nearly three years living in Texas during the 1970s and confesses to admiring the "respect" American citizens have for their government - something she says is sorely lacking in Iran. A former commander of the female wing of the hardline Basij militia, Bayat was among the 11 women elected to parliament in 2004. According to Iranian law, her political ambitions cannot go any higher than a cabinet post, and she is all but certain to have her presidential bid rejected after candidates begin registering on May 10. Iran's main political watchdog, the Guardians Council, is sticking by its interpretation of a key word in the Islamic republic's constitution that has long been taken as meaning that only men can be president. The disputed word, "rejal", which comes from Arabic, could also be interpreted as meaning "personalities" in Persian, and this is the translation used in some English translations of the constitution. Bayat explains that she followed Iran's revolutionary leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini into exile in France, and asserts that "it would have been favourable for a woman to be president". "I followed Khomeini's teachings, and it is with his vision that I am a candidate," she asserts, adding: "I am a candidate for the same reason as others: to solve the problems of my country." |
| Posted by:Dan Darling |
| #8 Is it just me, or do these people seem to know a lot about satanist acts? What's the phrase ... oh yeah ... "Methinks she doest protest too much ..." |
| Posted by: Beau 2005-04-26 11:26:54 PM |
| #7 How cute -- a Sharia Feminist! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-26 3:32:40 PM |
| #6 Why so many jihadists and islamofascists in Texas? Maybe because the FBI's been preoccupied with chasing down militia types? |
| Posted by: thibaud (aka lex) 2005-04-26 1:01:24 PM |
| #5 Get the steroids and grow a beard then buy a detachable strap on mini-mullah and you might have a chance madame shouter. Islamic theocracies suck for a whole slew of reasons don't they. Run the calculations in your brain and figure it out. Tell the rest of your female friends when the lightbulb goes on in your head. |
| Posted by: Tkat 2005-04-26 12:53:48 PM |
| #4 How cute -- a Sharia Feminist! |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2005-04-26 12:52:37 PM |
| #3 "Yes, I do shout 'Death to America!', although I have nothing against Americans," says Bayat. Forgive me engaging in partisan bashing, but it sounds like she is gunning for Nancy Pelosi's job |
| Posted by: SteveS 2005-04-26 12:37:18 PM |
| #2 Accept your position and be happy. You are merely a woman. |
| Posted by: Howard UK 2005-04-26 6:49:48 AM |
| #1 Hunnah, people like you are Iran's problem... |
| Posted by: Ptah 2005-04-26 5:50:22 AM |