Iranian Woman Deemed Too Pretty to Hold Political Office

Iranian politician Nina Siakhali Moradi epitomized the promise of more civil rights for the country’s women when she won her bid as an alternate to the Qazvin City Council earlier this summer. But now she’s had her election overturned by religious conservatives, who have basically barred her from office for being too hot.


“We don't want a catwalk model on the council,” balked an unnamed senior official in Qazvin, according to a report in the Times of London.

But the official reason, as explained to the news agency IranWire by Seyed Reza Hossaini, Qazvin’s representative in Parliament and a review board member, was, “Her votes have been nullified due to her disqualification, as the review board did not approve her credentials. We have told her the reason why she has been disqualified.”
Still, Iran’s judiciary and intelligence services had originally granted approval (as is the system) to Moradi’s candidacy in Qazvin, the ancient capital of the Persian empire, about 100 miles from Tehran. The 27-year-old architecture grad student ran under the slogan “Young ideas for a young future” and was committed to fighting for improved rights for both women and youth.

During her campaign, conservative groups complained about Moradi’s “vulgar and anti-religious posters,” the Times reported, adding that the reason given for her disqualification was that she wasn’t “observing the Islamic norms.

Moradi’s run was most likely approved in the first place because “they probably didn’t think she had any chance,” a spokesperson from the New York-based International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran told Yahoo! Shine. Then, when she gained momentum because of her popularity with young adults, receiving 10,000 votes, the officials were taken off-guard, leaning on the vague “Islamic code of dignity” as a way to ban her from office.

“They don’t like the fact that she doesn’t belong to any political party, because they don’t welcome an independent voice,” the spokesperson (speaking on behalf of the campaign’s executive director, Hadi Ghaemi) added. “The story has gone viral, and there’s been a lot of noise inside the country, and it’s likely that they’ll reverse the decision due to public pressure and embarrassment.”