This morning Reuters news agency reported that Iran’s legislative watchdog had said that women could run in June’s presidential election, clearing up an ambiguous article of the constitution.
Iran’s constitution says that candidates should be political “rejal,” an Arabic word for men.
Reuters quoted Gholamhossein Elham, spokesman for the conservative Guardian Council, as saying that the word could also refer to women.
“Women who have the necessary qualifications have the right to run in the presidential elections,” he told state television, Reuters reported.
However Elham told a state-run news agency, ISNA, “I have not changed the meaning of the word rejal”.
“I never had an interview on such a subject on television, and the article published is not correct”, he said.
