In an earlier piece, we covered how the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its president-elect Maryam Rajavi would improve the lives of Iranian women in 10 key areas ranging from employment to marriage to the legal system. This piece will cover women’s participation in the political system in more detail. In our earlier piece, we wrote that Maryam Rajavi believes that women should have equal rights to participate in the country's political leadership, including the formulation and implementation of government policy, the holding of public office, and the ability to perform all public functions at all levels of government. What we want to know now is why Maryam Rajavi thinks that this is important for women’s rights? Simply put, Maryam Rajavi believes that women are just as capable as men in every way, so there is no reason why they should not serve in the political sector, especially as they so often do much of the work in political movements without recognition. She also recognises that as women make up half the population, they should have equal representation in government because, historically, leaving political matters up to men has led to misogynist laws being passed. Maryam Rajavi said: “Our experience made it palpably clear that defeating the curse of inequality is impossible without first taking a leap; leadership responsibilities must be given to the most competent women without the slightest degree of anxiety. Women's hegemony in the Iranian Resistance, as a paradigm-shifting transformation, paved the way for women to take on responsibilities in all fields.” How would Maryam Rajavi ensure equal participation of women in politics? In our earlier piece, we wrote that would remove any laws that ban or limit women’s role in government and introduce laws that the government would have to appoint women to at least half of its posts and that at least half of the candidates standing for any political party in any election must be female.

In an earlier piece, we covered how the National Council of Resistance of Iran (NCRI) and its president-elect Maryam Rajavi would improve the lives of Iranian women in 10 key areas ranging from employment to marriage to the legal system.

This piece will cover women’s participation in the political system in more detail.

In our earlier piece, we wrote that Maryam Rajavi believes that women should have equal rights to participate in the country's political leadership, including the formulation and implementation of government policy, the holding of public office, and the ability to perform all public functions at all levels of government.

What we want to know now is why Maryam Rajavi thinks that this is important for women’s rights?

Simply put, Maryam Rajavi believes that women are just as capable as men in every way, so there is no reason why they should not serve in the political sector, especially as they so often do much of the work in political movements without recognition.

She also  that as women make up half the population, they should have equal representation in government because, historically, leaving political matters up to men has led to misogynist laws being passed.

Maryam Rajavi said: “Our experience made it palpably clear that defeating the curse of inequality is impossible without first taking a leap; leadership responsibilities must be given to the most competent women without the slightest degree of anxiety. Women's hegemony in the Iranian Resistance, as a paradigm-shifting transformation, paved the way for women to take on responsibilities in all fields.”

How would Maryam Rajavi ensure equal participation of women in politics?

In our earlier piece, we wrote that would remove any laws that ban or limit women’s role in government and introduce laws that the government would have to appoint women to at least half of its posts and that at least half of the candidates standing for any political party in any election must be female.

Lord Carlile: Designation of IRGC is a welcome step, but Iran policy should focus on Tehran's human rights abuses

I welcome the decision by the U.S. Treasury last week to designate the entire Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) as a terrorist organisation pursuant to the global terrorism Executive Order (E.O.) 13224.

The UK, as well as the EU, should now join this effort and designate the IRGC in support of a coherent Western strategy to push back against the Iranian regime’s malign activities in the Middle East and domestic repression. This is particularly justified in light of a reported cyberattack by Iran on the UK Parliament that hit f MPs this summer.

This designation is an important step in denying financial and material support for the IRGC, a brutal paramilitary force tasked with crushing popular dissent at home and exporting terrorism and fundamentalism abroad.

For the last three decades, the IRGC has grown threateningly in the Iranian economy, controlling the lion’s share of vital sectors of the country’s economy to the detriment of the private sector.

My colleagues and I have always maintained that the decision to decouple Tehran’s egregious human rights record from the nuclear talks was a mistake.

It is encouraging that the new U.S. policy on Iran corrects this mistake and seizes this missed opportunity to consider the nuclear deal as a part of the many major threats posed by the regime in Tehran.

The UK, and the EU, should now work with the USA to implement a coherent policy on Iran that places human rights at centre stage and recognises the democratic aspirations of the Iranian people.

Such policy should begin by addressing one of the worst crimes in Iran’s modern history, the 1988 massacre of thousands of political prisoners, following the latest report of the UN Special Rapporteur on Iran transmitted to the General Assembly for further consideration, which documents the prison massacre of 1988 in detail.