Every time former Iranian foreign minister Mohammad Javad Zarif appears on television, it’s fair to expect some drama or controversy. Such is the nature of the combative career diplomat.
Mr Zarif, who has been tasked with picking cabinet ministers for President-elect Masoud Pezeshkian’s incoming administration, ruffled many feathers last week when he revealed a points system for the process.
To overcome the historical marginalisation of youth, women and religious minorities, Mr Zarif said in the televised interview, candidates who are below 50 years old, female and from non-Shiite backgrounds, will get extra points. Conversely, “if you are a man, you get no points … if you are a Shiite Muslim, you get no points”, he added.
If Pezeshkian succeeds, it will go a long way in assuaging concerns among Iran’s various civic movements
Mr Zarif’s words predictably caused a storm. But they can be misleading when taken out of context, for these affirmative action measures cover just 30 out of the 160 points that are up for grabs. That said, Mr Zarif’s remarks are a timely reminder for just how lopsided the history of representation in post-1979 Iran has been.
Only one woman has served as cabinet minister since the 1979 revolution (10 other women have served as vice presidents, but they don’t get cabinet rank). Every single minister has been from the Shiite community. Even though 10 per cent of Iran’s population is comprised of Sunnis, they have never been represented in cabinet. The last Sunni minister served during the Shah’s regime. This lack of representation is also true for tens of thousands of Iranians who belong to the officially recognised religions of Judaism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism.
There is an apparent regional bias when picking ministers, too, with almost 40 per cent of them having hailed from either the Tehran or Isfahan provinces.
That Dr Pezeshkian has dedicated some of his political capital to overcome such historical marginalisation comes as no surprise: he is an ethnic Turkic Azeri from north-western Iran, whose mother tongue is Kurdish. During his presidential campaign, he pledged better rights and representation for minorities, especially for those of Kurdish and Baloch heritage.
However, Mr Zarif’s words quickly gave Dr Pezeshkian’s opponents, as well as hardliners on social media, an opening to criticise his policy.
Fars news agency, linked to the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps, published an article under the headline, “Zero points for Shia”, which parroted an argument commonly heard among the hard right in the West. “This isn’t creation of opportunity but the opposite of equality in opportunity and increasing of discrimination,” it read. “In the points system for the next government, a 30-year-old Jewish woman will have a higher point than a 30-year-old Shia man, just because of gender and minority status.”
The hardline MP Mahmoud Nabavian was even harsher and personal in his attack, pointing to the fact that Mr Zarif spent his formative years in the US – which Mr Nabavian called “the land of unbelievers” – and essentially accusing him of being a western stooge.
To their credit, Dr Pezeshkian and Mr Zarif have stood their ground, with the latter defending affirmative action as “a well-known global method to reduce inequalities”.
There has been some blowback against the hardliners. Ahmad Zeidabadi, a reform-minded journalist, mocked them for criticising affirmative action while claiming to defend the Palestinian people. “If people of Gaza lived in Iran, and were citizens here, should they have been deprived of their political rights?” Zeidabadi pointed out.
The battle over representation has been just one aspect of the fractious process of cabinet formation.
With reformists having long been out of power, many among them have hurried back to the political scene, banging on Dr Pezeshkian’s door and demanding a seat at the table. At the same time, with the President-elect having run as a technocratic centrist, there was hope on the right that he will pick conservative voices, too.
Mr Zarif said he had sought suggestions from conservative figures but that the final cabinet will be “not a coalition” and will, instead, reflect Dr Pezeshkian’s convictions. These convictions include being “pro-justice” and “a voice for the voiceless”, as well as pursuing “rights and demands of women, youth and ethnicities”.
Dr Pezeshkian, who will be inaugurated next week, is likely to present his cabinet picks to the Parliament by August 5, with MPs confirming or rejecting the names through a vote.
At least 60 per cent of these picks, according to Mr Zarif, are likely to be new faces. But how inclusive the team will actually end up being remains to be seen. After all, Dr Pezeshkian’s powers are limited. He will require Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, to approve the most important ministerial candidates before they are introduced to the country’s parliamentarians. In which case, Mr Khamenei’s support could help the President-elect overcome opposition from the hardline MPs. For what it’s worth, he has called on parliamentarians to “urgently vote” on Dr Pezeshkian’s picks, adding: “The sooner the suggested cabinet is confirmed by a vote, the better.”
If Dr Pezeshkian and Mr Zarif indeed succeed in creating an inclusive cabinet, it will go a long way in assuaging concerns among Iran’s various civic movements that are generally mistrustful of the regime and its institutions.
But the path towards broad-based civic inclusion in the country remains long. Just ask followers of the Bahai faith, who are the country’s largest non-Muslim minority group. Not only are their dreams of serving in government blocked, they are also denied basic rights such as pursuing a university education. In Iran, the arc of history is even longer.
Mohammed bin Zayed Majlis
Children who witnessed blood bath want to help others
Aged just 11, Khulood Al Najjar’s daughter, Nora, bravely attempted to fight off Philip Spence. Her finger was injured when she put her hand in between the claw hammer and her mother’s head.
As a vital witness, she was forced to relive the ordeal by police who needed to identify the attacker and ensure he was found guilty.
Now aged 16, Nora has decided she wants to dedicate her career to helping other victims of crime.
“It was very horrible for her. She saw her mum, dying, just next to her eyes. But now she just wants to go forward,” said Khulood, speaking about how her eldest daughter was dealing with the trauma of the incident five years ago. “She is saying, 'mama, I want to be a lawyer, I want to help people achieve justice'.”
Khulood’s youngest daughter, Fatima, was seven at the time of the attack and attempted to help paramedics responding to the incident.
“Now she wants to be a maxillofacial doctor,” Khulood said. “She said to me ‘it is because a maxillofacial doctor returned your face, mama’. Now she wants to help people see themselves in the mirror again.”
Khulood’s son, Saeed, was nine in 2014 and slept through the attack. While he did not witness the trauma, this made it more difficult for him to understand what had happened. He has ambitions to become an engineer.
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Director: Paul Weitz
Stars: Kevin Hart
3/5 stars
Mane points for safe home colouring
- Natural and grey hair takes colour differently than chemically treated hair
- Taking hair from a dark to a light colour should involve a slow transition through warmer stages of colour
- When choosing a colour (especially a lighter tone), allow for a natural lift of warmth
- Most modern hair colours are technique-based, in that they require a confident hand and taught skills
- If you decide to be brave and go for it, seek professional advice and use a semi-permanent colour
Company%20Profile
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Global state-owned investor ranking by size
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PREMIER LEAGUE TABLE
1 Man City 26 20 3 3 63 17 63
2 Liverpool 25 17 6 2 64 20 57
3 Chelsea 25 14 8 3 49 18 50
4 Man Utd 26 13 7 6 44 34 46
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5 West Ham 26 12 6 8 45 34 42
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6 Arsenal 23 13 3 7 36 26 42
7 Wolves 24 12 4 8 23 18 40
8 Tottenham 23 12 4 8 31 31 39
Company%20profile
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The specs
Engine: 3.0-litre flat-six twin-turbocharged
Transmission: eight-speed PDK automatic
Power: 445bhp
Torque: 530Nm
Price: Dh474,600
On Sale: Now
Brief scores:
Toss: Sindhis, elected to field first
Kerala Knights 103-7 (10 ov)
Parnell 59 not out; Tambe 5-15
Sindhis 104-1 (7.4 ov)
Watson 50 not out, Devcich 49
Learn more about Qasr Al Hosn
In 2013, The National's History Project went beyond the walls to see what life was like living in Abu Dhabi's fabled fort:
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Ferrari
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4.35pm: Tilal Al Khalediah
5.10pm: Continous
5.45pm: Raging Torrent
6.20pm: West Acre
7pm: Flood Zone
7.40pm: Straight No Chaser
8.15pm: Romantic Warrior
8.50pm: Calandogan
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11% – the number of Americans who said they trusted the news they read on Snapchat as of June 2017, according to Statista. Over a quarter stated that they ‘rarely trusted’ the news they read on social media in general
31% - the number of young people in the US aged between 10 and 18 who said they had shared a news story online in the last six months that they later found out was wrong or inaccurate
63% - percentage of Arab nationals who said they get their news from social media every single day.
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RESULTS - ELITE MEN
1. Henri Schoeman (RSA) 57:03
2. Mario Mola (ESP) 57:09
3. Vincent Luis (FRA) 57:25
4. Leo Bergere (FRA)57:34
5. Jacob Birtwhistle (AUS) 57:40
6. Joao Silva (POR) 57:45
7. Jonathan Brownlee (GBR) 57:56
8. Adrien Briffod (SUI) 57:57
9. Gustav Iden (NOR) 57:58
10. Richard Murray (RSA) 57:59
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The cost of Covid testing around the world
Egypt
Dh514 for citizens; Dh865 for tourists
Information can be found through VFS Global.
Jordan
Dh212
Centres include the Speciality Hospital, which now offers drive-through testing.
Cambodia
Dh478
Travel tests are managed by the Ministry of Health and National Institute of Public Health.
Zanzibar
AED 295
Zanzibar Public Health Emergency Operations Centre, located within the Lumumba Secondary School compound.
Abu Dhabi
Dh85
Abu Dhabi’s Seha has test centres throughout the UAE.
UK
From Dh400
Heathrow Airport now offers drive through and clinic-based testing, starting from Dh400 and up to Dh500 for the PCR test.
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Final round
25 under - Antoine Rozner (FRA)
23 - Francesco Laporta (ITA), Mike Lorenzo-Vera (FRA), Andy Sullivan (ENG), Matt Wallace (ENG)
21 - Grant Forrest (SCO)
20 - Ross Fisher (ENG)
19 - Steven Brown (ENG), Joakim Lagergren (SWE), Niklas Lemke (SWE), Marc Warren (SCO), Bernd Wiesberger (AUT)
The specs: 2018 Range Rover Velar R-Dynamic HSE
Price, base / as tested: Dh263,235 / Dh420,000
Engine: 3.0-litre supercharged V6
Power 375hp @ 6,500rpm
Torque: 450Nm @ 3,500rpm
Transmission: Eight-speed automatic
Fuel consumption, combined: 9.4L / 100kms
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UPI facts
More than 2.2 million Indian tourists arrived in UAE in 2023
More than 3.5 million Indians reside in UAE
Indian tourists can make purchases in UAE using rupee accounts in India through QR-code-based UPI real-time payment systems
Indian residents in UAE can use their non-resident NRO and NRE accounts held in Indian banks linked to a UAE mobile number for UPI transactions
Zayed Sustainability Prize
Killing of Qassem Suleimani
The five pillars of Islam
