July 19, 2019
The chief justice of Iran has warned the country’s judges against being seduced by the feminine wiles of women lawyers to make rulings they seek.
Cleric Ahmad Mortazavi-Moqaddam was appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court April 24. He heads the Supreme Court, but not the Judiciary; Judiciary Chairman Ebrahim Raisi holds that post.
Speaking at an awards ceremony June 27, Mortazavi-Moqaddam said, “Judges should always be careful with female lawyers. Female attorneys might use coquetry to attract and deceive judges while defending a legal case. Some women lawyers seek to charm and lure judges by their coquetry.”
Mortazavi-Moqaddam stopped short of saying how widespread he thought such “luring tactics” are.
He said “money” and “immoral relationships” are the two significant factors that mislead judges and judicial employees in Iran.
Warning judges against women is not unprecedented in the Islamic Republic, Radio Farda pointed out. The chairman of the influential Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, also warned judges across Iran to watch out for the “chicanery and deceitfulness” of women.
Using the Islamic term “kayd an-nisa” or “women’s trickery,” Yazdi said, “Since women might influence judges by their deceitfulness, judges should avoid receiving female individuals alone in their offices.”
Speaking to a gathering of clerical scholars with legal backgrounds last December, Yazdi, 88, warned that women also use their “trickery” in sexual relations.
Yazdi was the head of the Islamic Republic’s Judiciary for a decade from 1989 to 1999.