August 06, 2021
Esfahan’s traffic police chief says women in his city are not allowed to obtain motorcycle licenses, defying a court ruling from two years ago.
Mohammad-Reza Mohammadi told local council-owned Iran Metropolis News Agency (IMNA) July 28 that this was his interpretation of Article 20 of Iran’s Law on Investigation of Road Traffic Violations.
The law states: “The issuance of motorcycle licenses for men is the responsibility of the police of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Mohammadi said: “If both men and women were supposed to be getting licenses, the word ‘men’ would not have been emphasized in the text.”
However, in August 2019, Iran’s Administrative Court of Justice ordered the Iranian Traffic Police to issue licenses to “qualified” women. The verdict was issued after a woman in Esfahan complained that she was eligible to drive a motorcycle, but police were blocking her.
That judgment noted that the law cited by the Esfahan police official differed from Article 22 of the Law on Transportation and Transit of Foreign Goods, which states that police are “responsible for issuing driving licenses in the territory of the Islamic Republic of Iran.” Police have appealed the ruling on women, but no final judgment has been handed down,”
IranWire said the interview with the Esfahan police officer was published the same day it was revealed that women in Mashhad are no longer able to access the city’s shared, public bicycles via a mobile phone app. Female app users are now directed by an automated message to one of the city’s women-only public parks.
