January 03-2014
. . . widowed mayor
A woman has been elected mayor of a small city in Sistan va Baluchestan province, an eyebrow-raising development in a very conservative corner of the country.
Samiyeh Balochzehi, 26, was elected unanimously by the five-member city council of Kalat. She is an engineer and has a master’s degree in natural resources management from the Islamic Azad University Science and Research Branch in Tehran.
A local resident who spoke to Al-Monitor said Balochzehi is a widow, that her sister is on the city council and that they come from a wealthy and influential family.
The ground-breaking significance of the election was not lost on the president of Kalat’s city council, who, according to a local website, Baluch Press, said, “The election of a Baluchi woman can encourage local women. This could be an opportunity for all those who are, in spite of their qualifications, isolated from society.”
Electing a female mayor is by itself a very rare event in Iran. Female mayors who are Shiite and come from the majority Persian ethnicity are extremely rare, but electing a female mayor from two distinct minority sets in Iran, the Baluchi and the Sunnis, is believed to be unprecedented.
The city of Kalat in the far north of the province is in a particularly traditional and conservative area in Iran, with many societal restrictions on women.
One of her acquaintances who spoke to Al-Monitor said that Balochzehi is not like most woman from Kalat. “She only knows how to make spaghetti and that is because as a student she has lived away from home for a long time,” the acquaintance said, attempting to demonstrate how Balochzehi has ignored the traditional role of women in society.
The acquaintance credits the support of her wealthy and influential family with allowing her to break with tradition. “Her father is an admirable man. When his daughters were going to school, they had his complete support.”
Based on the information gathered by Al-Monitor, Kalat has no female employees. There are 16 men working at the municipality—five of them full-time and the rest part-time.
A Baluchi university professor told Al-Monitor, “This young lady will have a difficult time given the conservative and patriarchal atmosphere of the city of Kalat and the all-male staff of the municipality. But she is lucky since, because of her father, she has powerful and influential supporters such as the local clerics and community elders.”
Kalat was described as a small city with three banks, a local administrative office, one clinic and few shops. The city serves a wide rural area. People from nearby villages come to shop, and in the evening the city shuts down. It has 10,000 to 15,000 inhabitants.
One Baluchi citizen said the new mayor has a tough road ahead: “People of that region are very conservative, especially when it comes to women. I cannot stress that enough. It is the most conservative city in Baluchestan.” But the city council was unanimous in electing her.
According to local media, in her induction ceremony, Balochzehi laid out some very modest goals. She said that she would focus on “building parks and recreational centers for women and children” in addition to restoration and renovation projects.
News of Balochzehi’s election was ignored in the national media. The only media to report it were the local Baluchi press.