Promotion Challenges for Female Judges in Iran's Judiciary

There are different views on the issue of women's judgment. According to Iranian law derived from famous jurisprudential fatwas, the condition of being male is considered for judges who have the authority to give a verdict. In Islam, one of the necessary conditions for judging is ijtihad (independent reasoning by an expert in Islamic law), which due to the current situation of the society and the lack of sufficient mujtahid judges (judges who are qualified to perform ijtihad) or the unwillingness of mujtahids to judge, the Islamic society of Iran has deviated from this necessary and obligatory condition. In addition, there are differences among the experts regarding the condition of being male for judges, which are discussed briefly in this article. Currently, more than a thousand female judges are working in the judiciary, but judging and giving verdicts about women are not accepted, making their promotion difficult. The present paper, through in-depth interviews with a number of female judges, points out the difficulties of their promotion and identifies the obstacles to their promotion and attaining some judicial positions in the judiciary. Furthermore, by presenting proposals and executive solutions to overcome the mentioned problems, it tries to use the knowledge, science, and experience of women in order to develop and strengthen the judicial system of the country.