Tehran mayor says gender segregation a question of dignity
The mayor of Tehran has defended plans to segregate city employees by gender, dismissing criticism in the foreign media with, “Let the BBC talk.”
Tehran Mayor Mohammad Bagher Ghalibaf defended municipal projects that have separated workers by gender and accused foreign and domestic media of misrepresenting plans to create separate working environments.
Before the official sermon at Tehran's Friday prayers today, July 18, Ghalibaf said, “In the last few days, foreign radio and media have followed false allegations and some domestic media have joined in and said that the municipality wants to separate the sexes and separate the men and women and put a wall between them.”
“We are an Islamic system and have religious dignity,” Ghalibaf said. “When we created parks for women the same media said that we do not want to allow women into society. This was an idiotic thing to say. In our country, the women, according to Islam, have all the rights that men do.”
According to Iranian Students’ News Agency, Ghalibaf said that the five female-only parks created in Tehran had been welcomed by women, and “Afterward, foreign media and their domestic forces shut up and didn’t say anything else.”
