Published 8 September 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b3665
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;339:b3665

News

Iran appoints first woman health minister

Zosia Kmietowicz

1 London

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.

A 50 year old gynaecologist has become Iran’s first woman cabinet member since the Islamic revolution in 1979, after being approved as the country’s health minister.

Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi was one of three women nominated by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for cabinet posts but the only one who won approval from Iranian MPs.

Dr Vahid-Dastjerdi studied medicine at Tehran University and held the post of director of the department of nursing and obstetrics there for six years.

She was elected to parliament in 1992, and in 1993 she jointly founded the political party the Islamic Association of Physicians. In 1998 she drafted a proposal to segregate hospitals and other medical institutions by sex, but the plan was rejected on grounds of cost and for being impractical because of a shortage of female specialist in many parts of Iran.

Dr Vahid-Dastjerdi is reported to have told parliament of the need to increase women’s . . . [Full text of this article]


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