Tehran’s Deputy Mayor says a regulation passed by the Ministry of the Interior three years ago establishes that men cannot have female secretaries and women cannot have male secretaries.
In a report in the Shargh daily on Sunday July 27, the Deputy Mayor said the regulation was adopted by Tehran City Council some time ago and is nothing new.
In May, Tehran City Council announced that women could not be hired to fill the positions of office manager, secretary and typist.
Mayor Mohammadreza Ghalibof defended the policy in July during one of Tehran’s Friday Mass prayers, saying: “We have religious honour and cannot allow women in offices to socilaze with men other than their husbands.”
Furthermore, offices are to be segregated on the basis of gender, the mayor said, explaining: “When women have more contact with men outside the family, it has a negative effect on their family life.”
