The head of Iran’s Supreme Court has cautioned judges to be vigilant against female lawyers who might tempt them with their deceptive, enticing behavior.
Ahmad Mortazavi Moqaddam (Moghaddam), a mid-ranking cleric was appointed chief of the Supreme Court on April 24.
Speaking in a session held on Thursday, June 27, to accolade exemplary judges and employees of the Justice Department in the largest province, Kerman, Mortazavi Moqaddam said, "Judges should always be careful with female lawyers.
"Female attorneys might use coquetry to attract and deceive judges while defending a legal case," Mortazavi Moqaddam asserted, adding, "Some of the women lawyers tend to charm and allure judges by their coquetry."
Nonetheless, he immediately noted, "Thank God, our judges are vigilant."
However, Mortazavi Moqaddam stopped short of saying how widespread are such "luring tactics," or what are the exact techniques used by women lawyers to deceive judges for achieving their goals.
Furthermore, the Supreme Court chief reminded his audience that "money" and "immoral relationships" are the two significant factors that mislead judges and Justice Department employees in Iran.
Citing the Islamic Republic Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s opinion, Mortazavi Moqaddam stressed, "Corrupt judges do not deserve clemency."
Mortazavi Moqaddam, according to the spokesman of the judiciary, has more than three decades of experience as a judge.
These remarks reveal the depth of the discriminatory attitudes toward women prevailing among Iran’s clerics, who since the 1979 revolution grudgingly accepted to offer limited opportunities to them, unlike other fundamentalist Islamic governments, such as Saudi Arabia.
One reason for clerics not to have totally shut the door to women getting higher education or having a career was the relatively advanced social system in Iran before the revolution. Modernizing monarchs in the 20th century had given women more rights and equal opportunities despite lingering traditional values.
The deputy head of the Islamic Republic judiciary, mid-ranking cleric Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejei revealed ten days ago that sixty judges have been dismissed across the country.
In his weekly press conference on June 18, Mohseni Ejei also disclosed that the sixty judges fired in the past twelve months came from a wide range of ranks in the Islamic Republic judicial system. An unspecified number of those sacked have also been banned from holding public office.
The crackdown was part of an "intensified" campaign against judges who frequently violate the law, Mohseni Ejei affirmed.
Warning judges against women is not unprecedented in the Islamic Republic. The chairman of the influential Society of Seminary Teachers of Qom, Ayatollah Mohammad Yazdi, had also warned judges across Iran to watch out for the “chicanery and deceitfulness” of women.
Using the Islamic term "kayd al-Nisa" or "women's trickery", Yazdi said, "Since women might influence judges by their deceitfulness, judges should avoid receiving female individuals alone at their offices."
Speaking to a gathering of clerical scholars with legal backgrounds on December 3, 2018, Yazdi, 88, warned that women also use their "trickery" in sexual relations.
Yazdi was the head of the Islamic Republic's judiciary for a decade (1989-1999).
