Rouhani appoints 2 women vice presidents

Re-elected Iranian President Hassan Rouhani on Wednesday appointed two women as vice-presidents and one woman as a presidential assistant in the newly formed cabinet.

According to the appointment letters signed by the Iranian president, Laaya Joneidi replaced Majid Ansari as vice president for legal affairs.

Ms Masoumeh Ebtekar, was also appointed as vice president for women and family affairs, previously held by Shahindokht Molaverdi, who the president appointed the assistant on citizenship rights.

Rouhani was sworn in the presidential office on Aug. 5 after being re-elected for the second term in May.

On Tuesday, the president presented an all-male list of 17 ministers to the Iranian parliament for approval, a move which was widely criticized by pro-Rouhani reformist groups in the country.

The Iranian cabinet has 12 vice presidents, with one of them occupying the position of the first vice president, who chairs government meetings in the absence of the president.

In post-revolutionary Iran, the only female holding a ministerial office was Marzieh Vahid-Dastjerdi, who acted as the health and medical education minister during the second presidential term of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in 2009 to 2013.