At that time, it came to my mind to become a member of the business chamber of Iran. There was no female member of the mining industry at the chamber. When I signed up, the senior members made fun of me, saying no such “young lady” should come to this field. They teased me that I should leave; I was pregnant at the time with twins and very busy.
But in the election of the chamber, I got the second-highest vote. It was like an earthquake across the country, that in a totally male-dominated field, a woman has gotten this vote. It was like a thunderbolt.
I received a lot of calls from male members of the chamber that I should resign, and that they could not accept a woman presiding over them. I sometimes got very tired and fed up with these kinds of calls, but I thought if I do resign, it’s a kind of betrayal to the women in our society. Instead, I made way for others: There are currently three other women chairing specialised committees.
Vrouwen zijn geen kandidaat bij de komende presidentsverkiezingen in Iran, maar zakenvrouw Fatemeh Daneshvar laat zien dat ook in dat land het tij onvermijdelijk zal keren. Na de Kamer van Koophandel pakte ze ook een zetel in de gemeenteraad van Teheran.