Ahmadinejad plans female ministers in Iran cabinet

By Zahra Hosseinian

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday he would propose at least three female ministers in his new cabinet following Iran's disputed election, an unprecedented move in the conservative Islamic state.

The hard-liner also said the West must be held to account for stoking unrest in Iran after the June 12 presidential vote, as the third mass trial of demonstrators accused of trying to overthrow clerical rule began.

The election and its aftermath have plunged Iran into its biggest internal crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, exposing deepening divisions within its ruling elite and also further straining relations with the West.

In another development, Iran freed on bail a French teaching assistant charged with spying, France said.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy's office said Clotilde Reiss, 24, was well and would stay in the French embassy in Tehran pending a verdict.

Reiss has been charged with aiding a Western plot against the government after the election and has been held in prison since early July.

Ahmadinejad has until Wednesday to present a cabinet to parliament for approval but may get a rough ride from the conservatives who dominate the assembly, as well as from his moderate foes who see his next government as illegitimate.

He did not say who would be in charge of the Oil Ministry of the world's fifth-biggest crude exporter. But he said Industries and Mines Minister Ali Akbar Mehrabian, a close ally, would remain in his old job.

A semi-official news agency separately quoted a senior lawmaker as saying Ahmadinejad was expected to nominate chief nuclear negotiator Saeed Jalili for the foreign minister's post.

Like Ahmadinejad, Jalili has taken an uncompromising stance in Iran's dispute with the West over its nuclear program, which the United States suspects is aimed at making bombs. Iranian officials say it is for peaceful power purposes.

Ahmadinejad's surprise announcement that he would nominate several female ministers may be an attempt to shore up support among women. The president's moderate opponents campaigned on the need to enhance their position in Iran.

Activists working for more female rights say women face institutionalized discrimination in Iran, for example in legislation relating to divorce, child custody and inheritance.

It would be the first time a woman would hold a ministerial position in Iran since its 1979 Islamic revolution, even though a woman in charge of environmental issues was one of several vice presidents in Ahmadinejad's outgoing cabinet.

One female minister under the U.S.-backed shah, Farrokhroo Parsa, was executed after the revolution.

"With the 10th presidential election, we have entered a new era. Conditions changed completely and the government will see major changes," Ahmadinejad said.