Al-Monitor | Saeid Jafari: A central part of President Hassan Rouhani�s campaign for re-election ahead of Iran�s May 19 balloting�focused on addressing the demands of female voters. Emphasizing women�s rights�more than any other candidate, the moderate Rouhani promised Iranian women equal�employment opportunities�and access to better services if elected to a second term. Now, women expecting the president to fulfill his promises�have launched various campaigns to demand that he appoint women as ministers in his second-term Cabinet.

NoToTheModerate�sMaleCabinet, women�s rights activists have turned to Twitter and other social media networks to push for a more active role for women in managing the country.�These efforts are nothing new; many first used the hashtag during a�Cabinet reshuffle�in October�to push Rouhani to introduce female nominees for three ministerial posts he was seeking to change � the ministers of youth affairs and sports, of education and of culture and Islamic guidance.

In September 2009, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad appointed�Marzieh Vahid Dastjerdi�health and medical education minister in his second Cabinet, making her the first woman to serve as a minister during the Islamic Republic. Ahmadinejad was much more conservative than Rouhani, who�failed to introduce a single female nominee for his first Cabinet but did, however, break a few taboos in regard to�women. For instance, he appointed�Iran�s first female Foreign Ministry spokesman in 2013. She later went on to serve as the country's first female ambassador since the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

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