Iran Wins Membership to the U.N Commission on the Status of Women

by Sarah Menkedick · 2010-05-08 06:00:00 UTC
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Women harassed in the street in Iran because of their dress.Women arrested and imprisoned for having suntans? Check. Women stoned to death for adultery? Check. Random persecution, detainment, violent arrest, and imprisonment of women's rights activists and mourning mothers? Check. Women blamed for causing earthquakes? Check. Use of makeup illegal because it makes women dishonorable? Check!

Sounds like the Islamic Republic of Iran is all set for membership to the U.N Commission on the Status of Women! Welcome, Iran, and thank you for helping to set the bar for the status of women around the world. It's exhilarating that the U.N and its member states have so clearly sent the message that women belong under the control of authoritarian governments, under the cover of dress codes and the watch of morality police, and in prison or the grave if they don't obey their male controllers.

In an April 28th press release, the U.N announced the new members of the Commission on the Status of Women, which meets annually to set concrete, global standards for the advancement of women's equality. One of these members was ... Iran, which after withdrawing its bid for membership to the U.N Human Rights Council following protests from member states and diplomats, slyly managed to get on the Commission on the Status of Women without a peep of protest from anybody.

Apparently, it's fine for a President who declares that Western women have "no dignity" to enjoy a key position setting women's rights policy. Apparently, keeping a country that stones women to death for adultery and imprisons them for peaceful protests off of commissions that monitor women's rights is not a U.N priority. What can be concluded from this? Women are not a U.N priority.

Women's rights activists in Iran and around the world have sent an open letter to the General Assembly of the United Nations opposing Iran's membership to the commission, and activists, journalists, and scholars in the United States have sent a letter to Hillary Clinton asking her to speak out against Iran's membership. Please add your signature and your support to this letter, and show your refusal to have the Islamic Republic of Iran representing your rights.

Photo credit: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi

Sarah Menkedick is a freelance writer currently based in Oaxaca, Mexico. She has spent the last five years teaching, writing and traveling on five continents. She regularly writes about women's rights.
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