An Iranian woman wears a face mask as a COVID-19 pandemic precaution, in Iran's capital Tehran on Oct 14, 2020. (ATTA KENARE / AFP)
The removal of Iran from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), based on a US-led campaign, is not only unfair and hypocritical, experts say, it also throws the role of the global intergovernmental body into question.
They believe the move targets the legitimate government of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies and lecturer in international relations at Padjadjaran University in Indonesia told China Daily that the United States and its allies who have sponsored the resolution “are practicing double standards”
Dina Yulianti Sulaeman, director of the Indonesia Center for Middle East Studies and lecturer in international relations at Padjadjaran University in Indonesia, and who is currently in Iran for the Tehran Dialogue Forum 2022, told China Daily that the United States and its allies who have sponsored the resolution “are practicing double standards”.
“When the Black Lives Matter demonstration took place in the US, we saw clear video evidence of police using tear gas, batons, and even hitting unarmed women. Second, regarding allegations of discrimination against women, is the standard of discrimination against women only (based on) the way they dress?” said Sulaeman.
ALSO READ: UN ECOSOC to remove Iran from women's commission
“What about internationally recognized measures, such as the Human Development Index, Gender Inequality Index, literacy rate, education level, health level, job opportunity? Iran has made significant progress according to internationally recognized standards, so there is no reason to exclude Iran from UN Women,” she said.
On Dec 14, the 54-member UN Economic and Social Council, or ECOSOC, adopted a US-proposed resolution to ax Iran for the remainder of its 2022 to 2026 term. This was based on 29 votes, while 16 abstained and eight were against.
The move comes in the wake of the Teheran government’s crackdown on protests calling for justice for Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old woman who died in Iranian police custody in September for allegedly violating hijab laws.
The Iranian parliament’s Committee of Women issued a statement, calling the exclusion “cruel” and “political”. They said canceling Iran “with a completely political behavior by America and European countries”, which themselves play the biggest role in the exploitation of women and their commodification, is a “heretical and cruel move”, Tehran Times reported.
The exclusion also overshadows the UN’s existing appeals to remove the US’ unilateral and illegal sanctions that the agency said have been harming women’s and children’s right to health.
ALSO READ: US sanctions: Foreign firms 'refuse to sell medicine to Iran'
The commission’s US-proposed resolution “expressed serious concern over the Iranian government’s actions” “to continuously undermine and increasingly suppress the human rights of women and girls”, and “often with the use of excessive force”.
US Ambassador Linda Thomas-Greenfield called the CSW the premier UN body for promoting gender equality and empowering women and said it cannot do “its important work” if it is being undermined from within and called Iran’s membership at the time “an ugly stain on the commission’s credibility”.
But Ahmad Ghouri, director of internationalization at the School of Law, Politics and Sociology at the University of Sussex in the United Kingdom, told China Daily he is unsure how the removal of Iran from the commission will promote the objectives of the United Nations or that of ECOSOC.
“Ask a Muslim woman in France, for example, who wants to wear hijab and faces all types of issues. Ask a Muslim woman in the Indian state of Karnataka who wants to wear hijab and attend school (but is banned from doing so). What has the Commission on the Status of Women done for those women?” said Ghouri.
ALSO READ: Iran confirms uranium enrichment with new centrifuges
A UN committee in August ruled that France violated an international rights treaty by banning a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf from attending school in the country, The National, a United Arab Emirates media outlet, reported. Further, the move broke the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, the committee said.
France in 2010 adopted a law that banned the wearing of any article of clothing intended to conceal the face in a public place.
The hijab or headscarf, Ghouri said, “is central to Islamic faith and very dear to many women in Iran” and many Muslim women around the globe. He added that although a segment of Iranian society is opposed to the imposition of hijab the way it is implemented by Iran, it does not mean that “women are less empowered than men in Iran”.
“The US-led resolution appears to be another preposterous move to discredit the legitimate government in the Islamic Republic,” said Ghouri.
READ MORE: Iran says UN human rights report 'unfair'
Arhama Siddiqa, a Middle East expert and research fellow at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad, in Pakistan, said Iran’s removal was unfair because it seemed targeted toward the government rather than helping the Iranian populace.
“It is undoubtedly further alienating Iran, because it seems to be a mere pressure tactic to make the (Iranian government) bend. Constructive dialogue is the best way forward,” said Siddiqa, who was also attending the Tehran Dialogue Forum 2022.
Such targeted moves seem aimed at not letting Iran reach the potential it can achieve if sanctions are removed, Siddiqa said. “Yes, there are issues, as there are with every country. But this particular issue has been exploited by certain spoilers within the region,” she said.
jan@chinadailyapac.com