The Iranian regime no defender of women's rights

On the eve of International Women's Day, which celebrates its 100th anniversary on March 8, the United Nations just gave women around the world a collective kick in the head. Today the UN appointed Iran to the UN Commission for the Status of Women.

That's right ladies, a country where women are blamed for causing earthquakes by dressing immodestly is now contributing to discussions about our "status." A nation where we can be arrested for getting a suntan, or wearing too much makeup, will opine on ways to safeguard our rights.
If this wasn't so pathetic, I'd be laughing my immodest, uncovered head off. That is, until I learned that the Commission already includes the Democratic Republic of Congo (a misnomer if there ever was one), where women suffer the most horrendous brutality imaginable, including mass rape.

If there were ever an indication of how ridiculous the UN has become, and how little it deserves both moral and financial support, these two examples alone would make the case. However, in this article author Anne Bayefsky provides a long list of other hypocrisies, including:

U.N. Women

Mission: support, address and contribute to gender equality and the empowerment and the advancement of women

Members: Executive Board: Libya, Saudi Arabia, Democratic Republic of the Congo, China

U.N. Human Rights Council

Mission: responsible for promoting universal respect for the protection of all human rights and fundamental freedoms for all

Members: Saudi Arabia, Vice-Presidents: Cuba, Angola

U.N. Committee on Information

Mission: "To promote the establishment of a new, more just and more effective world information and communication order based on the free circulation and wider and better-balanced dissemination of information"

Members: China, Libya, Kazakhstan, Iran

U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees

Mission: safeguard the rights and well-being of refugees.

Members: Executive Committee: Lebanon, Somalia, Sudan
So we have human rights violators policing themselves, countries which shut down the internet advising on information dissemination, and governments with refugee problems protecting people who are running away from them. And acting all the while as if this is a legitimate use of time and resources. I know this shows my age, but the UN resembles an unending series of Monty Python skits, minus the British accents. It is simply impossible to take it seriously.

As for International Women's Day, in many places around the world it has become a paradox too. Conceived as a means to draw attention to women's demands for the right to vote, better working conditions, and equal rights, it was first celebrated in Austria, Germany, Denmark and Switzerland in 1911. Today, however, the day is an official holiday in many countries where women face appalling discrimination and abuse, including Afghanistan, Burkina Faso, China, Eritrea, Uganda, and Zambia.

IWD's upcoming anniversary will prompt much reflection about just how far women have come, baby, since the turn of the last century. Sadly, if the UN's latest announcement is any indication, the answer is: Not very.

Source: NATIONAL POST