Iranian police warning women about improper dress Photo: Amir Farshad Ebrahimi/Foter/CC BY-SA
This past week, the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) held its annual meeting in New York and of the 193 U.N. member countries, the commission only condemned one nation for violating the rights of women — Israel.
During its meeting, the CSW issued 9 reports, 8 of which were procedural, and one which condemned Israel as the world’s only abuser of women because of its conflict with Palestine. This despite reports, the honor killing of women happens regularly in Palestine and Hamas used civilians as human shields in the war it provoked against Israel.
This decision also flew in the face of the 2014 World Economic Forum which listed Israel as 57th out of 137 nations measured in terms of its political empowerment of women — the United States placed only slightly better at 54.
Somehow the U.N. also managed to overlook the horrid treatment of women in several countries that have been notorious abusers of women’s rights for decades.
Oddly, some of the biggest violators have even managed to worm their way on the group of 46 countries that sit on the status of women council.
This includes Iran which the U.N. elected to CSW in 2010. In that country, the government has executed women for killing men who were trying to rape them. It is also common for police to arrest women when they are raped. In the last election, all women who were seeking presidential nomination were disqualified and removed from the ballot.
But this is not the only country with a dubious record sitting on the commission.
Saudi Arabia also has a seat on CSW. In that nation, women are still not allowed to drive cars. This compares to Israel where women run tanks and are being trained to fly fighter jets. In Saudi Arabia, women also can’t leave their house without a male relative chaperone. Women can also be physically punished if caught improperly dressed.
Another country that sits on the commission is the Sudan where 88% of the women under the age of 50 have had genital mutilation. It is also not against the law to beat your wife and girls can be legally married at the age of 10. But somehow it didn’t even deserve a footnote.
Responding to Israel’s condemnation, Anne Bayefsky of the Touro College Institute of Human Rights summed up the commission’s decision:
“Not Syria. Where government forces routinely employ rape and other sexual violence and torture against women as a tactic of war. Not Saudia Arabia. Where women are physically punished if not wearing compulsory clothing. Not Sudan. Where domestic violence is not prohibited. There is no minimum age for consensual ses. Not Iran. Where every woman who registered as a presidential candidate in the last election was disqualified.”
Israel responded to the announcement saying it was yet another example of the U.N.’s extreme bias against Israel. Israel’s Foreign Ministry issued this statement:
“We are fighting an all-out war regarding this decision, which is further evidence of the hypocrisy and ugliness that characterizes the behavior of UN member states.”
Israel also condemned Palestine and its supporters for purposefully hijacking the commission to promote their agenda over women’s rights.
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