BS: UN Protects Women!

Subject: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 06:41 PM

The following is an exclusive to FOX news. I wonder why the other networks are not reporting it?




"NEW YORK — Without fanfare, the United Nations this week elected Iran to its Commission on the Status of Women, handing a four-year seat on the influential human rights body to a theocratic state in which stoning is enshrined in law and lashings are required for women judged "immodest."

Just days after Iran abandoned a high-profile bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council, it began a covert campaign to claim a seat on the Commission on the Status of Women, which is "dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women," according to its website.

Buried 2,000 words deep in a U.N. press release distributed Wednesday on the filling of "vacancies in subsidiary bodies," was the stark announcement: Iran, along with representatives from 10 other nations, was "elected by acclamation," meaning that no open vote was requested or required by any member states — including the United States.

The U.S. currently holds one of the 45 seats on the body, a position set to expire in 2012. The U.S. Mission to the U.N. did not return requests for comment on whether it actively opposed elevating Iran to the women's commission.

Iran's election comes just a week after one of its senior clerics declared that women who wear revealing clothing are to blame for earthquakes, a statement that created an international uproar — but little affected their bid to become an international arbiter of women's rights.

"Many women who do not dress modestly ... lead young men astray, corrupt their chastity and spread adultery in society, which (consequently) increases earthquakes," said the respected cleric, Hojatoleslam Kazem Sedighi.

As word of Iran's intention to join the women's commission came out, a group of Iranian activists circulated a petition to the U.N. asking that member states oppose its election.

"Iran's discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality," reads the letter, signed by 214 activists and endorsed by over a dozen human rights bodies.

The letter draws a dark picture of the status of women in Iran: "women lack the ability to choose their husbands, have no independent right to education after marriage, no right to divorce, no right to child custody, have no protection from violent treatment in public spaces, are restricted by quotas for women's admission at universities, and are arrested, beaten, and imprisoned for peacefully seeking change of such laws."

The Commission on the Status of Women is supposed to conduct review of nations that violate women's rights, issue reports detailing their failings, and monitor their success in improving women's equality.

Yet critics of Iran's human rights record say the country has taken "every conceivable step" to deter women's equality.

"In the past year, it has arrested and jailed mothers of peaceful civil rights protesters," wrote three prominent democracy and human rights activists in an op-ed published online Tuesday by Foreign Policy Magazine.

"It has charged women who were seeking equality in the social sphere — as wives, daughters and mothers — with threatening national security, subjecting many to hours of harrowing interrogation. Its prison guards have beaten, tortured, sexually assaulted and raped female and male civil rights protesters."

Iran's elevation to the commission comes as a black eye just days after the U.S. helped lead a successful effort to keep Iran off the Human Rights Council, which is already dominated by nations that are judged by human rights advocates as chronic violators of essential freedoms. The current membership of the women's commission is little different.

Though it touts itself as "the principal global policy-making body" on women's rights, the makeup of the commission is mostly determined by geography and its membership is a hodge-podge of some human rights advocates (including the U.S., Japan, and Germany) and other nations with stark histories of rights violations.

The number of seats on the commission is based on the number of countries in a region, no matter how small their populations or how scant their respect for rights. The commission is currently made up of 13 members from Africa, 11 from Asia, nine from Latin America and the Caribbean, eight from Western Europe and North America, and four from Eastern Europe.

During this round of "elections," which were not competitive and in which no real votes were cast, two seats opened up for the Asian bloc for the 2011-2015 period. Only two nations put forward candidates to fill empty spots — Iran and Thailand. As at most such commissions in the U.N., backroom deals determined who would gain new seats at the women's rights body.

The activists' letter sent to the U.N. Tuesday argued that it would be better if the Asian countries proffered only one candidate, instead of elevating Iran to the commission.

"We, a group of gender-equality activists, believe that for the sake of women's rights globally, an empty seat for the Asia group on (the commission) is much preferable to Iran's membership. We are writing to alert you to the highly negative ramifications of Iran's membership in this international body."

A spokeswoman for the U.N.'s Department of Economic and Social Affairs, which oversees the commission, did not return phone calls or e-mails seeking comment.

When its term begins in 2011, Iran will be joined by 10 other countries: Belgium, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Estonia, Georgia, Jamaica, Iran, Liberia, the Netherlands, Spain, Thailand and Zimbabwe."

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 06:47 PM

Another article on Fox: Anybody else reporting it?


"Updated April 28, 2010

Women With Suntans Will Be Arrested, Iran Police Chief Warns

The warning follows recent comments made by a hard-line Iranian cleric, who claimed women dressed in revealing clothing were disturbing young men and causing earthquakes.

Women with suntans are violating Islamic law and will be arrested in Iran, the capital city's police chief was reported by The Daily Telegraph as saying Wednesday.

"The public expects us to act firmly and swiftly if we see any social misbehavior by women, and men, who defy our Islamic values," Brigadier Hossien Sajedinia said.

"In some areas of north Tehran we can see many suntanned women and young girls who look like walking mannequins," he continued. "We are not going to tolerate this situation and will first warn those found in this manner and then arrest and imprison them."

The warning follows recent comments made by a hard-line Iranian cleric, who claimed women dressed in revealing clothing were disturbing young men and causing earthquakes.

A preacher has also told the residents of Iran's capital Tehran to leave the city.

"Go on the streets and repent for your sins. A holy torment is upon us. Leave town," said Ayatollah Aziz Khoshvaqt during a recent sermon in northern Tehran."

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: Amergin
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 06:52 PM

Actually, I just looked at the UN website and saw the list of membership countries which may be found here: Commission on the Status of Women

What I find odd, is that Iran is no where on the list. So maybe the reason why it is not "reported" anywhere but Fox is because it is bullshit.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: artbrooks
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 07:47 PM

According to a CNN link, Iran is on for a term beginning in 2011.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: pdq
Date: 29 Apr 10 - 08:00 PM

Last week, Iran was denied a spot on the United Nations Human Rights Council.

There seems to have been some backroom deal to put Iran on The Commission on the Status of Women which was decided this week. It does not go into effect immediatly.

Fox, as usual, is correct on all points.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 12:50 PM

So, as long as some other source verifies it as true, it is OK for Iran to help decide how women should be treated all over the world?

In the law, "Silence implies consent."

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: artbrooks
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 12:54 PM

BB, this group, like many UN committees, exists for no particular reason - not because the UN isn't potentially a great organization but because it is basically toothless and more often ignored than not. Look at the other great champions of women's rights on that committee: Eretria, Libya, Iraq...

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: beardedbruce
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 01:00 PM

And this is the organization that Obama is betting the probability of starting a a nuclear war, that the UN will take effective action against Iran, when they just rewarded it?

I believe Iran is still in violation of the NPT- surely the fact that a nation is in violation of signed treaties should remove it from such an award?

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: pdq
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 01:01 PM

The main purpose of the United Nations is to transfer as much wealth from the US and other Western nations as possible, and give that money to themselves and their Third World brothers.

The UN causes more problems than it solves.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: Richard Bridge
Date: 30 Apr 10 - 09:13 PM

pdq, your first sentence is about the most fucking idiotic thing I have ever read on teh mudcat - and that IS saying a lot.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: Backwoodsman
Date: 01 May 10 - 02:20 AM

Isn't it an example of what, back in the 60s and 70s in the engineering industry, we used to call 'Turning The Poacher Into Gamekeeper'? In one company I had connections with, which was a 'Closed-Shop' and had a fairly rocky relationship with the unions, there was a particularly militant Union Convenor who was suddenly and meteorically 'promoted' to HR Manager - pretty much from lab-coat to fancy suit, secretary and a company car in one fell swoop.

Result? The Outbreak Of Peace - no more battles with the unions.

Mightn't this UN move be a good thing? Influence can move two ways, not just one, and there's more than one way to skin a cat.

Subject: RE: BS: UN Protects Women!
From: Stringsinger
Date: 01 May 10 - 01:17 PM

UN bashing is fashionable these days among right-wing propagandists.

The UN is not a perfect organization but it remains the only viable solution to the
national interests that trump human rights.

Dealing with these national interests entail dialogue with countries that are backward
due to their religious beliefs (by the way the U.S. and U.K. may fall into this category as
well since religious groups also exert a negative influence on their governments) but this
is the problem of establishing communication necessary to negotiate for a better world.

The UN may not be perfect but self-interested nationalism can be worse as we see
for example in Indonesia and Israel.

Ultimately, a protection for the rights of women is possible through the UN if appeals
are continued and paternal authoritarianism is lessened.

Fox remains a crude fact-twisting propaganda machine that salves the consciences
of people with a limited world view.