Iran, the UN, and Women

by Manda Zand Ervin

One of the great speeches of the 20th century was given by Eleanor Roosevelt, the first lady of the United States, on September 28, 1948 at Sorbonne University Paris, and began with the title: “The Promise of Human Rights.”  Eleanor Roosevelt gave humanity an example by describing the “preservation and production of human rights along with fundamental freedoms and how they are the heart of the United Nations.”  Mrs. Roosevelt’s persistence in the struggle for human rights is one of the reasons why the United Nations declaration begins with this: “To achieve international cooperation in solving the international issues; whether they be social or cultural.  This is promoting and encouraging respect for both human rights and fundamental freedoms without seeking differences as to race, sex, religion, or language.”

The 21st-century U.N. is not the organization Eleanor Roosevelt had planned.  There is no mention of people or humanity or the “preservation and production of human rights” along with the fundamental freedoms statement that Roosevelt promised.  The U.N. has become a corrupt organization serving only imperialistic and tyrannical regimes.  Citizens remain subjects, and women will be subjugated in many ways and forms, depending on geography.

The political Shi’ite regime in Iran was recently appointed to the board of the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women for another four-year term.  While the ballots have been kept secret, according to U.N. Watch at least 12 European countries, including four western European democracies with women in control, voted for the gender apartheid regime in Iran — a perfect example of discrimination against non-Western women.

The Iranian theocracy is culturally barbaric, corrupt, and hated by Iranians.  They steal and embezzle from the people and the country, and they need foreign powers to keep them in power.  They bribe any person, government, or organization, in the name of contributions to causes and donations to charities, to get what they want.  The United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) receives a large donation check annually from the Khamenei regime, and Iranian women’s human rights are not on their list.

Iran’s membership in the UNHRC will encourage injustice around the world and violates the U.N.’s mission statement, which promises “to reaffirm their faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person and in the equal rights of men and women.”

The U.N. is giving a known murdering dictator and practitioner of gender apartheid the podium, legitimizing his violations of the human rights of the people of Iran.  In a way, I am glad that Eleanor Roosevelt is not here to witness what political corruption is doing to her dream for peace, justice, and human sovereignty in the United States and the United Nations.

As an Iranian woman living in America, it saddens me when I witness cultural discrimination against my civilized motherland Iran — when my Western sisters in power act as if they say, “Human dignity and freedom for me, but not for thee.”

First published in the American Thinker.