In the wake of the election of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW), Iranian experts and women’s rights activists issued a call to reject the election of the Iranian government at an event held by the independent human rights group UN Watch, co-sponsored by the Macdonald-Laurier Institute and the Raoul Wallenberg Centre for Human Rights. The UN Watch’s report also found that at least four EU and Western group democracies voted for Iran’s candidacy by secret ballot.
On May 3, 2021, MLI Senior Fellows Mariam Memarsadeghi and Kaveh Shahrooz appeared on the panel to discuss how Western democracies are paying the price by appeasing Iran. They also call on democracies to clarify how they voted and to condemn Iran’s election.
As Memrsadeghi notes in the video above, “one would hope the UN would work to punish a gender apartheid state like Iran for its infringements of women’s equality and lend a helping hand to women’s rights activists there.”
“What price are we willing to pay in order to keep Iran happy? We are seeing the cost of engaging with Iran,” argues Shahrooz. “Having Iran be part of the Commission on the Status of Women is part of the price we’re paying.”
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