US Women Leaders: Keep Iran Off UN Women's Rights Commission
A nationwide campaign has been launched in the United States to urge Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to denounce the election of Iran to the United Nations' commission on the Status of Women. International human rights and women’s rights leaders, attorneys, scholars, columnists, Iranian human rights activists, media figures, women in the arts, and other prominent women signed an open letter, quoted below. A partial list of signatories follows and additional names are to be publicized this week.
The open letter to Secretary Clinton was released on Wednesday. The signatories express their profound concern that Iran was “elected by acclamation” to the women's rights seat. Election by acclamation may occur when no United Nations member state requests an open vote.
Alluding to reports by the U.S. State Department and international human rights organizations regarding the Iranian regime's record of barbaric human rights violations, the signatories are seeking answers from Secretary Clinton regarding the failure of the U.S. either to request or require an open vote on Iran’s election to the Commission.
AN OPEN LETTER TO SECRETARY OF STATE HILLARY CLINTON:
DENOUNCE ELECTION OF IRAN TO U.N. WOMEN’S RIGHTS COMMISSION
May 5, 2010
Dear Secretary Clinton:
We write as women leaders from across America and from organizations concerned with women’s human rights representing oppressed women and minorities.
We call on you, Secretary Clinton, to denounce Iran’s election to a four-year seat on the United Nations Commission on 
We write as women leaders from across America and from organizations concerned with women’s human rights representing oppressed women and minorities. 
the Status of Women as an appointment that shocks the conscience of civilized societies.
We also wish to express our utter astonishment that Iran was “elected by acclamation,” which means that none of the United Nations’ member states – including the United States of America – requested or required an open vote on Iran’s election to the Commission. Why did the United States fail to request an open vote?
In 1995, to an audience of the Fourth World Conference on Women, you declared: "It is time for us to say here in Beijing, and the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable to discuss women's rights as separate from human rights." You added: "If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, let it be that human rights are women's rights and women's rights are human rights, once and for all.”
Congresswoman Carolyn B. Maloney of New York said she "believed that you spoke from personal conviction.”
Therefore, we are puzzled and deeply troubled that, as Secretary, you have remained silent regarding human rights abuses under the brutal Islamic Republic of Iran regime.
The government of Iran is the perpetrator of well-known, well-documented and shocking human rights abuses against women. There are sickening and horrific videos, websites, documented reports of gang rapes, stonings, mutilations, hangings, beatings, burnings and other barbaric acts of violence, intimidation, and humiliation against the women of Iran. Political dissidents, gays, non-Muslim minorities, apostates, and infidels are also targeted in widespread human rights violations and gruesome attacks -- all these atrocities are egregious violations of the U.N. Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
Two hundred and fourteen Iranian activists recently wrote to U.N. member states to oppose Iran’s election to the U.N.'s Commission on the Status of Women. Their letter states: "Iran's discriminatory laws demonstrate that the Islamic Republic does not believe in gender equality…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 U.S. Department of State’s 2009 report on Iran’s human rights clearly states the egregious violations of Iran in this area:
The government's poor human rights record degenerated during the year [2009], particularly after the disputed June presidential elections. The government severely limited citizens' right to peacefully change their government through free and fair elections. The government executed numerous persons for criminal convictions as juveniles and after unfair trials. Security forces were implicated in custodial deaths and the killings of election protesters and committed other acts of politically motivated violence, including torture, beatings, and rape. The government administered severe officially sanctioned punishments, including death by stoning, amputation, and flogging. Vigilante groups with ties to the government committed acts of violence. Prison conditions remained poor.
Security forces arbitrarily arrested and detained individuals, often holding them incommunicado. Authorities held political prisoners and intensified a crackdown against women's rights reformers, ethnic minority rights activists, student activists, and religious minorities. There was a lack of judicial independence and of fair public trials. The government severely restricted the right to privacy and civil liberties, including freedoms of speech and the press, assembly, association, and movement; it placed severe restrictions on freedom of religion.
Official corruption and a lack of government transparency persisted. Violence and legal and societal discrimination against women, ethnic and religious minorities, and lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) persons; trafficking in persons; and incitement to anti-Semitism remained problems. The government severely restricted workers' rights, including the right to organize and bargain collectively, and arrested numerous union organizers. Child labor remained a serious problem. On November 20, for the seventh consecutive year, the UN General Assembly (UNGA) adopted a resolution on Iran expressing concern about the country's "serious, ongoing, and recurring human rights violations." (emphasis added) Source: http://www.state.gov/g/drl/rls/hrrpt/2009/nea/136068.htm
The Commission’s mandate is to review and report on women’s human rights and monitor progress toward improving women’s human rights. Clearly, the election of Iran to such a Commission is an appalling example of hypocrisy. We await your public and clear condemnation of this outrageously sexist and insensitive decision by the U.N.
Signatories (partial list):
Nazanin Afshin-Jam, International Human Rights Activist, President and Co-
Founder of Stop Child Executions
Irene Alter, President, Center for Policy Research in American Education
Anne Applebaum, columnist
Ayaan Hirsi Ali, Resident Scholar, AEI and Founder of the AHA Foundation
(www.theAHAfoundation.org)
Danielle Avel, Columnist
Dr. Toby F. Block, Senior Academic Professional (retired) Georgia Institute of
Technology
Gretchen S. Bolton, Treasurer, AHA Foundation, Inc.
Banafshe Zand-Bonazzi, Planet Iran
Shoshana Bryen, Senior Director for Security Policy, JINSA
Joy Brighton, Stop Shariah Now
Bernadette Brady, Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights
Christine Brim, Center for Security Policy
Debra Burlingame, Co-Founder, 9/11 Families for a Safe and Strong America
Mona Charen, Syndicated Columnist, Creators Syndicate
Dr. Phyllis Chesler, the Phyllis Chesler Organization
Nonie Darwish, President FormerMuslimsUnited.org
Korrine Diggs, Stop Modern Slavery, Founder and Director, Philadelphia Chapter
Elaine Donnelly, President, Center for Military Readiness
Barbara Donno, Nassau/Queens 9/12 Group
Michelle Easton, President, Clare Boothe Luce Policy Institute
Dr. Rachel Ehrenfeld, Director, American Center for Democracy
Manda Zand Ervin, Founder and President, Alliance of Iranian Women
Clarice Feldman, columnist, Washington DC
Diana Furchtgott-Roth, Senior Fellow and Director, Center for Employment
Policy, Hudson Institute
Danielle Frum, author and journalist
Brigitte Gabriel, ACT for America.org
Georgette Gelbard, Chairwoman, International Counterterrorism Committee,
American Jewish Congress
Pamela Geller, Co-Founder, Stop Islamization of America
Beth Gilinsky, Founder, Action Alliance and Women United: Code Red
Catherine Gossman, College of Social Work, The Ohio State University
Debra Guckenheimer, Ph.D., Northeastern Advance Postdoctoral Research
Associate, Northeastern University
Meghan Gurdon, author and journalist
Carol A. Haave, former Assistant Secretary for International Affairs, DHS
Pamela Hall, New York – United American Committee
Aggie R. Hoffman, Attorney at Law, Los Angeles, CA
Donna M. Hughes, Professor & Carlson Endowed Chair, Women's Studies
Program, University of Rhode Island
Laura Ingraham, Laura Ingraham Show
Margo Itskowitch, Women United, Los Angeles, CA
Erica Saghar Kasraie, Spokesperson, Confederation of Iranian Students
Karen Khan, attorney, Women’s Freedom Movement of Pakistan
Judith Apter Klinghoffer, History News Network
Andrea Lafferty, Traditional Values Coalition
Barbara Ledeen, Women United: Code Red
Janet Levy, Women Against Shariah
Reggie Littlejohn, Founder and President, Women’s Rights Without Frontiers
Mary Beth Long, former Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security
Affairs
Jody Lisberger, Ph.D., M.F.A., Director of Women's Studies, The University of
Rhode Island
May Long, Christians and Jews United for Israel
Sheryl Longin, Pajamas Media
Lori Lowenthal Marcus, Founder and President, Z Street
Hillary Markowitz, Mothers Against Terrorism
Faith McDonnell, Director, Religious Liberty Programs, Institute on Religion and
Democracy
Ruth Messinger
Myra Miller, The Winston Group
Cleta Mitchell, Esq., Chairman, American Conservative Union Foundation
Doris Wise Montrose, President, American Children of Holocaust Survivors
Penny Nance, CEO, Concerned Women for America
Betsy Giffen Nowrasteh and Cyrus Nowrasteh, The Stoning of Soraya M
Kate O'Beirne, President, National Review Institute
Eileen J. O’Connor, Assistant Attorney General, United States Department of
Justice, 2001 – 2007
Daphne Patai, Professor, University of Massachusetts, Amherst
Kathleen Parker, Washington Post syndicated columnist
Joan Peters, Author-Historian: National Committee on American Foreign Policy
Dianne Post, International Human Rights lawyer
Racquel Reinstein, attorney, Artists 4 Israel
Susan Rosenbluth, Editor and Publisher, Jewish Voice and Opinion
Mary Rose Rybak, Managing Editor, First Things
Nicole Sadighi, Fellow, Researcher at the Center for the Promotion of Human
Rights and Democracy for Iran
Melanie Shapiro, Citizens Against Trafficking, Co-founder
Nina Shea, Director, Hudson Institute’s Center for Religious Freedom;
Commissioner, US Commission on International Religious Freedom
Christina Hoff Sommers, American Enterprise Institute
Dr. Clare Spark, Independent Scholar Los Angeles
Sarah N. Stern, Founder and President, Endowment for Middle East Truth
Linda Stulberg, Women United: Code Red, Michigan
Dr. Wafa Sultan
Allyson Rowen Taylor, Women United: Code Red, California
Giti Thadani, New Delhi – India
Virginia Thomas, President/CEO, Liberty Central
Victoria Toensing, Former Chief Counsel to the Senate Select Committee on
Intelligence and for Deputy Assistant Attorney General, Department of
Justice
Diana West, Washington Examiner syndicated columnist and author
Women United invites women across America to sign onto this statement.. To become a signatory, please contact (212) 726-1124 or actionalliance1@yahoo.com.