Iran has failed to gain a foothold on the board of the new United Nations super agency for women’s issues.
The organization, which will deal with global gender equality, voted to establish its 41-member Board of Trustees on Wednesday, which included a 10-member Asian panel.
Iran was in the running as a leader in the Asian group, until the United States teamed with Australia and Canada to block the effort. They were joined by Iranian 2003 Nobel laureate and activist Shirin Ebadi, who expressed her opposition to Iran’s candidacy earlier in the week. Speaking through a Persian interpreter, Ebadi told reporters, “I think that this board – with the members that we can see – will not get anywhere.”
At the eleventh hour, an 11th candidate – Timore-Leste, or East Timor -- was found by the U.S.-Canada-Australia axis. That, and round-the-clock campaigning by ambassadors who approached dozens of foreign ministries, resulted in Iran’s exclusion from the board.
Six seats on the board were set aside for major donors, who included Saudi Arabia, whose human rights and gender equality record was euphemistically termed “less than stellar” by U.S. Ambassador to the U.N. Susan Rice.
The other 35 seats were divided among geographic groups that included Asia (10 seats), Africa, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Western Europe.
The effort by the U.S. to isolate Iran has not been limited to this one venue: according to a report published in The New York Times, the battle is taking place “along the many corridors of the world body.”
And while the U.S. firmly opposed Iran’s participation on the board of U.N. Women, it filed no such complaint against Saudi Arabia during the same vote. In Saudi Arabia, women cannot drive, and must receive permission from a male guardian even to work, let alone travel, study and/or marry. A woman who goes out in public in Saudi Arabia must be covered completely and accompanied by a male – even if that male is a minor – in order to avoid being harassed or viewed with disdain.