Take action! US House Resolution 1371 Calls for Removal of Islamic Republic from UN Commission on the Status of Women

After nearly a year’s worth of peoples’ uprising against the Islamic regime in Iran, where women stood on the front lines of the struggle for freedom and equality, the United Nations issued a press release on April 28, 2010, stating that the UN and its constituent governments had seated the virulently misogynistic Islamic Republic on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), a body that is ostensibly “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women.”

Immediately after this announcement was made, Mission Free Iran opened its international campaign to rebuke the United Nations and Remove the Islamic Republic from the UN Commission on the Status of women.

It has just come to our attention that the US House of Representatives has introduced a bill to Congress, H.RES.1371 — Condemning the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women, that has the following objectives:

That the House of Representatives–

(1) condemns the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women;

(2) calls on the Administration to denounce the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the Commission;

(3) urges the President to direct the United States Permanent Representative to the United Nations to use the voice, vote, and influence of the United States at the United Nations to advocate for the removal of the Government of Iran from the Commission; and

(4) reaffirms its solidarity with the Iranian people in their continuing struggle for freedom and human rights, including equal rights for women in Iran.

This House Resolution echoes almost exactly the demands of our campaign, and as such Mission Free Iran encourages all US citizens who are repulsed by the gender-apartheidist and misogynistic Islamic Republic regime, and who are concerned about the Islamic Republic taking a leading role in determining gender policy at the global level, to write to their Representative in support of House Resolution 1371.

It’s easy. Here’s how:

1) Find your Congressperson in the US House of Representatives

2) Send them an email expressing your support for HR1371.
Below is a sample letter that MFI sent this morning:

Dear Congressman/woman XX,

I am writing to you to express my fullest support for H.RES.1371 — Condemning the selection of the Government of Iran to serve on the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. When it comes up for vote, I expect that you will vote in favor of this bill.

Facing down the most repressive and violently anti-woman regime extant in our world, Iranian women have struggled for their rights for the last 31 years. Whether standing fearlessly on the front lines in the streets, gathered in solidarity in Laleh Park, from their prison cells, or stationed behind computer screens keeping communication lines open with the outside world, Iranian women are leading the struggle against the gender-apartheidist regime of the Islamic Republic.

Against this regime, the very existence of which is dependent upon the subordination and repression first and foremost of women, Iranian women stand up in defiance. And people everywhere are watching, because we know that when Iranian women come to the streets, it means equality and emancipation for women – and thus all of humanity – throughout the world. We know that our fate is intertwined with theirs.

Yet, not one week after Ayatollah Sedigh signaled that the regime is paving the road to fresh crackdowns on women in Iran, we heard that the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, which touts itself as being “dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women,” had chosen to freely bestow one of its seats upon the virulently misogynistic Islamic regime, with the silent consent of the US government.

The United Nations, and all of the constituent governments on ECOSOC, have betrayed women worldwide with the unkindest cut of all.

I am therefore gratified to see that some members of our US Congress are standing up to demand through HR1371 that the United States rectify its unacceptable actions regarding the UN Commission on the Status of Women, and I strongly urge you to vote in favor of House Resolution 1371. The world is watching.

Best regards,

xx

Note: There is a political current in the United States that believes that condemnation of human rights abuses in the Islamic Republic is tantamount to supporting a call for a US-led war against Iran. Mission Free Iran decries this bankrupt political position, and believes that all people should stand together against the atrocities of the Islamic Republic at the same time that people oppose any suggestion of war against Iran. Expanded arguments here.