Iran ousted from UN women's group over crackdown on ongoing protests

Iran was removed from a United Nations women’s rights group over its policies that are contrary to the rights of women and girls. The ousting of Iran follows its crackdown on the ongoing protests taking place across the country.

The United States proposed a resolution that would remove Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women for the remainder of its 2022-2026 term. The resolution was adopted by the 54-member UN Economic and Social Council, effective immediately. 29 countries voted in favor of the resolution, while eight opposed, including Russia and China, with 16 countries abstaining.

“This is a victory for Iranian revolutionaries who have been facing guns & bullets as they fight this gender apartheid state,” said US-based Iranian journalist and activist Masih Alinejad.

“It’s hugely important for the women of Iran,” US ambassador to the UN Linda Thomas-Greenfield told Reuters following the vote. “They got a strong message from the United Nations that we will support them and we will condemn Iran and we will not let them sit on the Commission for the Status of Women and continue to attack women in their own country.”

The 45-member Commission on the Status of Women meets annually every March with the aim of promoting gender equality and women empowerment.

Iran has been under a state of unrest since September when Kurdish-Iranian Mahsa Amini died in the custody of the morality police. Amini died days after she was arrested for allegedly breaching the Islamic Republic’s dress code for women, sparking public outrage in one of the biggest shows of opposition to the country’s clerical rulers since the 1979 revolution.

Tehran has sought to crack down on the protests and blamed its enemies, like the United States, for fomenting the unrest in the country.

Outgoing Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid lauded the vote by the UN council to remove Iran from the women’s group on Wednesday. Israel has also been accused by Tehran of fomenting the unrest as one of its longtime adversaries.

Lapid said Amini’s death and the continued human rights violations by Tehran on the women of Iran “disqualify” the Islamic Republic from the commission that deals with women’s rights.