Iranian Official Calls to Expel Israel From Women’s Rights Conference

Latest Developments

A senior Iranian official on March 11 called for the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) to expel Israel from its ranks. In a speech before the commission’s 68th annual gathering, Iranian Vice President for Women and Family Affairs Ensieh Khazali falsely accused Israel of “rape and murder of millions of women and children” and claimed that women in Iran have seen “rapid progress” since the Islamic Revolution.

Khazali’s address comes just days after the UN Office of the High Commissioner on Human Rights released a report saying that Iran’s “violent repression of peaceful protests and pervasive institutional discrimination against women and girls” has led to human rights violations, some of which amount to “crimes against humanity.” In December 2022, Iran’s treatment of women and girls following the regime’s killing of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini led the UN Economic and Social Council to vote 29-8, with 16 abstentions, to remove Iran from the CSW for the remainder of its term on the commission, which would have lasted until 2026. Despite Iran’s expulsion, the commission allowed Khazali to address it.

Expert Analysis

“If the UN wants to be viewed as a serious body with the power to improve the lives of women and girls around the world, it needs to rethink who appears on its stage. At a time when women in the Islamic Republic face harsh punishment for dancing in public, attending sports events at stadiums, or dressing as they wish, providing a platform to Ms. Khazali, who used it to deflect attention from her government’s pervasive women’s rights abuses, makes a mockery of the CSW.” — Toby Dershowitz, Managing Director at FDD Action

“The last place the Islamic Republic should be is a meeting in New York City at the Commission on the Status of Women. Granting a visa for a regime official like Khazali, who promotes regime propaganda on the hijab, the Mahsa Amini protests, and the gender segregation that exists in Iranian law, is an own goal for the United States, particularly as Washington claims to stand with Iranian women, dissidents, and protestors.” — Behnam Ben Taleblu, FDD Senior Fellow

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