Iran excluded from UN Women

Protests against Mahsa Amini, who died after being detained by the vice police, continue.

While the protests that began after the death of Mahsa Amini in Iran stalled on the death penalty, Iran was unanimously expelled from the Commission on the Status of Women in a vote by the United Nations Economic and Social Council. (ECOSOC) at the suggestion of the United States.

Iran was excluded from the UN Commission on the Status of Women by a vote of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). In the vote, which was attended by 54 member countries of the UN Economic and Social Council, 29 member countries voted to remove Iran, while 16 abstained. The US draft “Exclusion of Iran from the UN Commission on the Status of Women in the period 2022-2026 with immediate effect” was adopted by member states. Linda Thomas Greenfield, US Representative to the UN, said the decision was in support of Iranian women and was intended to respond to calls from Iranian civil society.

In a statement on the matter, Iran’s representative to the UN, Amir Saeed Iravani, accused the United States of trying to use the UN for its own political purposes and said they consider the decision “an illegal step.” Iranian government spokesman Ali Bahrami Chehromi, on the other hand, reacted to Iran’s exclusion from the UN Commission on the Status of Women and claimed that the US sponsored the decision. Expressing that the US cannot be an example for the world in terms of women’s rights, Chechromi said: “One third of the world’s female prisoners are in US prisons. At least 250 women have been killed on the streets without trial since 2015 due to US police brutality. Plus, the pregnant 26-year-old Leona Hale is one of them.”

WHAT’S HAPPENED?
The death of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini, who fell ill and was hospitalized after being detained on September 13 in Tehran, the capital of Iran, died on September 16, causing outrage in the country. According to the indictment prepared by the Tehran Revolutionary Court, Muhsin Shikari was executed for intentionally attempting to kill, using weapons to deprive people of freedom and security, intentionally injuring a person, and blocking a street in Tehran during demonstrations. Muhsin Shikari was arrested on 25 October and sentenced to death on 20 November. Shikari was the first demonstrator to be executed in connection with the Amini protests in Iran. 23-year-old Mejidra Rahnavard, who was sentenced to death for killing 2 members of the Revolutionary Guard militia and wounding 4 members of Besic, was also publicly executed in the city of Mashhad. According to the indictment prepared by the Revolutionary Court of Mashhad, Rahnavard was sentenced to death for “premeditated murder, waging war against the state and intentionally injuring 4 people.” Rahnavard, who was arrested on November 18 and sentenced to death on November 29, became the second demonstrator to be executed in connection with the Amini protests in Iran.
After Amini’s death in Iran, 11 people arrested during protests that began across the country and lasted about 3 months were sentenced to death.