While the lack of information on the subject is at first disheartening, as FOXnews has been largely the only major news source reporting on the event, a press release from the United Nations indeed confirms that Iran, historically known for its religious-based discrimination (if so weak a word can be used) has been elected to the United Nations' Economic and Social Council's Commission on the Status of Women. This committee branch of the United Nations' dedicates itself to gender equality and the advancement of women.
The United States, one of the original members of the committee, is eerily silent in this, while organizations such as the American Jewish Committee are already condemning the choice, as is the nation of Canada.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad went on the record in defense of his nation's appointment to the Committee, responding to challenges of Iran's fitness to such a role with indignant cries of 'no dignity' for women in the West. He went on to call woman "a symbol of the beauty of God on Earth", an inflammatory statement coming from a spokesperson of a nation that respects that beauty with stones and lashings.
Downright scary, I am inclined to wonder WHY they were appointed to the committee in the first place, waht was the motivation behind this? I jsut wish could understand the way things wokr sometimes, although I don't know that it would make it any easier to swallow.
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