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FIRST ON FOX: Former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley on Tuesday described the Iranian regime’s upcoming participation in a U.N. commission on women’s rights and empowerment as a “complete joke” and a “slap in the face” to Iranian women, given the limited rights that women are given under the hard line regime.
Iran next week will take its seat on the U.N.’s Commission on the Status of Women and begin a four-year term. It was elected via secret ballot last year, along with other countries including Pakistan, Egypt and China.
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The commission, part of the U.N.’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) describes itself as “the principal global intergovernmental body exclusively dedicated to the promotion of gender equality and the empowerment of women.”
Haley, a vocal critic of the way the U.N. is run, highlighted the Iranian fundamentalist regime’s record on women’s rights.
“Next week, Iran will be joining the U.N. Women’s Rights Commission. In Iran, women need their husband’s permission to work, girls can be married off at 13, and domestic violence is not illegal,” she said in a statement to Fox News. “It’s a complete joke and a slap in the face to the millions of Iranian women treated as third-class citizens.”
Watchdog group U.N. Watch has also criticized the election of Iran to the commission, with executive director Hillel Neuer comparing it to “make an arsonist into the town fire chief.”
Haley, who served as U.N. ambassador during the Trump administration, has continually criticized instances in which a U.N. body has been undercut by the nations that form part of its membership.
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She was ambassador in 2018 when the U.S. withdrew from the U.N. Human Rights Council, which had come under fire for its membership that includes countries with abysmal human rights records.
The Biden administration has since re-entered the Council, a move that Haley has repeatedly criticized – noting that countries including China, Cuba and Russia are part of the council.
“The Biden administration rushed to get back on the Human Rights Council right after Russia joined it,” Haley said last month. “They should call for Russia to be expelled immediately.”
