The Foreign Affairs Minister Melanie Joly and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland are two prominent signatories to an open letter criticising Iran’s record on women’s rights.
The letter, published in Sunday’s New York Times, condemns Iran’s violent crackdown on recent protests and calls for the country to be removed from the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women.
The other Canadians on a list of “important signatures” to the letter include author and activist for human rights Nazanin Afshin-Jam and former prime minister Kim Campbell.
This year, Iran started a four-year term on the UN’s panel on the status of women.
According to the letter, Iran ought to have been disqualified due to both its recent brutality on human rights protesters and its long-standing, institutionalised oppression of women.
Mahsa Amini, a 22-year-old woman who was detained for reportedly failing to properly cover her hair and passed away in police custody, was the catalyst for six weeks of demonstrations in Iran.
The letter claims that the UN commission loses credibility every day Iran is a member.
It indicates that the other commission members have an obligation to “uphold the panel’s mandate and defend the very values they claim to champion.”
The United States is a current member of the commission; Canada is not.
Former U.S. presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, former first ladies Michelle Obama and Laura Bush, author Gloria Steinem, philanthropist Oprah Winfrey, and Pakistani activist Malala Yousafzai are among of the greatest personalities to have pledged their support.
There are other current politicians joining the appeal in addition to Freeland and Joly.
Jacinda Ardern, the prime minister of New Zealand, is one of the signatories even though her nation is not currently a member of the commission.
Along with former Australian prime minister Julia Gillard, previous presidents of Lithuania and Liberia are also included on the list, along with Christine Lagarde of the European Central Bank.
Iranian women’s protests have been violently suppressed around the country. And yet, Iranian women and girls, and their allies, bravely persist.
We support their struggle for fundamental freedoms and call for an immediate end to state violence and the safe release of thousands of detained citizens,” the letter reads.
It is imperative that those in positions of authority in the world show their support for women’s rights at this time by standing in solidarity with Iranian women and girls.
Joly and Freeland sign an open letter condemning Iran’s abuse of women’s rights.
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