Iran on Thursday slammed the UN decision to kick out the country from the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW) following its violent crackdown on protesters.

Its foreign ministry spokesperson Nasser Kanaani said, “This was a politically motivated and unacceptable decision without any legal basis, which we, therefore, condemn in the strongest possible terms. The United Nations should not allow world powers to instrumentalize it politically.”

The Economic and Social Council of the UN decided on the matter on Wednesday, with 29 votes of its 54 member states in favour of a resolution put forward by the United States to exclude Iran from the CSW.

Russia and China, among others, voted against the resolution.

The commission, with its 45 members elected for several years, is supposed to strengthen gender equality and the role of women.

The Economic and Social Council expressed deep concern over the actions of Iran “since September 2022 to continuously undermine and increasingly suppress the human rights of women and girls, including the right to freedom of expression and opinion, often with the use of excessive force.”

In Iran, people have been protesting against the Islamic Republic’s powerful political elite since mid-September.

The anti-government protests were triggered by the death of a 22-year-old Iranian Kurdish woman, Mahsa Amini, on September 16.

She died in police custody just days after being arrested for violating Iran’s strict Islamic dress codes for women. 

(dpa/NAN)