Iranian NGOs : Women's Rights Ignored by the West http://rajanews.com/Detail.asp?id=81427

 40 Iranian NGOs, active in defense of women's rights, in a statement released on the occasion of March 8th(International Women’s Day), criticized the West for not respecting women's right. The statement includes serious questions about the West claims in defense of women.The question is that on the basis of which reasons do these bodies consider themselves as the exclusive grantee to talk on behalf of women?! How can a country like Britain who has granted its women economy majority in 1882 defend women rights? How is that France who gave its women right to vote in 1944 after three times rejection, dares to call Islam as oppressing women; while Islam has granted women all social and legal rights since more than 1400 years ago? 

How dares France to accuse Islamic Republic of Iran, while women have been able to vote since the beginning of revolution, but it took about 155 years since revolution to let women vote? Can it be anything rather than an evidence of terrible conditions of women in west when we read books by thinkers such as Wendy Shalit, William Gardner, Sylvia Ann Hewlett, Nicholas Davidson, etc.?

However, a brilliant evidence for politically motivated double standards in women issues is the United States who is not a signatory of 1979 Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), yet puts pressure on some and not all countries to accept this convention totally and without any reservation.The question is that how countries and organizations who claim women rights, accuse Islamic republic of Iran of oppressing women, but they remain silent about oppressions in countries in alliance with the West? Aren't they informed of horrible conditions for girls and women in Afghanistan, or in Gaza under siege? Can't they see how women are killed, oppressed and tortured in Mideast Arab states such as Yemen, Libya, Tunisia, Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, etc.? what is the truth behind their silence against all oppressions?