What else can one expect from the UN. Iran is nothing more that one State run by fools! The UN is a whole colection of State's run by even bigger fools!

Pynchme, "Which leads me to note that it isn't feminists who are objecting here is it; but Cornflower and Proxy"

It isn't feminists who have objected to what I said either, or do you presume to represent all feminists and if so on what basis? What poll has there been of women that convinces you to believe they think it is a good idea?

Fact is, a rigid, sensitive few on this thread appear to have got their noses out of joint over a rather mild observation that western feminist politics might not always be in tune with what women want or desire. But so what, none of that is news and most would welcome questions and debate as healthy and democratic.

Come to think of it, it isn't modern feminists who are so rigid in their ideology that they always construe differing opinions, especially on what women might want, as threats to be ruthlessly quashed.

Again, there is a real risk that women in Iran will see this as capitulation by the UN and that is the way it will be presented to them at home. Outside, the UN position is an ideal opportunity to further change incrementally along the lines previously suggested by me.

I hope to be proved wrong over time but if the severe criticisms by human rights activists of the UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) are any guide I am not optimistic for the advancement of women's rights in Iran.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Nations_Human_Rights_Council

Iran will have opportunities offered by membership of the Commission on the Status of Women it has not had before to promote its agendas and to my thinking that risk should not have been taken.

Antiseptic <" Oh dear, feeling a bit post-menopausal hon?"
Not at all yet thanks 'Hon', but thanks for the concern.

I see you feel the same as me on this issue, but yet still having a dig at my gender as usual.
Feeling a bit pre-Neanderthal are you hon?

Cornflower: <"It isn't feminists who have objected to what I said either, or do you presume to represent all feminists.">

Dear Cornflower,

I was referring to objections to date on this board, as I think you realize.

The one who assumed to know what all feminists would be thinking was Antiseptic as he constructed an irrelevant straw man argument from his scant knowledge of feminism.

This isn't just a feminist issue anyway, but a human rights matter that should be of concern to anyone opposed to human rights abuses.

You seem to be itching for an argument - take it up with your mate Antiseptic.

*I'll go get the popcorn.

Let us hope that the Iranian Commissioner on the Status of Women doesn't take Islam too seriously.
Mohammed on women:
1"A nation headed by a woman shall never succeed”,
2”The worst sin and distraction from virtue that I have left for man is woman”,
3“When I stood on the door of hell, I saw most of its inhabitants were women”,
4 “Women lack brain and religion”,
5 “If I have commanded kneeling for somebody, I would command a woman to kneel for her husband”,
6 “If a man summoned his wife for intercourse and she refused, the angels will curse her till the dawn”,
7 “If a man summoned his wife for intercourse, she has to respond even if she was above the furnace”.
“The husband has the right to have sex with his wife even if she is above the camel”
8“A woman shall not fast without the permission of her husband”"
http://www.myspear.org/quran_stoning_women.html

Suzeonline:"still having a dig at my gender as usual."

Not at all, hon, I'm my usual caring self, concerned only for your obviously fragile state. If you're not post-menopausal, you must have been pre-menstrual - an easy mistake for me to make from over here.

You see, on this one, I agree with you dear. Iran should be part of the process.

It is in places like Iran that global efforts to improve the lot of women should be focussed, instead of this constant whinging from Western women that their featherbeds aren't quite deep enough and the toilet lids don't have automatic closers.

Pelican:"I don't think I have ever read one comment from yourself that actually supports women in any way."

That says more about you than me. I make every effort to make myself clear, but i don't say "grrls rule" every second post so you infer some antipathy on my part. To make it crystal-clear, my concern is for the excesses and discrimination inherent in a Feminist-driven policy framework. Such a schema has produced a generation of women who think the world of men owes them a living. they demand free entry to every aspect of male life, but in the same breath demand the right to exclude men from female activities.

I take issue with the perverted Marxism inderlying much of what those who claim to be feminists say on this forum. Narx said "from each according to ability, to each according to need". Feminism says "from each man according to capacity, from each woman according to her desire; to each man according to minimal need, to each woman according to wants". It's nothing but self-serving poppycock designed to appeal to those of weak mind and weaker principles. I reject it utterly, but i think women are generally terrific. It's tragic that so many of them in our modern society have adopted a victim's mentality at odds with their reality.