Durka Durka, What A Burqa !

Iran has decided to give up its bid for a seat on the U.N. Human Rights Council. Whew! We dodged that bullet. But wait! There's more! The Islamic Republic of Iran, as it is affectionately known by Barack Hussein Obama, has bigger fish to fry. With a tough vote facing them for the Human Rights Council, the liberal government of Iran snuck its way onto the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women instead. No, seriously. I mean it. Stop laughing.

Obama and his administration were, as usual, absent without leave when the motion to allow Iran on the Women's Commission was raised. With the help of the non-action by eleven other western democracies, Iran got the seat. Iran's application went entirely unchallenged, which proves that the United Nations is either as totally under the spell of radical Islam as we've suggested a few times, or its members have the most twisted sense of humor in all of human history.

If the U.N. ever creates a Commission on Gay Rights, I'm sure Iran will immediately get the chairmanship. As it is, starting in 2011, Iran will be instrumental in setting U.N. policy on women worldwide for four years. The seating of Iran on the Commission comes about a week after a senior Islamic cleric in Tehran pronounced that "immodest dress and behavior by women is to blame for an increase in earthquakes." Very enlightened, and very scientific. Buckle your seatbelts, ladies, it's going to be a bumpy ride.

Among the issues paramount to the Commission is gender-equality. A group of 200 Iranian women's rights advocates had warned the U. N. in an open letter that Iranian membership "would be a serious threat to the Commission's goals and mission, and would curtail progress and the advancement of women." That sounds like an understatement to me. Had America, Canada, Australia or any of the European nations on the Economic and Social Council which controls the membership of the Commission raised an objection, there would have been a debate followed by a secret ballot in which Iran might not have been so lucky. But at the U.N., as in Anglo-American common law, silence shows consent. So Iran was placed on the Commission by acclamation.

Since there were two seats open on the Asia Regional group, and only two names were placed in contention, Iran and Thailand are now the two happy new members. Iran is a cesspool of male oppression of women, and Thailand is one step away from civil war. Definitely the right choices for the two open seats. Allegedly, the Asian caucus decided on the two nations in order to strike a deal with Iran to drop its bid for a seat on the Human Rights Council. I guess they figured that it was better that Iran be involved in oppressing only half the world's population rather than oppressing men and women equally.

The United States State Department has previously issued papers which state that "Provisions in the Islamic civil and penal codes, particularly sections dealing with family and property law, discriminate against women. Under Iranian law, the testimony of a woman in court is worth half as much as that of a man. Women sometimes (sometimes?) received disproportionate punishment for crimes such as adultery, including death sentences." Not to mention that if a woman is raped, she is still usually treated as a willing adulteress. In order to prove it was truly rape, she must produce the testimony of four men, or three men and two women who personally witnessed the rape. Good luck with that in any Islamic country.

If an Iranian woman appears in public without the proper hijab, she can be sentenced to a brutal lashing, or a fine, or both (usually, it's both). The hijab is de rigeur in Iran. The burqa is a different version of the garb, most often seen in Afghanistan and other stone-age societies. It's not clear how our U.N. delegates or Secretary of State Hillary (I Am Woman, Hear Me Roar) Clinton feel about Iran creating an all new and improved smoked-glass ceiling for women. But of course if any one of them had spoken out at the U.N. selection process, Iran wouldn't be helping to make policy for the next four years.

Professor Mahboubeh Mobasheri, a female professor at a Tehran university, was introduced to the Commission by delegation leader Mohammed Larijani. The university is restricted to proper Islamic women, but that's just a quibble. Clad in the proper hijab so she wouldn't be stoned or whipped, Mobasheri stated "the significant advancement of Iranian women's status since the Islamic revolution is undeniable. Benefiting from the religious teachings and observing the principles of moderation and strengthening the institution of family, the Islamic Republic of Iran has provided a favorable situation, without any legal impediments for women's promotion."

I'm afraid the Iranian women I know here in the States whose families fled Iran would beg to differ. To me, it sounds like the Islamic version of "keep them in the kitchen where they belong, barefoot and pregnant." That attitude has largely disappeared in the United States in the past three or four decades. But now it will re-emerge on the international level, with the assistance of Iran, the blessing of the United Nations, and the silence of the American government. Well done, Mr. Obama. Have you told Michelle yet?