Western governments are overlooking Iran's human rights record in their rush to revive the 2015 nuclear deal, activists told The National.
Activists including pro-democracy campaigner Mariam Memarsadeghi and human rights lawyer Kaveh Shahrooz on Monday urged the US not to abandon Iran’s long-suffering women and minority groups.
They spoke of Iran’s recent election to the UN’s top women’s empowerment body and the US State Department’s decision to overlook the treatment of Iranian journalists on World Press Freedom Day on Monday.
“Western democracies are actively appeasing the regime in all kinds of ways,” Ms Memarsadeghi said.
“Today is World Press Freedom Day, and US Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken has singled out a number of countries that violate the rights of journalists and imprison them.
"He has not mentioned Iran, even though freedom of expression is violently repressed in Iran.”
Mr Blinken criticised China, Turkey, Egypt, Russia, Mexico and Afghanistan over killings, detention and harassment of journalists, but neglected Iran, which treats reporters worse, the Committee to Protect Journalists says.
This was no accident, Ms Memarsadeghi said.
Iran was elected last month to the UN’s Commission on the Status of Women for a four-year term starting next year after securing votes from 43 of the 54 member states on the UN’s Economic and Social Council.
“It is akin to electing apartheid South Africa to a commission on the elimination of racism,” Ms Memarsadeghi said.
The ballot was secret but Tehran’s tally showed it gathered support from a handful of the council’s European, North American or Australasian members, said Hillel Neuer, director of campaign group UN Watch.
Mr Neuer said Tehran’s backers were willing to ignore child marriage, "honour killings" and other women’s rights issues in Iran to try to revive the flagging nuclear deal.
Iran ranked 118th out of 167 countries in Georgetown University’s gender-equality ranking.
Diplomats from Britain, France, Germany, Russia and China are in Vienna this week to try to bring Iran and the US back fully into compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal.
US President Joe Biden is looking to rejoin the pact from which his predecessor Donald Trump withdrew in 2018.
Mr Trump reimposed sanctions on Iran, which responded by breaching many of the deal’s limits on enriched stockpiles.
“Having Iran being part of the UN Commission on Status of Women is part of the price that we're paying,” Mr Shahrooz said.
“The western world is willing to pay any price to preserve good relationships with dictatorships."
Iran's mission to the UN did not immediately answer The National's request for comment.
Iran’s ambassador to the UN, Esmaeil Baghaei Hamaneh, in March rejected a UN criticism of women's rights in Iran, saying Iranian women lived longer, healthier lives and had ever-improving job prospects.
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Starring: Ramy Youssef, Steve Carell, Jason Schwartzman
Director: Jesse Armstrong
Rating: 3.5/5
Company Profile
Name: Thndr
Started: 2019
Co-founders: Ahmad Hammouda and Seif Amr
Sector: FinTech
Headquarters: Egypt
UAE base: Hub71, Abu Dhabi
Current number of staff: More than 150
Funds raised: $22 million
Gothia Cup 2025
4,872 matches
1,942 teams
116 pitches
76 nations
26 UAE teams
15 Lebanese teams
2 Kuwaiti teams
THE CLOWN OF GAZA
Director: Abdulrahman Sabbah
Starring: Alaa Meqdad
Rating: 4/5
Mina Cup winners
Under 12 – Minerva Academy
Under 14 – Unam Pumas
Under 16 – Fursan Hispania
Under 18 – Madenat
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RESULT
Chelsea 2
Willian 13'
Ross Barkley 64'
Liverpool 0
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5.30pm: Maiden (PA) Dh80,000 1,400m | Winner: AF Sheaar, Szczepan Mazur, Saeed Al Shamsi
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
A MINECRAFT MOVIE
Director: Jared Hess
Starring: Jack Black, Jennifer Coolidge, Jason Momoa
Rating: 3/5
U19 WORLD CUP, WEST INDIES
UAE group fixtures (all in St Kitts)
Saturday 15 January: v Canada
Thursday 20 January: v England
Saturday 22 January: v Bangladesh
UAE squad
Alishan Sharafu (captain), Shival Bawa, Jash Giyanani, Sailles Jaishankar, Nilansh Keswani, Aayan Khan, Punya Mehra, Ali Naseer, Ronak Panoly, Dhruv Parashar, Vinayak Raghavan, Soorya Sathish, Aryansh Sharma, Adithya Shetty, Kai Smith
What are the influencer academy modules?
- Mastery of audio-visual content creation.
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- All aspects of post-production.
- Emerging technologies and VFX with AI and CGI.
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Easter%20Sunday
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UAE currency: the story behind the money in your pockets
F1 The Movie
Starring: Brad Pitt, Damson Idris, Kerry Condon, Javier Bardem
Director: Joseph Kosinski
Rating: 4/5
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%3Cp%3EDavid%20White%20might%20be%20new%20to%20the%20country%2C%20but%20he%20has%20clearly%20already%20built%20up%20an%20affinity%20with%20the%20place.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EAfter%20the%20UAE%20shocked%20Pakistan%20in%20the%20semi-final%20of%20the%20Under%2019%20Asia%20Cup%20last%20month%2C%20White%20was%20hugged%20on%20the%20field%20by%20Aayan%20Khan%2C%20the%20team%E2%80%99s%20captain.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3EWhite%20suggests%20that%20was%20more%20a%20sign%20of%20Aayan%E2%80%99s%20amiability%20than%20anything%20else.%20But%20he%20believes%20the%20young%20all-rounder%2C%20who%20was%20part%20of%20the%20winning%20Gulf%20Giants%20team%20last%20year%2C%20is%20just%20the%20sort%20of%20player%20the%20country%20should%20be%20seeking%20to%20produce%20via%20the%20ILT20.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CHe%20is%20a%20delightful%20young%20man%2C%E2%80%9D%20White%20said.%20%E2%80%9CHe%20played%20in%20the%20competition%20last%20year%20at%2017%2C%20and%20look%20at%20his%20development%20from%20there%20till%20now%2C%20and%20where%20he%20is%20representing%20the%20UAE.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CHe%20was%20influential%20in%20the%20U19%20team%20which%20beat%20Pakistan.%20He%20is%20the%20perfect%20example%20of%20what%20we%20are%20all%20trying%20to%20achieve%20here.%3Cbr%3E%3Cbr%3E%E2%80%9CIt%20is%20about%20the%20development%20of%20players%20who%20are%20going%20to%20represent%20the%20UAE%20and%20go%20on%20to%20help%20make%20UAE%20a%20force%20in%20world%20cricket.%E2%80%9D%C2%A0%3C%2Fp%3E%0A
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Conflict, drought, famine
Estimates of the number of deaths caused by the famine range from 400,000 to 1 million, according to a document prepared for the UK House of Lords in 2024.
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Dr Miriam Bradley, senior lecturer in humanitarian studies at the University of Manchester, has argued that, by the early 1980s, “several government policies combined to cause, rather than prevent, a famine which lasted from 1983 to 1985. Mengistu’s government imposed Stalinist-model agricultural policies involving forced collectivisation and villagisation [relocation of communities into planned villages].
The West became aware of the catastrophe through a series of BBC News reports by journalist Michael Buerk in October 1984 describing a “biblical famine” and containing graphic images of thousands of people, including children, facing starvation.
Band Aid
Bob Geldof, singer with the Irish rock group The Boomtown Rats, formed Band Aid in response to the horrific images shown in the news broadcasts.
With Midge Ure of the band Ultravox, he wrote the hit charity single Do They Know it’s Christmas in December 1984, featuring a string of high-profile musicians.
Following the single’s success, the idea to stage a rock concert evolved.
Live Aid was a series of simultaneous concerts that took place at Wembley Stadium in London, John F Kennedy Stadium in Philadelphia, the US, and at various other venues across the world.
The combined event was broadcast to an estimated worldwide audience of 1.5 billion.
Global Fungi Facts
• Scientists estimate there could be as many as 3 million fungal species globally
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• Fungi account for roughly 90% of Earth's unknown biodiversity
• Forest fungi help tackle climate change, absorbing up to 36% of global fossil fuel emissions annually and storing around 5 billion tonnes of carbon in the planet's topsoil
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COMPANY PROFILE
Name: Kumulus Water
Started: 2021
Founders: Iheb Triki and Mohamed Ali Abid
Based: Tunisia
Sector: Water technology
Number of staff: 22
Investment raised: $4 million
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The five pillars of Islam
!['Western democracies are actively appeasing the [Iranian] regime in all kinds of ways,' said Mariam Memarsadeghi, a pro-democracy campaigner. EPA](https://www.thenationalnews.com/resizer/v2/5IH7MDHSAO4QHWWQRMZ44WHWGE.jpg?smart=true&auth=c012af49bd3e83a53003a99a8f314a99395e72341975aa617096f53672a9bcaf&width=800&height=450)
