Topic: 2024-Unpaid Care and Domestic Work
Country: Iran
Delegate Name: Daniel Hernanz
Women have been and will always be the pillars of society. From childbearing to caring for the elderly, and other domestic work, women support the familial structures that make up the base of every society, doing the type of work that is unpaid and takes unwavering discipline. Due to this, the delegation of Iran is not oblivious to the importance of women in Iranian society, and therefore, Iran believes that supporting women in this type of work is extremely important to the well being of each country.
Iran has taken many steps to support the unpaid work of women, such as extending the paid maternity leave from six to nine months and granting fathers a two-week paternity leave in 2013. Iran’s approach to this issue is always closely tied to the promotion of traditional Islamic family values, which the country sees as of utmost importance when discussing this topic. In the U.N., Iran has supported resolutions that encouraged governments to take measures to support unpaid work and account for it in their national policies. Iran has adopted several development plans through the Center for Women’s Participation, which have included orders to assess women’s educational and athletic needs, increasing women’s employment opportunities, and improving injustices women faced in the legal system, emphasized empowering women in society while identifying legal barriers, such as women’s lack of protection from violence and strengthening civil society empowerment as the areas the government should focus on.
More recently though, Iran has struggled with its relations with other countries, primarily through the U.N.. In 2022, in a 29 to 8 decision, with 16 abstaining, Iran was ousted from the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women for its current term (2022-2026), becoming the first country in the U.N. to be expelled from a U.N. commission. This happened following the death of Mahsa Amini, after she was beaten on her way to custody after being arrested for wearing her headscarf improperly, she fell into a coma and died three days later. Iran has rejected and condemned this resolution and expulsion, on each country’s right to national sovereignty and to representation in the U.N.. The delegation of Iran believes that it is shameful that so many countries supported this resolution, using the U.N. as a political tool rather than actually trying to find solutions to the problems faced. Amir Saeid Jalil Iravani spoke before the vote, saying: “It is not at all unexpected that the United States is taking such unlawful action against Iran, given its long-standing hostility towards the Iranian people, but if carried out, it would be exceedingly dangerous to the UN system integrity.” The Iranian delegation still agrees with this view, and believes that western countries, such as the U.S., set up double standards for countries like Iran, as they condemn many actions that Iran takes while they still have many problems they don’t deal with.
It is with this context that the delegation of Iran will enter this committee, looking forward for the committee to meet three main goals that will ensure each country’s right to national sovereignty, equal representation and respect each country’s culture and customs:
First, Iran encourages all countries in this committee to find unilateral and unbiased solutions. The Iranian delegation reiterates that the U.N. is a place for all countries to discuss and come forward with plausible solutions, and that it shouldn’t be used as a political tool to undermine some and overpower others.
Second, reiterating the first point, Iran urges each country to take into account the different cultures of this committee, and that due to that, different words have different meanings to different countries. Language is a very important factor in this kind of issue, and it often comes in the way of passing international legislation. Iran just simply encourages all countries to not let language be the thing that stops a potential solution from passing.
Third, the delegation of Iran rejects all double standards that different countries might try to impose and have imposed in the past. Although this seems like a repetition of the first goal, it has happened so much that Iran believes it is important to reiterate it further. Iran would just like to state that a lot of nations that condemn it for its alleged bad treatment of women have struggles with this problem. This is just to say that other countries can judge them just as easily as they judge others.
In conclusion, Iran looks forward to collaborating with all of its fellow delegates, and believes that as long as the committee prioritizes finding actual solutions instead of playing political games, doing so with the last three points, that this committee will be able to come to a resolution in which every party benefits.
