Check It Out: Canada’s unbelievable and embarrassing decision

By Joan Janzen

A comedian once said the five stars on China’s flag represent how they rate themselves for human rights violations.

Brad Wall recently commented on social media regarding the subject of human rights. He mentioned an April 10 article written by UN Watch, an independent non-governmental organization. The headline read: “Democracies enable Iran, China, Cuba to oversee human rights bodies.” One of those enabling democracies is Canada.

Brad said Canada’s Liberal-appointed representative voted for Iran, whose regime believes women are little more than property, like cattle, to be on a UN committee that will shape women’s rights and human rights policy.

UN Watch called on Canada and other democracies to explain why they joined in the election of serial abusers of human rights to key UN bodies that oversee human rights. It’s a good question. Brad described the decision as “unbelievable,” and testimonies given by Iranian women verify his description.

Iranian-born Mohammad Faridi interviewed Anni Cyrus, who told her “unbelievable” story of being born in 1983 and growing up under Sharia after the Islamic Revolution.

“At age nine, under Sharia of Islam, girls across the country participate in a ceremony where they officially become an adult woman,” Anni explained. The government picks a day to conduct the ceremony at schools. The girls wear white to represent bridal attire and are told, “If a male guardian decides you can handle being a wife, you will become a wife,” she explained.

“The day I became a full adult, I was arrested by the morality police,” she said. Her crime was singing with friends on the way to school. Future offences would be wearing nail polish, sitting in the front seat of a cab, walking alone during daylight hours but past curfew, and dancing with friends.

“Female officers would handcuff you, drag us to detention and contact our parents,” she said. She would be sentenced to receive 75 lashes. “My father would have his own separate punishment for me.”

By the time she reached age 13, her father decided he had to get his daughter under control before she ruined his reputation. “My father had to make me somebody else’s problem,” she explained.

He walked his daughter to his office, where she sat around a table with a group of men. Fifty dollars was put on the table, and she was sold to one of the men. Her father showed her a verse that said she can’t rebel. It’s the law.

“For a year and a half, it was raping and beating. When I tried to go to Sharia Court while bruised and bleeding, begging for a divorce, the judge said, ‘Young lady, maybe you should start listening to your husband so he doesn’t have to beat you up.’ He sent me home without telling my husband, or I would have been in bigger trouble.”

When she was 15, her grandmother secretly sold some personal belongings and hired someone to smuggle her granddaughter into Turkey.

“I was at her house. She woke me up in the middle of the night and said, ‘Here’s a backpack. You’re going,’” Anni recalled. “I asked, ‘Where am I going?’ And she said, ‘Somewhere where you won’t end up dead, because these people think you are nothing but property. You’re leaving and you’ll never look back. I care what happens to you.’”

In 2002, Anni came to America. “In 2017, I gave a speech at a church telling my story about my father selling me. My price was $50. That’s what I was worth,” she said. “I got to that point and was angry that that’s all I was worth.”

Her story was recorded and received 1.5 million views within 48 hours. Anni is now a prominent human rights activist focusing on women’s rights and exposing the dangers of Islam. Her mission is to bring hope and healing to women and girls forced to live under Islamic rule. Through Live Up To Freedom, she educates others to rescue girls and women like herself.

Yet, in spite of Anni’s story, and millions of others like her, Canada nominated Iran to a UN committee dealing with women’s rights and terrorism prevention.

Brad Wall called the nomination an “embarrassment,” which is probably why he has yet to see any of the mainstream media cover the story.

The Lawfare Project, a pro bono legal service, said in a post, “The UN continues to be delegitimized by its own actions. If it doesn’t reform itself from within, it’s time to consider how to replace it.”