As a tribute to the International Women’s day on Multilateralism, a specialized meeting was held  on 24th January ,2023entitled, “ The Role and Status of Women in Multilateralism”  hosted by UNESCO national commission -Iran together with the vice-presidency for women and family affairs, ministry of foreign affairs, ministry of sports and youth , center for research of the Islamic consultative assembly ,Tehran municipality, Tehran university and the institute for protecting the women’s rights  at Tehran Shams Hall.

Dr. Ensieh Khazali, vice president for women and family affairs participated at the meeting and while expressing her congratulations  for the holy days of the month of Rajab stated: “Last year at the UN Head quarter in New York I had a meeting with the executive director of  UN Women and there I reminded on the importance of the cultural differences and diversity of traditions and customs and beliefs  and the fact that the international organizations and human rights documents are inconsiderate about these differences. I stressed that the Islamic Republic of Iran believes in multilateralism and believes more attention should be paid to the diversity of culture and ethnicity within the international relations in particular, with regards to women’s issues.”

Dr. Khazali while stating that women should be leading an international watchdog organization added: “this institution should reflect the issues of women worldwide without the intervention of imposed policy makings and political views in order to point out women’s challenges as well as their needs and problems.

In another part of the meeting a special panel for discussion on the main topic of the meeting i.e., women and multilateralism was held and Dr. Khadijeh Karimi director general of the international department of the vice presidency for women and family affairs discussed on the issue as a panel member.

While referring to the importance of dealing with multilateralism she said:

“By identifying the existing opportunities in various communities and by benefitting from these opportunities together and also by collaborating together for overcoming challenges women can play a pivotal role in multilateralism. The status of women in multilateralism   is of consideration from two aspects both from negativity aspect (due to the vulnerability of women and their needed support) and positivity aspect (due to their special features).

Due to their special features and different abilities including in the areas of management, for example, they can see certain issues that men generally ignore.”

 The meeting ended with questions raised by the participants and answered by the panel members.

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