TEHRAN- In response to a joint statement last week by the United States, Australia, Canada, Chile, Iceland, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Sweden, and the United Kingdom to enable Iranian women to have access to information online, the Iranian High Council for Human Rights has criticized the statement as “meddling and politically driven”.

Such a statement is "consigned to failure," the rights council said.

“We invite the international community to join us in urgently working with technology companies to do everything in their power to enable women and girls’ access to information online, particularly their full and effective use of online platforms,” the foreign ministers of the countries mentioned above said on December 9.

The Iranian human rights council stated that “Western nations' political and instrumental approach to human rights, particularly rights of women and girls, which simply strives to apply pressure on independent countries, is bound to failure.”

It was noted that it is a terrible irony that the U.S. secretary of state and some of his Western counterparts, who claim to protect and promote women's rights, accuse Iran of abusing the rights of women and girls in a meddling joint statement and with a condescending tone.

The statement underlined that certain countries have a misguided view of women and their rights and use them to oppress other countries and cultures in order to advance their own political goals and preferences.

It stated that these countries do not think twice to victimize women and girls or to violate any of their rights.

It stressed the fact that several studies and reports produced by Western organizations showed that the rights of women and girls are violated more frequently in Western countries than anywhere else in the world, especially the U.S.

Based on the Iranian human rights body, the degradation of women's dignity and identity and their use as a means of exploitation, extreme violence and obvious discrimination against women and girls, a large number of female prisoners, the forced separation of refugee mothers from their children, and a discriminatory view and torture of black, colored, and migrant women and girls are just a few examples of arrogant states' approaches to the issue.

It added, “If Western countries are truly worried about the issue, they should implement new measures in their countries to protect the rights of women and girls.”

The U.S. and the eight other nations said in their statement that since protests started after the death of Mahsa Amini in mid-September, Iranian women and girls had been subjected to "severe violence."

Since the start of the riots in the country, it was alleged that Iranian authorities have continued and even stepped up their brutal repression of protestors.

According to the Iranian rights organization, the U.S. along with its Western allies have proved that they had never paid attention to rights of women while backing terror attacks against thousands of Iranian women, men, and children. 

During the Iran-Iraq war in the 1980s, U.S.-led coalition supplied all forms of arms, including chemical bombs, to Iraqi despot Saddam Hussein to squeeze the Iranian nation into submission but failed to do so, the rights council said. 

On one hand, it added, American and European words on supporting rights of women have been resonated every corner of the world, but on the other they have slapped oppressive and illegal sanctions with the aim of having negative consequences on health and welfare of people. 

As an alternative to putting on a political show, it urged Western governments to give up their one-sided and harsh penalties against women, girls, and children.