TEHRAN - Ensieh Khazali, the vice-president for women and family affairs, has urged nations to set out for the immediate delivery of food to the hunger-stricken, oppressed population in Palestine and to stand tall against this brutal debarment of innocent women and children by the Israeli regime.

“Providing relief aid to the hungry and the wounded is nothing more than the bare minimum. Still, the truth of the matter is that the true face and nature of the illegal colonialism-born occupation has now been exposed to millions of people the world over and they know for a fact that the Zionist terrorists, backed by certain veto holders, are carrying out an excruciating genocide, namely the Gaza Holocaust,” Khazali said in her address to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in New York on Monday.

She urged the revocation of the membership of the terrorist Israeli regime to this Commission.

Elsewhere in her remarks, Khazali said that the Zionist terrorists, backed by certain veto holders, are carrying out an excruciating genocide, namely the Gaza Holocaust. “This will have ramifications for the United Nations which is expected to serve as an anchor point and haven for nations.”

The full text of Khazali’s speech is as follows:

Today, as we gather here to share the headway our countries have made in advancing women's affairs, Palestinian women are struggling to survive a relentless genocide. In the past 5 months or so alone, over 30,000 Palestinians, including 22,000 women and children, have been murdered, 3,000 women have been widowed, and children have been orphaned by thousands. According to a UN Women report, an average of two Palestinian mothers are killed every single hour. Also, more than 126 journalists and media workers have been killed.

Ladies and Gentlemen;

Our meeting is convened to address poverty alleviation for women. Yet, concomitant with it, the United Nations is warning of imminent famine in Gaza. A UN Women rapid assessment found that more than 84 percent of the women who were questioned have said their family eats half what they did before the war broke out in Gaza and indicated that at least one of their family members has had to skip meals during the past week. In 95 percent of those cases, mothers are the ones going without food, skipping at least one meal to feed their children. Gaza has registered the UN's highest-ever recorded population falling on the verge of starvation, to say nothing of the agonizing scenes before the very eyes of the earth dwellers of shooting children who had queued in the hopes of getting their share of food aid.

A staggering 10 out of 12 women’s organizations surveyed in Gaza have reported that due to the impact of the genocidal policies of the Israeli regime and their blockade over imports of basic food needs, less than 1 percent of the allocated aid reaches people.

Dear Audiences,

Let us join hands and set out for this meeting’s out-turn to be that of immediate delivery of food to the hunger-stricken, oppressed population in Palestine and to stand tall against this brutal debarment of innocent women and children.  And just like we strive for the elimination of poverty from the face of our own countries, let us regard the pain of all women as ours. As, Sa’adi, this world-renowned Persian poet, once said:

Human beings are members of a whole,

In creation of one essence and soul,

If one member is afflicted with pain,

Other members uneasy shall remain.

Providing relief aid to the hungry and the wounded is nothing more than the bare minimum. Still, the truth of the matter is that the true face and nature of the illegal colonialism-born occupation have now been exposed to millions of people the world over and they know for a fact that the Zionist terrorists, backed by certain veto holders, are carrying out an excruciating genocide, namely the Gaza Holocaust. This will have ramifications for the United Nations which is expected to serve as an anchor point and haven for nations.

Today, the free-spirited people of the world expect that a regime responsible for long decades of forced displacement, aggression, and massacre of millions of women and children has no place in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. Therefore, on behalf of the powerful women of Iran and in one voice with the resistant and pacifist women, I urge the revocation of the membership of the terrorist Israeli regime to this Commission

At this time, as I move on to the second part of my remarks, I would like to give you a report on the endearing Iran and how its powerful community of women has been able to take long strides towards the elimination of deprivation as we have witnessed their pacey progress in the years since the victory of the Islamic Revolution. It is owing to this independence and self-sufficiency that today in my country the pregnancy-related maternal mortality rate has dropped to as low as 23 per 100,000 live births; All Iranian pregnant and nursing women and children under 7 years of age enjoy free-of-charge insurance coverage; Quality healthcare is readily accessible and is provided in abundance to not only my fellow country women but also immigrant and refugee women, earning Iran’s universities of medical sciences a top status in provision of such services. Another gain is the growth of gender justice in education recording a high of  97 percent; Sixty percent of our teachers and 40 percent of our specialist doctors are women; Further, in the course of the past two years alone, the number of licenses issued to women-owned home-based businesses and employment loans granted to women have seen a whopping 25-fold hike and women’s employment opportunities saw a 2 percent rise last year.

In another attempt to eliminate deprivation, we embarked on a program last year distributing free-of-cost ‘food baskets’ to pregnant women and children of lower income deciles with the aim to contribute to supplying their nutritional needs and ensuring their development in accordance with the growth standards and guidelines issued by the Ministry of Health.

At the Vice-Presidency for Women’s and Family Affairs, we attach priority to nutritional education and the promotion of family health. In this regard, our Working Group on Health and Population has already begun to educate the families and students of 10 provinces.

In conclusion, by adopting a universal, divine, and humanitarian perspective, I underline the need for immediate action to eradicate poverty and starvation of the oppressed Palestinian women and I should like to remind you that women’s allegiance to resistance is ever-lasting while they are rapidly being drained of trust in international organizations.