On Friday's The O'Reilly Factor on FNC, substitute anchor Juan Williams devoted a segment to the recent inclusion of Iran on the United Nations Commission on the Status for Women, despite the draconian treatment of women by government authorities in the nation. The FNC host was reminded of Libya's leadership of the U.N. Human Rights Commission in 2003. Williams:
Another outrage courtesy of our friends at the U.N. Iran has just been selected to sit on the United Nations commission on human, on women's rights. Iran, which requires that women who don't dress modestly enough get stoned or lashed. Iran, which threatens to arrest women with suntans. I guess we shouldn't be shocked. In 2003, Libya was selected to head up the U.N. Human Rights Commission.
Williams brought aboard author Brigitte Gabriel for further discussion of the issue. Below is a complete transcript of the segment from the Friday, April 30, The O'Reilly Factor on FNC:
JUAN WILLIAMS: In the "Personal Story" segment tonight, another outrage courtesy of our friends at the U.N. Iran has just been selected to sit on the United Nations commission on human, on women's rights. Iran, which requires that women who don't dress modestly enough get stoned or lashed. Iran, which threatens to arrest women with suntans. I guess we shouldn't be shocked. In 2003, Libya was selected to head up the U.N. Human Rights Commission. Joining us now from Los Angeles, Brigitte Gabriel, the author of They Must Be Stopped: Why We Must Defeat Radical Islam and How We Can Do It. Brigitte, thanks for coming in. How could.
BRIGITTE GABRIEL, AUTHOR: Thank you. I'm delighted to be with you.
WILLIAMS: How could the United States, how could the rest of the world allow Iran to take this lead role in terms of women's rights? They are the worst example possible.
GABRIEL: They are the worst example. I mean, Iran is, the first country in the world to actually make the marriage age for girls as nine years old according to Islamic Sharia Law. And you know, the world sat on the sidelines and said, oh, that doesn't affect us, we don't really care. And it's so shameful, what hypocrisy, here we are in the West, we have women's rights. We have the NOW organization. I think, Juan, this is the time now for all these groups that support women's rights to come together and launch a petition against the U.N., trying to stop Iran. I know already the Iranian women's liberation movement tried to put a petition up. But this is the time where woman from modern western countries like Australia, the United States, Canada, New Zealand, Europe, this is the time where everyone can come together and do a major petition to the U.N. and also women start putting pressure on their government to do the same thing.
WILLIAMS: I'm glad you pointed this out. This is so amazing to me. Women in Iran are protesting, the United Nations allowing Iran to be on this women's group. The Iranian women themselves are in outrage over this. But it doesn't seem to have sparked any outrage at the U.N. The vote was by acclamation. It wasn't even an open vote, just acclamation. And the United States didn't even raise a ruckus about it. So, Brigitte, what do you think the U.S. should have done?
GABRIEL: The U.S. now can still flex its muscle and rally a lot of other nations who are on our side of democracy and freedom and human rights. Listen, we provide 26 percent of the U.N.'s budget. That's a lot of money. Not even Saudi Arabia with all their oil wells, not even the OPEC nation with all their oil wells. Give the U.N. as much as we give the U.N. This is upon the United States.
WILLIAMS: But Brigitte, could it be that the United States and the Obama administration have bigger fish to fry over stopping nuclear arms development in Iran, and we just, you know, we are going to let this slide by because we have other business that we want to attend to, we don't want anybody to get distracted?
GABRIEL: Well, I think this is going to be a rallying cry to rally other people. This is about women's rights. So we are not talking about nuclear rights right now. And any nation, whether it's Russia or in any other nations, the women should rally together to support women's rights. Now, to answer your question, also, it's not going to matter what we do. Iran is not listening to anything about their nuclear development program. Let's face it, Juan. The U.N. has passed four sanctions against Iran. Four resolutions in the last 10 years against Iran's nuclear development. That didn't stop Iran because everyone knows the U.N. is not going to do anything. The world is not going to do anything. What have we done as a collective body of the world under the United Nations to stop Iran so far? The U.N. has become a joke. This is the time when we see things like this, absolutely ridiculous that the U.N. is appointing Iran on the Women's Rights Commission. This is the time for the world to say, "You know what? You are a crazy organization. We're not going to let you do it."
WILLIAMS: This is hypocrisy. This is rank hypocrisy.
GABRIEL: Hypocrisy.
WILLIAMS: This is unbelievable. You know what really strikes me? I must tell you. When I saw that video of Neda, you know, the woman who was shot, you know, right there in the midst of the protest against the Iranian regime. And I think that this is the woman standing up, and somehow she, the government just does away with her identity, her sense of dignity, they kill her, and now they are going to stand up for women's rights? Is this a joke or what? Now, and also, just last week, we have one of them saying, you know what, if a woman dresses immodestly, it's going to cause earthquakes and natural calamities? I don't get, these two things just baffle my brain. How did they make that? How do they live with themselves?
GABRIEL: It is baffling. But, you know, also, what is more baffling, that many Americans do not know about how women are treated in Iran. And women at nine years old can get married to any man by her father even if he is 50 years older than her. A girl, if she is beaten by her husband, raped by her husband, she has nowhere to turn to. Women are burned in Iran. Gays or lesbians are lynched in Iran.
WILLIAMS: This reminds me of the Taliban-
GABRIEL: A woman cannot get a job without her husband's permission. Exactly.
WILLIAMS: This reminds me of the Taliban and their madness. But, you know, what is this about suntans? I got to tell you, when I read this thing about suntan. So, you explain it to the audience. Why is it that you can get in trouble for having a suntan?
GABRIEL: Because that means a woman took her clothes off or her burka and exposed her flesh in the sun, even if it was in the privacy of her own home because maybe somebody from her neighbors was able to take a look at her while she is doing it. That means a woman has removed clothing off her body to let the sun touch her body. And that's what that means. It's absolute craziness.
WILLIAMS: Brigitte?
GABRIEL: By the way, there are people who are brown skin in Iran. Yes.
WILLIAMS: You couldn't make, this is unbelievable. And the U.N. is going to allow this?
GABRIEL: You can't make this stuff up.
WILLIAMS: The U.N. should never-
GABRIEL: Our tax dollars go to support the U.N.
WILLIAMS: Anyway, Ms. Gabriel, thank you very much.
