United States at the UN: ....killed because she was a protester, not because she was a woman

via U.S. Mum During Iran Vote to U.N. Women's Commission HT Ann.

High off its success in keeping Iran from joining the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, the U.S. appears to have missed its chance to object to Iran's selection to the U.N. Commission on the Status of Women, which was affirmed during a so-called U.N. vote this week.

No gesture of disapproval came during an acclamation vote affirming the Islamic nation's appointment to the 45-nation group.

A senior official with the U.S. Mission to the U.N. told FoxNews.com that "there is no opportunity" to object. "That is not how the procedure works," the official said.

The official said that the United States was powerless to stop the selection because Iran faced no competition -- a scenario that Iran took advantage of in the 2005 election too.

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Rep. Dana Rohrabacher, R-Calif., the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on International Organizations, Human Right and Oversight, blasted the silence of the U.S. to Iran's selection, saying it is the U.S official position "to be pleasant with gangsters."

"Iran is the best example. This is yet another example of that strategy. It's part of the theory of hug-a-Nazi-make-a-liberal. If you treat gangsters in a pleasant way and watch out for their sensitivity, they'll reform their ways," he told FoxNews.com.

Rep. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, R-Fla., the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said the U.S. should leverage its contributions to the U.N. "to help produce effective, transparent, and accountable U.N. programs which can help women and others around the globe."

"The U.N.'s apologists must have thought that since Iran withdrew, under pressure, from the Human Rights Council race, we would not notice this latest abomination. They were wrong," she said in a written statement.

"That an Iranian regime that shoots and stones women would be 'elected' to a U.N. body supposedly dedicated to women's rights adds a whole new disgusting twist to the ongoing saga of Iran exploiting the U.N," she said.

A high-ranking State Department official told FoxNews.com that Iran's selection to the commission isn't as bad as it appears.

"We're not going to stand up and cheer," the official said. "By the same token, that is less onerous than the Human Rights Council because women in Iran, relative to other countries in the region, actually have greater rights."

"You don't have women placed in head-to-toe burkas in that country," the official said. "You have women elected to the legislature in the country."

The official acknowledged the death Neda Agha-Soltan, an Iranian woman who was killed during a post election anti-government protest.

"She was killed because she was a protester, not because she was a woman," the official said. "I'm not saying we can take Iran and compare them to the human rights record of any country in the developed world. But in that region, women in Iran have a greater opportunity for education, for business and to participate in politics."

Wonder what the UUs and the UN said? Not much I gather.