Last week member states of the United Nations prevented Iran from obtaining a seat on the board of a new organization dedicated to gender equality.

Iran was kept off, although Saudi Arabia — a country  that unlike Iran, doesn’t allow women to drive –did get a “donor” seat on the new board.

This happened just days before Iranian officials arrested five female lawyers.  Three were returning from abroad when they were detained at the airport in Tehran.

Maryam Kianersi, Sara Sabaghian and Maryam Karbasi were called a threat to national security and accused of “violating the Islamic Republic’s moral standards while outside Iran.”

Three of them had also signed a petition calling for the release of another human rights lawyer, Nasrin Sotoudeh, who is now on a hunger strike in Iran.

This comes at a time when the fate of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani, the Iranian woman sentenced to be stoned to death for adultery, remains in the balance.

Dr. Fatemeh Haghighatjoo was a member of Iran’s parliament until she resigned in 2004, after many fellow Reformist candidates for Parliament were disqualified by Iran’s Guardian Council.

She spoke to Fox News about the decision to keep Iran off the new UN women’s rights commission and the message it sends to the leadership of that country.

“From my perspective, this is a very good decision and most women’s rights activists do welcome this decision,” Haghighatjoo said.

I asked Haghighatjoo about the way the international community can best influence Iran in its policies on human’s and women’s rights.

“It’s hard to say put sanctions on Iran to promote the issue of human rights.  I would say at least the international community needs to address more and more the issue and maybe make statements to tie this to trade opportunities for Iran,” said Haghighatjoo. “I guess that would be more positive than just putting new sanctions on Iran to stop human rights violations.”

Much of Iran’s industrial sector is suffering from a lack of investment.  Haghighatjoo’s point of a little more “carrot” for Iran follows the line of thinking that sanctions can hurt the people before they influence changes in government policy.

The stoning case of Sakineh Ashtiani has also captured international attention.

Patty Debonitas, the U.K. representative of the International Committee Against Stoning, said that Ashtiani is still alive but no friends or family have had contact with her since August.

“You have to imagine you are in this situation and you have no idea what is going on in the outside world and you don’t know whether you are going to be executed any minute,” Debonitas said.

The Iranian Prosecutor General, Gholam Hossein Mohseni Ejee, has confirmed that the judiciary is pursuing a murder charge against Ashtiani that would take precedence over the stoning conviction.

“When the Islamic regime couldn’t get away with stoning her, what they do is they say, oh, she is part of the team that killed her husband, which is outrageous.  They need a reason to kill her.  That is it,” Debonitas said.

Some have suggested that Tehran has not provided clarity on this issue because it is advantageous for them to have the world’s attention focused on Ashtiani’s case and not other areas such as the imprisonment of so many human rights and opposition figures in Iran.

The International Committee Against Stoning has hired an Italian lawyer now to deal with Ashtiani’s case.

Ashtiani’s first lawyer had to flee Iran for his safety, the second, Houtan Kian, is in jail now, along with Ashtiani’s son, Sajjad Ghaderzade.

Finally, Fatemeh Haghighatjoo says that depite the fact that there are no longer crowds taking to the streets, there is a very active movement of people demanding greater freedoms in Iran.  And women are particularly involved.

“I think this generation has learned that if they want to actually bring a good situation about in the future for themselves and their children, they have to sacrifice now.  Just like any mother who sacrifices herself because she wants a good future for her children,” Haghighatjoo said.