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Permalink Reply by Patricia Michele Gore on April 5, 2011 at 9:18am

I've just joined this site, and this is my first post -THIS ISSUE IS IMPORTANT ! I,too, am bewildered at the apathy shown by s9many women who should know better ! Sisters, they would do it to you if they could ! When I read a first person account (Ayan Kursi Ali-horrible misspelled - is a great one) I realize how very important it is to at least keep some media focus on this : it SAVES LIVES. Not as easy to silence your detractors by beheading them when the whole world is watching. These women sacrifice everything to be free, we can risk being considered 'culturally insensitive ' in order to help them STAY BREATHING !

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Permalink Reply by Prog Rock Girl on April 5, 2011 at 11:39am

Lindsay, for me this is the most important feminist issue. Caring about women's rights in the West is also important, but mostly to guard the rights that we have won and ensure that they aren't chipped away (in the form of general apathy, conservative politics, psuedofeminism, etc)...still, some of the things feminists talk about in the west are so trivial compared to laws confining a woman to the home, wearing a burqa, marrying preadolescents, honor killings, state-enforced punishment of rape victims, and more.

 

Some feminists have just said that they don't want to derail the conversation, be overbearing, etc...I'm sure women in danger for their lives really appreciate that cultural sensitivity. Meanwhile, other so-called feminists (Germaine Greer) have compared female genital mutilation to Western women wearing nail polish and high heels. Last time I checked, I was never forced against my will to do either and have still gotten to live a pretty full life without them. What this is is selfish. It's identifying with one's culture more than identifying with women worldwide. Cultural sensitivity is downright racist by having different standards for people based on their race or culture; "well, I would never put up with having my genitals mutilated, but it's good enough for people in the third world".

 

This "but we in the West should look at ourselves, we're not so perfect" is just cultural relativism in disguise, reluctance to speak badly about any other culture. When did we say we were perfect? Also, it's not like the Islamic world doesn't criticize the West for being godless, immoral, etc.

 

 

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Permalink Reply by paul babcock on April 9, 2011 at 5:23pm

I ve read a couple books about different women's groups in Afghanistan that were active in the past.

During the cold war instead of radical moslems our enemies were the comies, Rusians mostly. They had invaded Afghanistan. And the enemy of our enemy was our friend. We could have given support to these women's groups then but, our government wanted to kill comies and way more bang was gotten for out buck by instead funding those who promised to do so.

So then we funded the taliban. And they killed plenty of commies, ran the Russians out of their country actually. These women's groups tho were repressed horribly, hounded to death often enuf, such as in Meena's case.

So besides how importantly woman's rights are to women in Moslem cultures, I have long thought that it is also important to us, as I have often wondered how history would have been different if we had empowered a woman's group and not supported the taliban.

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