STILLWELL: Today's True Feminists

San Francisco Chronicle ^ | 3/22/6 | Cinnamon Stillwell

[SmithL]

As we marked another International Women's Day this month, commemorations took place around the world.  In the West, the feminist movement held its own events to honor the occasion.

Here in San Francisco, a group called the Radical Women honored International Women's Day with a March 11 "Tribute to Sister Resisters." These included a "playwright, actor, and model for 'Women en Large: Images of Fat Nudes,'" an "abortion advocate," a "labor and anti-war feminist poet" and a "retired socialist feminist educator and revolutionary writer." In other words, the same old tired '60s model ad nauseam. 

Meanwhile, the real radical women in the world go largely unremarked by the feminist movement.  Today's true heroines are those who do battle with the gender apartheid, violence and oppression practiced against women in the Muslim world.  There, women face not just phantom infringements to their civil rights and perceived slights to their sensitivities, but threats to their lives.  With the call for reform in the Muslim world come the inevitable requirements of round-the-clock security.

Arab American psychologist Dr. Wafa Sultan is the latest to enter such dangerous waters. 

Ever since Sultan took part in a debate on Al-Jazeera with Algerian Islamist cleric Ahmad bin Muhammad in February, the world has been riveted. 

The two debated Islamic teachings and terrorism. But instead of the usual excuses, Sultan offered moral clarity.  She blasted the Muslim world for being mired in a "medieval" mentality and she dubbed the war on terror not simply a clash of civilizations but "a clash between civilization and backwardness … between barbarity and rationality … between human rights on the one hand and the violation of these rights...

[SmithL]

Seen the Light Ping

FReepMail me if you want on, or off this low-volume Ping list.

[mathprof]

thanks for the post. I'm surprised that this ran in the SF Chronicle.

[ariamne]

I can imagine the letters to the editor that ran in response to this article.

[Earthdweller]

"Today's true heroines are those who do battle with the gender apartheid, violence and oppression practiced against women in the Muslim world. There, women face not just phantom infringements to their civil rights and perceived slights to their sensitivities, but threats to their lives. "

Bump

[Syncro]

...Sultan offered moral clarity. She blasted the Muslim world for being mired in a "medieval" mentality and she dubbed the war on terror not simply a clash of civilizations but "a clash between civilization and backwardness … between barbarity and rationality … between human rights on the one hand and the violation of these rights on the other, between those who treat women like beasts and those who treat them like human beings."

Dr. Wafa Sultan, what a brave woman.

Good article SmithL. Thanks for posting.