Why Feminism Is AWOL on Islam (Got a HUGE barf bag? You're gonna need it! INSANE Must Read)

city-journal.org ^

[syriacus]

The Veil: Resistance or Repression?

From the black, loose-fitting chador of Iran to the dense, gridlike facial veil on the body-enveloping burqa in Afghanistan, the veiling of Islamic women has fueled fierce debate within feminist circles about the perceived role of the hijab - roughly translated as the Islamic dress code for women - in enforcing gender exclusion and inequality.

... "Veil," University of Southern California anthropology professor Fadwa El Guindi [a woman] lays out a fresh but sometimes one-sided analysis of some of the multifaceted uses and meanings of the veil (and other, modest Islamic dress) in Arabic-speaking Muslim societies. ...

El Guindi alludes, ever so briefly, to the harsh impact of the law on women's lives. But she abruptly and simplisticly reframes the issue as a matter of ultimate empowerment for women: "The enforcement of hijab can be as empowering as its ban," writes El Guindi. "While it undoubtedly restricts some women, it emancipates others by legitimizing their presence in public life."

[kaylar]

I read the magazine article on that atrocity. Y'know why the POS thought his wife was having an affair???Because he had a dream that she was unfaithful! A dream, and the thing uses that as an excuse to maim.

At least the courts punished him. He got a few years in prison, and everyone was surprised he got anything.

The victim now lives in Maryland, and has been fitted with acrylic eyes and a prosthetic nose.

I would not be surprised if the thing , upon release, doesn't try to slip into the USA to finish the job. Or maybe one of his relatives. Defense of the family honor, and all that.

[Paulus Invictus]

Women are peaceful? Howzatt again? My wife does not make peace. She makes war. No weapons are involved, but she gets her way in extremely subtle ways. Women are very good strategists and great tacticians, the characteristics of good military leaders. If you guys don't think les femmes are not planning your next moves, you are not paying attention. Some females are also good chess players-look out-they are about three moves ahead of us! (or is it just me?)

[KC_for_Freedom]

And this of course is the answer. That after having been the seat of civilization, Islam understands better how the world should be. These women in Islam understand their role and out of respect for their culture readily submit to what only seem in the west to be putdowns. Actually, Islam holds women in high regard and it is only a matter of time before women in the west realize and voluntarily adopt similar places in society. (sarcasim off)

(What BS) Feminism simply can't take the side of the west in this because they are too important a constituent of the socialist democratic party.

[pabianice]

"Feminism" is now simply laughed at by women under 35. The vile, man-hating harpies of NOW and their kin are as dead as the dinosaurs.

As someone said after 9-11, "Where were the girls at the Towers? Every fire-fighter was a man, as was essentially every policeman, every rescure worker, and all the construction workers who showed-up to dig out the rubble. Manly men were suddenly back in fashion, while the latte-sipping, pour-the-wine New York Times, liberal, girly men were suddenly out of fashion."

[DaughterOfAnIwoJimaVet]

Hmmmmm...I'm female, and I often wish the bombing would start "in five minutes". I must be an aberration.

[DWSUWF]

"...At least the courts punished him. He got a few years in prison..."

It's traditional to say something like, "I hope he gets 'The Business' from Big Mike while he's in prison!" (or words to this effect...)

In This case, however, its a GIVEN that he's getting -and giving- 'The Business'...

The problem is that he's having a BALL! These throwbacks switch from a woman to a man to a goat to a knothole without giving it a second thought... It's all grist to their mills.

[denydenydeny]

What a great article.

the postcolonial notion that brown men, having been victimized by the West, can never be oppressors in their own right. If they give the appearance of treating women badly, the oppression they have suffered at the hands of Western colonial masters is to blame. In fact, the worse they treat women, the more they are expressing their own justifiable outrage.

The most appalling racism and hesperophobia on display.

[OPS4]

IDEA!!
Why dont we get donations for a ship to take these feminists to the third world dictatorships as our ambassadors, and leave them there to deal with the issues for about two months and then ask them thier opinion.

Ops4 God Bless America!

[bdeaner]

American "feminism" is held hostage to organizations like NOW, NARAL and Planned Parenthood. The members of those organizations care little for the plight of powerless women, but care more for their own political agendas--and especially their own power and prestige.

Well said.

[vidbizz]

My friend of 20+ years & I got into a heated arguement (until 3am) about the mistreatment of women in Islamic societies. She actually said that we had no right to tell them how to treat women within their countries. And we can't judge what they are doing to their women because we don't understand their society. I was shocked!

This from a liberal, pro-abortion, NOW & ACLU card carrying member.

[I got the rope]

Exactly!!

[pabianice]

Hi, Stella:

Thanks for the correction. But my main point remains: NOW has long become a pack of bile-filled, man-hating dinosaurs, better off soon extinct.

[Free ThinkerNY]

FACT: The Taliban took Afghanistan back to the middle-ages-

Women and girls were forbidden to go to school or work outside of the home.

Women and girls could not leave their homes without a male relative.

Women were forced to wear a head-to-toe covering called a "burqa" with only a small mesh opening through which to breathe and see.

Women were beaten and killed for not being properly covered or escorted.

The windows of homes occupied by women had be painted to prevent women from being seen.

Health care for Afghan women and girls was virtually non-existent since male doctors could not care for female patients.

Women were forbidden from speaking in public.

Pubescent girls and women were prohibited from speaking to males who were not close relatives.

Women who wore nail polish had their fingers cut off. It was illegal for women to pluck their eyebrows.

Some Afghan women drank battery acid to commit suicide, choosing a painful death rather than life under Taliban rule.

The Woman in the photo below was murdered because her husband accused her of ifidelity.

[dark_lord]

Two generations ago, NOW was mainstream. Older women who are FReepers may have been members. They wanted equal rights for employment, and under the law. They fought for those issues, and won. Once they had won, they got on with their lives. The mainstreamers left NOW. Of course, that meant the more radical members stayed, and took over the leadership. This cycle tended to repeat, until now the most loonie members are running the organization.

I have developed a theory, that when any organization is built around a single concept (like NOW for women's rights), once the organization has been successful in achieving its objective, the mainstream members leave and the loonies take over. It gives them "meaning" in their wacked out lives.

[condolinda]

The weird fact is that, even after the excesses of the Taliban did more to forge an American consensus about women’s rights than 30 years of speeches by Gloria Steinem, feminists refused to touch this subject. They have averted their eyes from the harsh, blatant oppression of millions of women...

They averted their eyes and remain silent becaused they're pissed. It was the despised patriarchy, in the form of U.S. troops, that effectively liberated the Afghan women, and not Gloria Steinem's speeches. How dare the patriarchy do such a thing!?

[FITZ]

My friend of 20+ years & I got into a heated arguement (until 3am) about the mistreatment of women in Islamic societies. She actually said that we had no right to tell them how to treat women within their countries.

The only goal the feminists have is to have an abortion clinin on every corner in those countries just as they have in ours. They really don't care if women make the same as men because on the average they still don't and they don't care about rape either because as we saw the feminists actually defended Bill Clinton and sided against the woman in that case ---they were actually angry that she ever brought it up and made statements that a rape 20 years ago didn't matter. They defended his requiring sexual favors from female subordinates so they prove that's not an issue they have either. He's pro-abortion and that's all that matters.

[FITZ]

Something tells me that woman's rights are not their true agenda.

I don't think so either. It's fine with the NOW group and other feminists that this Islamic woman had her eyes gouged out but if she was denied an abortion they'd be all in an uproar about her "rights".