Where is NOW and NARAL when they are needed most?

[Bonnie]

Feminists Silent on Freedom for Iraqi Women
by Lisa De Pasquale

Radical feminists witnessed a legitamet case of tyranny and violence against women in Iraq, but they remained steadfastly against policies and actions taken by America and the Bush administration that helped these women. NOW president Kim Gandy stated, "The real terrorism is the Bush administration's disregard for international law and destruction of civil liberties at home. This has become an issue of one dictator versus another"
Feminists are more comfortable allowing Iraqi women to endure torture than support the Bush administration. For example, a report by Amnesty International dosumented the beheading of 50 young women in Baghdad. the report also said, "the heads of these women were hung on the doors of their houses for a few days."

www.townhall.com/columnists/GuestColumns/printDe Pasquale20040715.shtml

 

[UsaPride]

Feminists are more comfortable allowing Iraqi women to endure torture than support the Bush administration. [/URL]

Surprise, surprise!

 

[Bonnie]

Surprise, surprise!

Yes very surprising

And also very frightening

 

[UsaPride]

Yes very surprising

And also very frightening

Yes it is. It really bothers me that so many people can turn a blind eye to any good, just to turn around and spew garbage in the name of their party. This used to really piss me off, now I just Pray. What can you do?!

 

[Bonnie]

Yes it is. It really bothers me that so many people can turn a blind eye to any good, just to turn around and spew garbage in the name of their party. This used to really piss me off, now I just Pray. What can you do?!

Yes prayer for sure.....keeps the blood pressure lower :

I think what bothers me more about all these situations is the notion that supposedly intelligent rational people are swayed by this, do any of these people actually read about these things or are their intellects so darkened they just don't see the truth thats right in front of them?

 

[rtwngAvngr]

The hypocrisy of the left is nearly infinite. If harnessed properly it could drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

 

[UsaPride]

I think what bothers me more about all these situations is the notion that supposedly intelligent rational people are swayed by this, do any of these people actually read about these things or are their intellects so darkened they just don't see the truth thats right in front of them?

EXACTLY how I feel!!! I swear you took this right out of my head, LOL!!

 

[TheOne]

Interesting article. The author has a valid point. I can only assume that the leadership at NOW values their sons lives more than the betterment of life for Iraqi women. I read an article that relates to women in Iraq that was also interesting. Perhaps there is another side to this person's opinion.

Where are the women in the new Iraq?
By Swanee Hunt and Cristina Posa | June 22, 2004

NOW THAT the Iraqi Governing Council has been dissolved, the transitional government taking its place is being hailed as "diverse" for its multiethnic, multiconfessional representation. Yet while outsiders and Iraqi politicians are busy divvying up the future government along religious and ethnic lines, they are sidelining the single largest group of Iraqi citizens -- women, the one constituency with the potential to exert a unifying effect on the country.

The political and religious climate in Iraq practically guarantees that if women are frozen out of the nascent Iraqi government today, their chances of breaking through in the near future are slim to none.

Excluding women from governance condemns Iraq to the fate suffered by its Arab neighbors: autocracy, economic stagnation, and social malaise caused by wasting the talents of the majority of the population. Ultimately, greater political participation by women could provide Iraq with a stabilizing force needed to stave off the disastrous division of the country into ethnic states. This is not to say that Iraqi women are in any way monolithic; neither are Kurdish women, or Sunni women, or Shi'ite women. Women, however, in conflicts around the world demonstrate a shared stake in their economic and social development that often drives them to transcend regional, ethnic, and religious divides. "I detect a great spirit of unity among Iraqi women," Charlotte Ponticelli, senior coordinator of the US State Department's Office of International Women's Issues, told us recently.

Dr. Raja Khuzai, one of three women on the now-defunct 25-member Iraqi Governing Council, advocated the appointment of at least one woman to the executive quartet designed by UN Special Envoy Lakhdar Brahimi, composed of a prime minister, president, and two vice presidents. The Iraqi interim constitution recommends that women fill at least a quarter of the seats in the future National Assembly, and Khuzai reasonably expected the executive branch to reflect the same 25 percent goal. "This is the only way we can encourage women to participate," she said. "Otherwise they'll think it's only promises."

None of the members of the executive quartet, however, are women. The Governing Council appears to have hijacked the appointment process, installing many of its own political members, including new Prime Minister Iyad Allawi. Women have been appointed to only six of the 30 Cabinet posts, which is a modest increase from the three sitting on the Iraqi Governing Council, but still short of the 25 percent goal. Yet there is more than enough talent among professional women in Iraq to fill at least a quarter of the seats.

Unfortunately, myopic US policy over the past year has set a precedent tough for women to overcome. The United States refused to support a mandatory number of female-held seats in the future National Assembly, despite demands by Iraqi women's groups and Sunni statesman Adnan Pachachi (who was Brahimi's and America's top choice for president), because the Bush administration didn't want to contradict its antiaffirmative action policy back home. Paul Bremer, the top US administrator in Iraq, even allowed the creation of a constitutional drafting committee that was all men, although it was clear that the constitution was pivotal to establishing women's rights.

The Bush administration was not shy about using the graphic rhetoric of "rape rooms" to justify the war in Iraq on human rights grounds, and it has extolled women's advancement as a centerpiece of its Iraq strategy. Indeed, the administration has devoted millions of dollars to women's education and professional training in Iraq, but it has undermined its own good work by allowing Iraqi women to be a bargaining chip in political negotiations with powerful religious parties, making the classic mistake of sacrificing long-term stability for political expediency.

In the wake of the Abu Ghraib prison catastrophe, the last thing the United States needs is more proof of American hypocrisy in using human rights as a pretext for war. Yet failing to fully include women in Iraq's government notifies other countries in the region that women's political engagement is not, in fact, the pillar of democracy the West portrays.

If we want Iraq to set a democratic example for the region, the best way to start is by getting women involved now, before the June 30 deadline passes them by.

source

 

[Bonnie]

The hypocrisy of the left is nearly infinite. If harnessed properly it could drastically reduce our reliance on fossil fuels.

Yes if only we could harness all that ditritus for the good

 

[rtwngAvngr]

I can only assume that the leadership at NOW values their sons lives more than the betterment of life for Iraqi women.

Do the NOW hags reproduce?

 

[Bonnie]

Interesting article. The author has a valid point. I can only assume that the leadership at NOW values their sons lives more than the betterment of life for Iraqi women. I read an article that relates to women in Iraq that was also interesting. Perhaps there is another side to this person's opinion.



source

Yes I agree with what the author has stated, it is crucial for women to take their stand now there, and for our Gov to lead them in that direction. It is going to take time to change the mindset that has prevailed for so long and that is unfortunate, but also reality. However if you look at the big picture, just the fact that not only do Iraqi women and Afghanistan women have more in the way of simple human rights, they now have just a little hope as time goes by to play a larger role in society, where none existed before that.

 

[Bonnie]

Do the NOW hags reproduce?

You have such a way with words LOL
I have been to a few of their rallys.........Scary bunch

 

[TheOne]

Yes I agree with what the author has stated, it is crucial for women to take their stand now there, and for our Gov to lead them in that direction. It is going to take time to change the mindset that has prevailed for so long and that is unfortunate, but also reality. However if you look at the big picture, just the fact that not only do Iraqi women and Afghanistan women have more in the way of simple human rights, they now have just a little hope as time goes by to play a larger role in society, where none existed before that.

From what I have read, Iraqi women under Hussein, were the most liberated in the region. I am not absolving Saddam for his human rights offenses, but I think comparing the treatment of women under the rule of the Taliban and Saddam is incongruous. I am with you though in hoping that, in whatever form the government in Iraq eventually takes, that women will be an important, vibrant part of it and they will be treated on equal standing with men.

 

[rtwngAvngr]

From what I have read, Iraqi women under Hussein, were the most liberated in the region. I am not absolving Saddam for his human rights offenses, but I think comparing the treatment of women under the rule of the Taliban and Saddam is incongruous. I am with you though in hoping that, in whatever form the government in Iraq eventually takes, that women will be an important, vibrant part of it and they will be treated on equal standing with men.

Yes. Saddam Husseing is such a crusader for women's rights. I suppose you think the women enjoyed being raped by his two sons and their onstaff rapists. You're incongruous.

 

[TheOne]

Yes. Saddam Husseing is such a crusader for women's rights. I suppose you think the women enjoyed being raped by his two sons and their onstaff rapists. You're incongruous.

I never said Iraq was the bastion for the humane treatment of women. Only clarifying that Afghanistan under the Taliban was much much worse. Why do you always have to add insults to your comments? Have I done something to offend you?

Perhaps we can can restart our relationship here. Maybe we got off on a bad footing. I am extending my hand to you respectfully. Sound good?