>Veiled Threat
>To Fully Grasp the Dangers of the Post-Sept. 11 World, We Have to
>Examine the Taliban's Hatred of Women
>
>by Barbara Ehrenreich
<cut>
Women's rights may play no part
>in
>U.S. foreign policy, but we should perhaps be grateful that they have
>at least been important enough to deploy in the media mobilization
>for war. On the analytical front, though, the neglect of Taliban
>misogyny--and beyond that, Islamic fundamentalist misogyny, in
>general--remains almost total
Wow! I'm astonished by how ahistorical this is. The oppression of non-Western women has *always* been invoked to justify imperialist ambitions. Surely Edward Said has nailed this truth to the door?
>The mystery of fundamentalist misogyny deepens when you consider that
>the anti-imperialist and anti-colonialist Third World movements of 40
>or 50 years ago were, for the most part, at least officially
>committed to women's rights.
Oh, so very very mysterious: not all colored people think alike! Not to mention the main difference, which you'd think a leftist commentator would note, is that the movements she mentions were *leftist* (and she could have mentioned women's role in the leftist gov'ts of Afgh), rather that counter-revolutionaries like the Taliban. I mean, I've heard white people say that the people of the East don't have history, but this is ridiculous.
>Or maybe the global assembly line has played only a minor role in
>generating Islamic fundamentalist misogyny. After all, the Taliban's
>home country, Afghanistan, has not been a popular site for
>multinational manufacturing plants. There, we might look for an
>explanation involving the exigencies--and mythologies--of war.
So which is it for Jerry Falwell, assembly lines or war?
>Then again, it could be a mistake to take Islamic fundamentalism out
>of the context of other fundamentalisms--Christian and Orthodox
>Jewish.
Could be! But how did the Hindutvadis get left out?
What a nonsensical article, without an ounce of new information or thought. And so profoundly inapropos in a time when the bombs are dropping.
And Joanna writes:
>For the other generic answer, write your own book/article explaining >why
>minority men, in general, vent on their women and children. The >recent
>"Kings of Comedy" offered some fairly nauseating sketches on >the same.
Can I write my own article explaining why I'm sick of white women's bullshit? *Thanks*! And this coming from a nation where white men legislated that black women go to marraigeability classes! Where Moynihan Report castigated the black community for not being patriarchal! And check out that "their"! And unlike what, the feminism of white men's comedy? Give me a break.
_________________________________________________________________ Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com/intl.asp