May 11, 2004
-
Greyfox did it again.
I was dutifully getting my ducks in a row–really little bottles in
rows to hold my vitamins, minerals, amino acids, etc.–for my next
month’s batch of med packs, when the phone rang. Greyfox wanted
me to go online and get today’s weather forecast. I stopped what
I was doing and did that for him. He missed a day of work
yesterday and it looks like this will be another rainy non-work
day. While he had me on the phone he shared something from the
newspaper. He just must keep me informed.The item of interest today was a syndicated piece by Washington Post
columnist Charles Krauthammer, carried on the dissident “Voice of the
Times” page in the Anchorage Daily News. That page was a
concession to the Anchorage Times readership when ADN bought out the
Times and made Anchoragua a one-paper town. That’s not counting
the Press and the Gazette and a few other weeklies, monthlies and
oddities. Anywaay…Greyfox read to me the opening lines of the column. Krauthammer begins:
On Sept. 11, America awoke to the great jihad, wondering: What is this
about?We have come to agree on the obvious answers: religion, ideology,
political power and territory.But there is one fundamental issue at stake that dares not speak its
name. This war also is about – deeply about – sex.For the jihadists, at stake in the war against the infidels is the
control of women.This reminded me of the visual image that came to my mind as I was doing the Tarot reading on the Iraq war.
I saw veils coming off and women smiling through their tears.
That vision is the ONLY thing that makes this war even halfway
acceptable to me.Krauthammer continues farther on:
Israeli women are the most liberated of any in that part of the world.
For decades, the Arab press has responded with lurid stories of Israeli
sexual corruption.The most famous example occurred in the late 1990s when Egyptian
newspapers claimed that chewing gum Israel was selling in Egypt was
laced with sexual hormones that aroused insatiable lust in young Arab
women.Palestinian officials later followed with charges that Israeli chewing
gum was a Zionist plot for turning Palestinian women into prostitutes
and “completely destroying the genetic system of young boys” to boot.Which is why the torture pictures coming out of Abu Ghraib prison
couldn’t have hit a more neuralgic point.We think of torture as the kind that Saddam Hussein practiced: pain,
mutilation, maiming and ultimately death. We think of it as having a
political purpose: intimidation, political control, confession and
subjugation.What happened at Abu Ghraib was entirely different. It was gratuitous
sexual abuse – perversion for its own sake.That is what made it, ironically and disastrously, a pictorial
representation of precisely the lunatic fantasies that the jihadists
believe – and that cynical secular regimes such as Egypt and the
Palestinian Authority peddle to pacify their populations and deflect
their anger and frustrations.Through that lens, Abu Ghraib is an “I told you so” played out in an
Arab capital and recorded on film.Yeah, if the pictures got to me, an American feminist, think how they must have gotten to the Islamic patriarchists.
The entire column is a good read. If your local paper doesn’t
carry Krauthammer, you can read him online at the Dallas Morning
News. That’s Dallas, Texas, not Dulles Airport (injoke, sorry).DallasNews.com | News for Dallas, Texas | Opinion: Viewpoints
Comments (6)
I feel very good about having liberated women in Afghanistan, having met a few. However tangential that was to our aims there, it is a good thing bought with many, many deaths and much “treasure.”
As for Iraq, and American policy in general… not so much worth the costs.
I, too, keep in mind the plight of women in the middle eastern regions. I’ve read several books regarding this issue and encourage women in freer countries to do the same. As a child, I lived in Turkey and even though the women there enjoyed more freedoms than their surrounding neighbors, they still are repressed. Though, since the 70′s (when I lived there) they have seen some strides. Anyhow, what was my point here. . . Even as a child I was struck with the difference between the women of my culture and the women of that culture. I couldn’t imagine growing up without the freedoms we have here in the U.S. Thanks for sharing SuSu.
The plight of women in the mideast is a concern for ALL women I think.
Nice insight. Made me think.
Part of me is chuckling at the Isreali gum and some of the examples the press used about Isreali women. I guess it reminds me of some of the reports that came out during feminisms coming out in the US. One thing that I also must say is that I am always happy that people see that a womans plight anywhere, whether it be Africa, middle east, down the block, is all womens plight. But sometimes I worry that in our model of what women should be able to do we don’t see that we have our own conceptions of what other women want. The hijab is a good example. I know many women in the US who are veiled and do so out of thier own choice yet I see so many people question if that is really freedom. I guess my thought really is that I would love if that our work in freeing women, and people, around the world that we make sure that we honor thier customs and choices and not just think that blue jeans and a t-shirt are the answer.
I start to cry inside when I see how horrible humans can treat each other…I can’t even bring myself to watch what happened on the news…I live in a veiled world most of the time…I won’t watch the news or read the paper…I don’t watch tv much either…I do enjoy your bloggs and I thank you for putting some reality in my life today…you made me love and respect my life and my family a bit more by showing me how important our lives really are that they can be taken so easily…your a very wise woman and I enjoy your site immensly…but I have to tell you reality makes me cringe sometimes…”peterpan” I guess I am…many huggs to you SuSu…you are by far one of my favorite sites…Sassy