nbc Some women are more equal than others nbc

A needed kick in the *** for the pampered chicks of NOW.

SOME WOMEN MORE EQUAL THAN OTHERS
By DONNA BAVER ROVITO
Philadelphia Daily News
March 13, 2007

ZILLA HUMMA Usman and Ayaan Hirsi Ali may be the bravest women on the
planet.

Not brave like they might lose their jobs or be insulted for speaking
out about workplace inequities, or they might get cold or wet
demonstrating against "Bush's war."

I mean really brave, like they might be shot or stabbed or stoned or
set on fire for having the courage to fight for the rights of Muslim
women who are being oppressed, mutilated, abused, raped or even killed
for the crime of being a woman.

Sadly, one of these brave women, Pakistani provincial minister Usman,
IS dead - killed because she wasn't wearing a head scarf and held
public office. "I just obeyed Allah's commandment," said gunman
Mohammad Sarwar. "I will kill all those women who do not follow the
right path." Many fundamentalist Muslims apparently feel the same way,
if the number of "honor killings" in Pakistan - and in Germany, Canada
and Australia- is any gauge.

The president the National Organization for Women immediately issued a
statement denouncing Usman's murder and praising her work, calling on
feminists throughout the world to continue her fight for gender
equality for Muslim women.

Oh, wait... no, she didn't.

Neither NOW nor its Web site said anything about this brutal murder or
the loss of this significant female leader. Not a word. (There is,
however, an important piece on the site about how " 'Desperate
Housewives' Misleads Viewers About Teen Contraception.")

Ayaan Hirsi Ali, the Somali-born author of "Infidel," learned of a
death threat against her when it was stabbed into the nine-times-shot-
and-nearly-beheaded body of Theo Van Gogh. They had collaborated on a
short film called "Submission" about the oppression of women in
conservative Islamic cultures.

Forced out of her adopted home of Holland, where she was member of
Parliament, Hirsi Ali now lives in the United States, where she was
warmly welcomed by sister feminists from NOW, which offered her a
weekly column about Muslim women's rights on its Web site and features
her writings prominently in its Books section, as well as a link to
download "Submission."

Oh, wait... no, they didn't.

There isn't a single entry about Ayaan Hirsi Ali on the NOW Web site.
(But there IS a helpful video about "how advertising effects women's
body image, health and self-esteem.")

There isn't a single book about Islamic gender apartheid among the 48
books on the NOW Web site. There are, however, six books bashing
George Bush, a book attacking Mormon treatment of women and others
advocating gay marriage - but nothing about forced marriages, honor
killings, rapes, beatings or other forms of oppression suffered by
Muslim women.

Fortunately, the American Enterprise Institute does offer Ali's books
and a forum on which she can express thoughts like: "A culture that
carves the genitals of young girls, hobbles their minds and justifies
their physical oppression is not equal to a culture that believes
women have the same rights as men... Just as we put an end to slavery,
we must end the gendercide."

Their Web site claims that NOW's goal is "equality for all women" and
fighting those who want to "keep women in their place." But they seem
to have no outrage for the hideous place in which Islamic
fundamentalists keep their women.

NOW has plenty of outrage, though, for Christian leaders they call
"the American Taliban," anyone who doesn't support gay marriage and
unrestricted abortion, and the "bully-in-chief" himself, George W.
Bush, whom they targeted in a recent "peace march" in Washington,
demonstrating their solidarity with some of the worst oppressors of
women in the world - fundamentalist Islamic regimes.

In this case, I suspect that the enemy of their enemy (Bush) is not
really their friend.

All of which makes me want to paraphrase Orwell's famous line about
hypocrisy: "All women are created equal - but some women are more
equal than others."

The women who are more equal might be identified as elitist non-
religious Western feminists who support abortion, gay marriage and
Hillary Clinton, and who just hate George W. Bush.

Sadly, at least in the eyes of America's most visible women's group,
some women who are not as equal as others apparently include those
subjugated by radical - and sometimes not so radical - practitioners
of Islam throughout the world.

America and the rest of the western world's feminists are suffering
from a self-absorption that fails to see the world outside their own
sphere of privilege.

But they're also suffering from the trivialization and politization of
what once used to be a noble fight for ALL women's rights.


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Donna Baver Rovito is an advocate for quality health care and women's
rights.

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