When Western media sought quotes from the women, they frequently heard a Western-style feminist refrain: "These laws would make women into a kind of property." In the West, the counterpoint to the notion of woman as property has been a highly individualistic demand for personal autonomy - decision-making based primarily on a woman's own wishes, rather than as wife, mother, community member, or worshipper.
But, while some Western feminist insights may be useful to Afghani women and other women in the developing world as they resist certain forms of male oppression, we should not assume - as Western feminists often have - that our job is to proselytize "our" feminism. On the contrary, the feminism expressed by women such as these Afghani heroines should educate us in the West about our own shortcomings.
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
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Malalai Joya and the women of RAWA could teach American feminists and humanity at large a thing or two, to say the least. Real Heroes.
ReplyDeleteEnemies of Happiness-The first Afghan woman ever to enter parliament, Malalai Joya is followed during her campaign to introduce democracy to a country long ruled by warlords.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vpOaPMIHxrQ&feature=related
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rSj5TdhhFVk&feature=related
<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #810081;">http://www.enemiesofhappiness.com/</span></span>
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<span style="text-decoration: underline;"><span style="color: #810081;">http://www.pbs.org/now/shows/309/index.html</span></span>
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<span style="font-size: x-small; color: #8eb5de;">RAWA is the oldest political/social organization of Afghan women struggling for peace, freedom, democracy and women's rights in fundamentalism-blighted Afghanistan since 1977. </span>http://www.rawa.org/index.php
<span>"Nor does it seem likely to emulate the splintered, individualized, solitary society - and the commodified sexual revolution - that Western, self-based feminism reflects."</span>
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately it became the reflection of the empty view of the totally "independent" man. It also reflected a reation to the abuse women suffered, and the inherent selfishness found in the Western male stance.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_XgkeTanCGI
ReplyDeleteCheck out this rap of Naomi's Anand. I think you'll find out that she "rocks" a bit too hard for a guy like you. ;)
Plenty more here
http://www.project-syndicate.org/series/69/description
Barack Obama’s Missing Freedom Agenda by Naomi Wolf
http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/wolf8
Not a fan of Naomi Wolf -- she doesn't have half the brainpower or analytical skills of her fellow Naomi (Klein). And I'm uncomfortable with an avowed feminist talking about the "shortcomings of Western feminism." To which I say: Bite me, Naomi. That sounds eerily reminiscent of Barack Obama (whom Wolf adores, btw) saying we needed to correct the "excesses" of the 60s and 70s.
ReplyDeleteUnderstand me: I'm not saying it's wrong to note that women's issues are different in other countries than they are in the West, or that there can be different forms and expressions of it. And I also think that some women are dealing with situations where worrying about things like equal pay is a luxury.
But notice the veiled language, the criticism of Beauvoir because, after all, she didn't have children and wasn't married and therefore had no conception of what it was like to be connected to one's community. Again: Bite me, Naomi. Gangs of unmarried, childless women have changed societies the world over, and been fully engaged on all those levels--political, social, community, spiritual--that she cites. This is not the first time Wolf has subsumed her "feminist" cred into capitulating to religious/societal dictates; she lost me years ago with an article basically stating that it was OK for women to have abortions as long as they felt really, really guilty about it. Her fawning over Obama during the election was childish and revolting. Go away, Naomi, your relevance is long over.