Thursday, August 20, 2009
The Women's Crusade
In India, a "bride burning" takes place approximately every two hours to punish a woman for an inadequate dowry or to eliminate her so a man can remarry--but these rarely constitute news. When a prominent dissident was arrested in China, we would write a front-page article; when 100,000 girls were kidnapped and trafficked into brothels, we didn't even consider it news.
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Today, Saima is a bit plump and displays a gold nose ring as well as several other rings and bracelets on each wrist. She exudes self-confidence as she offers a grand tour of her home and work area, ostentatiously showing off the television and the new plumbing. She doesn’t even pretend to be subordinate to her husband. He spends his days mostly loafing around, occasionally helping with the work but always having to accept orders from his wife. He has become more impressed with females in general: Saima had a third child, also a girl, but now that’s not a problem. “Girls are just as good as boys,” he explained.
ReplyDeleteGood for her! I can't help it, though, it makes me sick to think of Saima stuck with such a slug of a husband.
<span>Today, Saima is a bit plump and displays a gold nose ring as well as several other rings and bracelets on each wrist. She exudes self-confidence as she offers a grand tour of her home and work area, ostentatiously showing off the television and the new plumbing. She doesn’t even pretend to be subordinate to her husband. He spends his days mostly loafing around, occasionally helping with the work but always having to accept orders from his wife. He has become more impressed with females in general: Saima had a third child, also a girl, but now that’s not a problem. “Girls are just as good as boys,” he explained.
ReplyDeleteGood for her! I can't help it, though, it makes me sick to think of Saima stuck with such a slug of a husband...not to mention having to support that mother-in-law. Saima's worth as a human being is nothing more than a meal ticket for those two. Perhaps Saima's daughters will have a different life.
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Bill Gates recalls once being invited to speak in Saudi Arabia and finding himself facing a segregated audience. Four-fifths of the listeners were men, on the left. The remaining one-fifth were women, all covered in black cloaks and veils, on the right. A partition separated the two groups. Toward the end, in the question-and-answer session, a member of the audience noted that Saudi Arabia aimed to be one of the Top 10 countries in the world in technology by 2010 and asked if that was realistic. “Well, if you’re not fully utilizing half the talent in the country,” Gates said, “you’re not going to get too close to the Top 10.” The small group on the right erupted in wild cheering.
ReplyDeleteWhere is the West?
ReplyDeleteOh, I forgot, this is a Kristoff article
ReplyDeleteWhat is his centerpiece. what is he pushing in other parts of the world?
ReplyDelete"There’s a growing recognition among everyone from the World Bank to the U.S. military’s Joint Chiefs of Staff to aid organizations like CARE that focusing on women and girls is the most effective way to fight global poverty and extremism."
Oh yeah? LOL
I expect Anand along soon to tell us that the brides volunteer for burning for the family's welfare, and that only a TAKFIRI would disaprove.
ReplyDeletePerhaps he will ask us why we are jealous of India. However, the subject is a bit bigger than his narrow interests - unfortunately the "remedy" (mentioned above) will end up with more dead women and children in the name of liberation, but the subject needs to be approached in earnest by the people all over the world.
ReplyDelete"Women's CRUSADE" is a very interesting choice of words for the headline. I appreciate their candor, even if it was unintentional...I can't help wondering what the reaction would be if Iran's main propaganda organ had a major piece saying it is time to launch a jihad in the United States to protect American women from sexism-and they advocated making it a multi-faceted effort-using suicide bombers, oil embargoes, etc.(These are meant to parellel our use of military and economic weapons)...Finally, The Joint Cheifs of Staff and the WOrld Bank are two odd choices to lead the charge against sexism in former colonies-considering that rape and sexual harrassment is out of control in the military, and if you are a woman, you may have to have sex with Paul Wolfowits to get a job-as the recent scandal would indicate.
ReplyDeleteThat was me...Haloscan forgot me again. Don't worry tgia, I don't think those glitches are intentional like fleming does.
ReplyDelete<span>"Women's CRUSADE" is a very interesting choice of words for the headline. I appreciate their candor, even if it was unintentional...</span>
ReplyDeleteRidiculous
Maybe it's ridiculous to you, but you must remember that a crusade is experienced very differently by the crusader and the crusadee. At the very least a headline like that reveals extreme insensitivity to the point of view of the people whose cause it is suppossed to be championing-and to me indicates the futility of Western "experts" trying to "improve" Muslim society. If these "experts" can't get a basic thing like that right, then how will they be able to navigate the nuances of a culture they know so little about...But if you think an approach of bombs and economic control is the proper way to deal with complicated social issues, why not try it here first. Let's find an American city that is particularly sexist and bomb theshit out of it. Then we can invite Wal Mart in to start a store on the rubble-and equality between the sexes will be achieved when both men and women are earning an equal wage-$7 an hour.
ReplyDeleteYep, that wa sme again.
ReplyDeleteI am sorry, but your comment is PC run amok! I doubt very much if the brides who are set on fire, the girls and women who are abducted and set to work in brothels, and the women who are murdered to cleanse the stain from a family's honor will pause to ponder the use of the word crusade. The article is written for an American audience in the hope, perhaps, to raise awareness and influence current and future discussions of aid projects to developing countries. The word crusade has been used in a secular way for a long, long time and describes a concerted effort on behalf of a worthy cause. United Way's Crusade of Mercy, Avon's Breast Cancer Crusade are just a couple of ways the word has been used. If some read that word in this context or in the context used in the Times' story and become offended, they are simply idiots.
ReplyDeleteThe article's title is not the official name of an aid program to Pakistan or Bangladesh, and the article is not just about Muslim women! I believe 99.9% of Muslims who would read this article and its title would NOT be offended by the use of the word, crusade. They would have too much good sense. The 1% who would be offended are fanatic nuts.
Well I am sorry, but suggesting the use of "the Joint Chiefs of Staff" and The World Bank to address these important issues is arrogant, condescending, neo-colonialism run amok. I seem to remember a great deal of controversy over Bush's comment calling the Iraq invasion a "crudade"...and there probably would have been a lot more if debate and dissent wasn't especially stifled in the period folling 9/11.
ReplyDeleteI want you to understand that I am not belittling women's issues. But any effort to bundle them together with an economic or military assault on Mideast or Asian resources and/or markets will not only fail, but set efforts back decades.
Haloscan forgot me again!!!
ReplyDeleteBush's comment was a big mistake, considering the negative connotations the word has with some Muslims. But that is an entirely different context than how the word is used as a title for this article.
ReplyDelete<span>I want you to understand that I am not belittling women's issues.</span>
I did not think you were belittling the issues.
<span>Bush's comment was a big mistake</span>
ReplyDeleteIn terms of public relations, it was a mistake, but really, those were the most truthful words that passed through that man's lips in eight years.
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_zvCLjsWq_UU/SN2Jzix9b7I/AAAAAAAAAVY/KOcEVTbRRXs/s400/walmart+apocalypse.jpg
ReplyDeleteJemmy, distrought wives wanting to commit suicide when their husband dies is a tale as old and the written word in every culture and every part of the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever the family and friends of such a distrought wife should persuade her not to commit suicide for the sake of her family, friends and tribe. Unfortunately, in recent centuries, this hasn't always happened in India. In recent centuries this wife suicide phenomenon got out of hand in India. There have been cases where poor families burn the wife so that they can save money by not feeding her.
This is an embarrasing problem. I know it makes some racists gloat. It is worth remembering that India has 1.2 billion people and that these cases are exceedingly rare. This however is no excuse.
V, why are you so jealous of India? Are you jealous of China too? Jealousy is one of the 6 enemies. If you don't control it, it can destroy you.
Jemmy, when you hear about a clash between the Taliban and the ANA (Afghan National Army) who do you root for?
<span>Jemmy, distrought wives wanting to commit suicide when their husband dies is a tale as old as the written word in every culture and every part of the world.
ReplyDeleteHowever the family and friends of such a distrought wife should persuade her not to commit suicide for the sake of her family, friends and tribe. Unfortunately, in recent centuries, this hasn't always happened in India. In recent centuries this wife suicide phenomenon got out of hand in India. There have been cases where poor families burn the wife so that they can save money by not feeding her, or because they don't like her.
This is an embarrasing problem. I know it makes some racists gloat. It is worth remembering that India has 1.2 billion people and that these cases are exceedingly rare. This however is no excuse.
V, why are you so jealous of India? Are you jealous of China too? Jealousy is one of the 6 enemies. If you don't control it, it can destroy you.
Jemmy, when you hear about a clash between the Taliban and the ANA (Afghan National Army) who do you root for?</span>
<span>v "Perhaps he will ask us why we are jealous of India."</span>
ReplyDelete<span>Lal B. "V, why are you so jealous of India?"</span>
<span>I love it!</span>
<span>Why do I have to choose sides between the Karzai militia and other Pushtun militias? Between a bunch of looty-wallahs and a gang of murderous bigots? What gives you the impression that I believe that political problems have military solutions?</span>
<span>I don't care for the euphemism "wife suicide". It's wife murder, uxoricide, and you know it.</span>
<span>And don't dismiss righteous indignation as racist gloating. You convince no-one, probably not even your deluded self.</span>
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ReplyDeleteHere's something for you to gloat over, Lal B. It's an
excerpt from a comment posted on the Telegraph website, 5 Aug. 09
'North Indian students, including students from Bihar, preparing for the railway entrance exam were attacked by Raj Thackeray’s MNS supporters in Mumbai on 20 October 2008. One student from Bihar was killed during the attacks
In 2000 and 2003, anti-Bihari violence led to the deaths of up to 200 people, and created 10,000 internal refugees.
In early 2008, bombs exploded in Ludhiana which killed six people and injured a further 30 in a blast in one of the three cinema halls in a multiplex. The halls were frequented by migrant workers from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh and one credible theory being considered was that the blasts were an attempt to scare away migrant workers
The migrant population in Punjab, according to state researchers, is nearing three million out of a total population of over nearly 30 million. One third of the migrants, nearly one million, live in and around Ludhiana. After the attacks on Uttar Pradeshi’s and Biharis in October 2008, a Punjabi group called the Dal Khalsa, carried banners and placards that read "Punjab for Punjabis" and "Return migrants, Save Punjab". This fear is further personified by the rise of Bhojpuri cinema in non-Bhojpuri speaking states. Punjabi comedian Jaspal Bhatti said that instead of assimilating with the culture of the state, the migrant population was seeking to decimate Punjabi culture and cinema"
Before Indians lecture anyone….India needs to ... look in to its inner dark soul. I didnt even include Kashmiri Hindus, Gujarati Muslims, Indian Muslims in general, Christians in Orissa, women all over India, and of course, Dalits.'
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No country in the world is perfect Jemmy, not even the Brits. However, you seem to delight in putting down darkies you disagree with a bit too much.
ReplyDeleteIndia has many very serious challenges. However, it is amazingly free, open and plural. The number of different cultures, faiths, ethnicities and languages living and collaborating side by side is breath taking.
Now now anand, no one is taking delight in these issues
ReplyDeleteNow you have taken your slanders too far in calling me a racist, you scabrous whoremonger. I will no longer treat you as a simpleton who is beguiled by wealth and power, now I see you as a corrupt and mendacious purveyor of calumnies, a snivelling camp follower of war criminals and kleptocrats.
ReplyDeleteI have been active in anti-racist organisations for years. I was a founder member of an organisation which helped Asian and African immigrant workers obtain their rights in the workplace, I stand on my record as committed opponent of racism and of bigots like you. You are the filth beneath my feet.