Wars on Women
Now that Hilary Rosen has apologized to Ann Romney for her absurd remarks about stay at home mothers, let us turn our attention to where an actual 'war on women' is occurring.
The Democratic Republic of Congo, forged from centuries of strife and influence of colonial powers that came and went, is the worst place in the world to be a woman. Rosen's remarks and the firestorm of comments that followed demonstrate the great fortune we have in the United States. We have freedom from fear. Here we can debate about whether to choose a career, or motherhood, or attempt to balance both. In Congo, the choices are about how to survive, escape routes and living with shame after rape. According to a study released by the American Journal of Public Health in May 2011, there are an estimated 1,152 women and girls between the ages of 15 and 49 brutally raped every day in Congo. That translates to roughly 1,373,184 rapes since the day of President Barack Obama's inauguration.
The selfishness in Rosen's comment about Ann Romney's decision to stay home and raise a family sparked outrage for partisans. For me, it was yet another reminder where liberal feminists assume they drive the agenda for every woman. They defend President Obama and his record with women, health care and foreign policy. Rosen does not speak for me. I have not devoted my life as a mother, or my career dedicated to women that survive gang rapes, fistula, oppression, female genital mutilation, forced child marriage, autocannibalism and other traumas to be told what constitutes being a 'real' woman. Nor do I appreciate the voices saying this is a manufactured outrage.
The entire episode illuminates just how isolated the political class has become. Women and girls should take heed and not allow themselves to be traded on the media market as political chattle. Vote with your pocket book, stay informed and speak for yourself.
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Comments:
Dec '10
Re: Wars on Women
Here is another example of the countless ways various societies and cultures wage real wars on women:
Dec '11
Re: Wars on Women
The Democratic Republic of Congo, forged from centuries of strife and influence of colonial powers that came and went, is the worst place in the world to be a woman.
According to my most respected source, it would be fair to add Somalia, the Sudan and Afghanistan and frankly, most countries controlled by the Muslim Brotherhood to the list:
AEI - Scholars - Ayaan Hirsi Ali
Jan '11
Re: Wars on Women
Very powerful post. I think one of the greatest essential distinctions between liberals and conservatives is gratitude. Conservatives are grateful for our blessings, especially in this country, because so many existing right now and so many having existed in the past have lived much worse than we do. The conservative appreciates and maintains the institutions that make us so fortunate. Liberals blame these institutions for why everyone else isn't as fortunate. When someone attacks an essential institution like the sacrifice of motherhood, it is not a manufactured outrage that rages back.
Re: Wars on Women
To EThompson, having interviewed Ayaan myself and broken bread with, shed tears with many a survivor from not only Congo but across Northern and sub-Saharan Africa, I would agree there are many horrible places to choose from. The rape stats from Congo, however, are the worst in all of recorded human history.
Dec '10
Re: Wars on Women
It's horrifying that even soldiers sent by the UN to DR Congo as peacekeepers have engaged in trafficking the local girls for sex, trading food and protection for sexual favors.
Nov '10
Re: Wars on Women
Another frankly incredible statistic from the African continent is that the majority--even the vast majority--of Egyptian women have parts of their genitals excised as girls. Sadly, it is often women who perform the excisions.
http://www.nocirc.org/symposia/first/badawi.html
Mubarak and his wife, for all their flaws, condemned this wicked practice. Alas, the ascendant Islamic leadership of the country seems unlikely to oppose it on principled moral grounds. Relevant authorities, like Dr. Manal Abul Hassan, broadmindedly deem it to be neither haram nor halal.
http://www.tnr.com/article/world/96555/egypt-genital-mutilation-fgm-muslim-brotherhood
Meanwhile, hardly a peep from the feminist arm of the Western media about any of this. Indignation bloweth where it listeth.
Ironically, Congo has a relatively low rate of "FGM".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prevalence_of_female_genital_mutilation_by_country
Edited on April 14, 2012 at 1:19amDec '11
Re: Wars on Women
Another frankly incredible statistic from the African continent is that the majority--even the vast majority--of Egyptian women have parts of their genitals excised as girls. Sadly, it is often women who perform the excisions.
AHA speaks extensively on this subject in her books; The Caged Virgin, Infidel, and Nomad. She, herself, was a victim of this brutality.
Re: Wars on Women
As a woman living in America, I have the right to vote, access to good education, access to reasonably priced medical care, the option to participate in the workplace and/or to have a family, and male countrymen who by and large respect the dignity of women. There's always the temptation to want more even when one has it all, but your post really provides a much needed perspective. There are real wars on women going on all over the world, and we do those women a disservice by equating our petty squabbles with their life and death circumstances.
Aug '10
Re: Wars on Women
That no one does anything for Africa , well ..other than W and the Gates, identifies the world and especially the UN as impotent.A giant stadium of rhetoric , a muddy pitch for the realpolitik games of exploitation , and a killing field of infinite ignorance represent a monument to "homo homini lupus est ".
Ayaan Hirsi is my hero, and I am of the right.
Edited on April 14, 2012 at 4:22amJun '10
Re: Wars on Women
The arrogance of Hillary Rosen and her ilk is just another way the liberal mindset works. A self-appointed elite presumes to tell women what they should think and what they should do. But my experience with women (I have a wife and two grown daughters) is that they want to define themselves. One of my daughters is the Mom of three active sons (the last of which spent 100 days in the hospital after a premature birth). She was a schoolteacher but she and her husband have decided to give up the second income so that she can be home with her boys. My other daughter works because her husband is finishing school, but they took a leap in the dark and have two children. Has it complicated their lives? Yes, but they are completely at peace with their choices.
They don't need Hillary Rosen or anyone else to suggest that their choices fail to meet the liberal standard.
Ann Romney is far more their role model than Rosen or anyone at NOW.
Sep '10
Re: Wars on Women
Postwar feminism has left its early ideals behind. Today American feminists are much more concerned with their retirement accounts, a big vacation every year, a weekend home; they're fixated on myriad gripes about growing up and not having to personally care for their elderly parents; and, as Democrats, they reflexively react to every perceived cultural insult. ... I just wish I could get over my disappointment. ... My fading youthful hopes are summed up in the following sections of the late poet Adrienne's Rich's "Fantasia for Elvira Shatayev," about a Russian women's mountain climbing expedition in which everyone died:
If in this sleep I speak
it’s with a voice no longer personal
(I want to say with voices)
............................................
For months for years each one of us
had felt her own yes growing in her
slowly forming as she stood at windows waited
for trains mended her rucksack combed her hair
...................................................
When you have buried us told your story
ours does not end we stream
into the unfinished the unbegun
the possible
..................
We will not live
Edited on April 14, 2012 at 5:13pmto settle for less We have dreamed of this
all of our lives
Apr '11
Re: Wars on Women
What distinguishes your situation from that of your Congolese fellow women is less that you have those rights than the non-legal context. They have those rights, too! (possibly not the anti-discrimination rights.) You would have the benefits of those rights even if the rights did not exist and, conversely, you have rights that are in no way enforced; have you ever been unemployed, in breach of your right to a job? There are a ton of women who have been, despite the UDHR being entirely clear on the subject. Likewise, there is a widespread breach of the right to unpaid holidays. As Marx would say, the rights are epiphenomenal, rather than the basis of a good life.
Oct '10
Re: Wars on Women
I may despise professional feminists (paid or unpaid!), whose oblivious domestic bullying is a betrayal of their own putative cause, but they don't speak for all liberals any more than they speak for all women. I despise Nicholas Kristof's politics too, but he has been speaking out about such otherwise unspeakable abuses with gut wrenching, heartrending, frankness for years. Who has singlehandedly brought more attention to the plight of women in Sudan than George Clooney?
I've begun to wonder if there is anything left we don't view through a partisan lens. Is there no well that political cynicism can't poison?
Dec '10
Re: Wars on Women
James Of England
What distinguishes your situation from that of your Congolese fellow women is less that you have those rights than the non-legal context. They have those rights, too! (possibly not the anti-discrimination rights.) You would have the benefits of those rights even if the rights did not exist and, conversely, you have rights that are in no way enforced; have you ever been unemployed, in breach of your right to a job? There are a ton of women who have been, despite the UDHR being entirely clear on the subject. Likewise, there is a widespread breach of the right to unpaid holidays. As Marx would say, the rights are epiphenomenal, rather than the basis of a good life. · 13 hours ago
Point of clarification: Diane only referred to one right (to vote) - the rest of her list are characteristics of American society, not rights she claims.
Apr '11
Re: Wars on Women
Stuart Creque
James Of England
What distinguishes your situation from that of your Congolese fellow women is less that you have those rights than the non-legal context. They have those rights, too! (possibly not the anti-discrimination rights.) You would have the benefits of those rights even if the rights did not exist and, conversely, you have rights that are in no way enforced; have you ever been unemployed, in breach of your right to a job? There are a ton of women who have been, despite the UDHR being entirely clear on the subject. Likewise, there is a widespread breach of the right to unpaid holidays. As Marx would say, the rights are epiphenomenal, rather than the basis of a good life. · 13 hours ago
Point of clarification: Diane only referred to one right (to vote) - the rest of her list are characteristics of American society, not rights she claims. · 20 hours ago
Fair enough. I parsed it as "(the right to (vote, access to good education, etc.))" rather than "((the right to vote),(access to good education), etc.)". Your more charitable reading is more reasonable.
Apr '12
Re: Wars on Women
I lived next to the Congo in the sixties and seventies and my husband had to be part of the rescue of the surviving Americans in the 60s slaughter.Are Zairian women treated badly because of colonial power? If you watch Katherine Hepburn in African Queen, not much has changed. The Congo is immense, mostly jungle and empty of people. The roads and towns are from colonial times now fifty years ago.It is difficult to understand how different the culture is where there is little bonding of the sexes and no expectation of the male to look after his children. It is also very hard to believe how common place it is for a woman to be raped casually. Sex appeared to be casual too as it is warm and the clothing is minimal and marriage is a white man's tradition. Women breast feed every where. You can be topless there and get no attention. The erotic zone is the crotch which is why women never wear pants. American women appear to be naked. The TV series Rome shows some of this male gang life style and casual, quick rape along country roads.
Apr '12
Re: Wars on Women
For an authentic view of life in the Congo today, watch River Monstorshttp://animal.discovery.com/fish/river-monsters/kamba-catfish/
Apr '12
Re: Wars on Women
Apologies for so many posts. So much can be said about your many good points. The war on women makes me ashamed to be female. Why can females not understand the issue is about government ordering around business? Fluke saying that her pills need to be part of an organization's benefits package and having the government force yet another thing on businesses is the issue.As a business owner myself (former), we paid our employees more than ourselves most years. The nightmare of a government adding yet another item to the cost of employees is appalling.It is not that women are having their birth control forbidden. Santorum muddied the water though and I am confused about whether he said birth control should be forbidden.