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Thunderous Silence of Women’s Rights Leaders about Afghan Women’s Rights
Those who have freedom must speak on behalf of those who do not. This past week saw protests in London (picture) and Washington DC (“Biden Betrayed Us” NYT one-minute video) as the administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has left women without protection from the Taliban. In the past, phrases such as “See, Hear, Say” and “Silence is Violence” have rightly condemned brutality against women, no matter the context. The world must hear from female leaders in the US government (Vice President Kamala Harris comes to mind, while a U.N. spokesperson has responded) who have championed women’s rights in the past but whose voices have yet to be heard over the past week.
Truth be told, it has been the American military that, for 20 years, has been the safeguard for women in Afghanistan. [See my “American Soldier” and “Afghanistan” from this past week.] The manner in which US forces have been withdrawn has left vulnerable the women and children of Afghanistan. Neither policy groups, nor conferences, nor stern warnings will stop men from making Afghani women into sexual slaves. Afghan nationals living in free countries such as England and America have spoken. But it would be good to hear from outspoken women’s rights leaders who have spoken in the past. Right now, the silence is thunderous. [Picture credit: Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash.]
Addendum, from my Facebook post this weekend:
MOTHERHOOD “We could do without princes, soldiers, and tradesmen but we cannot do without WOMEN in our childhood. We offer great rewards to a man who can tame and train animals and praise to the skies the author of some modest work, yet we neglect WOMEN who have spent years nourishing and educating children.” Judith Shulevitz then adds these words after her quote above from 17th C. priest, François Poulain, “He acknowledges women’s emotional labor as labor. Running households, raising children … the enterprise requires the managerial skills of a general.”
-Finding pieces of truth everywhere. Taken from “The Atlantic” September 2021, p 99 (print edition, Photo by Jhon David, Unsplash)
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Progs claiming that American conservatives are more of a threat than the Taliban.
Reflecting on a course on Solzhenitsyn that he took at the Naval Academy, the late Neptunus Lex wrote:
The innate character flaw of the political right, with its thrumming appeals to the logic of blood and soil, is its lamentable tendency to go in search of enemies abroad. The left, on the other hand, with its own appeals to the politics of envy and class warfare, is content to find mortal enemies closer to hand. Solzhenitsyn introduced us to the inner workings of the latter process.
Indeed. Thank you! One of our Truth in Two videos: “Communism”
It’s somewhat reassuring to see these demonstrations around the world. It means that the public’s opinion is that the Taliban is an evil actor in world events. There has never been that clarity with Hezbollah and Hamas and the PLO.
I suppose though that at this very minute, some reporter somewhere is recasting these events from the eyes of the poor down-trodden Taliban. They will soon be seen as a victim of the Afghan warlords.
But for the moment, the truth is known.
Mark, I agree with your main point about the hypocrisy of the far-Left radical-feminist types, who condemn Western countries as hotbeds of patriarchy and rape culture, while remaining silent about the nature of Islam.
I do have a serious disagreement with one thing that you wrote.
I think that this is quite incorrect. I’ve never been in the military, much less been a general, but I’ve studied war in some detail, and I have enough experience to know that management of people is very difficult, and the difficulty multiplies with the number of people involved, and the difficulty of the task.
The idea that a typical mother has the managerial skills of an Eisenhower or a Patton is badly erroneous, in my view.
If this idea is widespread, it might explain the reaction that many people have to military difficulties, including the mess currently existing in Afghanistan. Perhaps many people believe that, for example, evacuating several thousand civilians, spread out in a country the size of Texas and full of roving bands of criminals and terrorists, is no more challenging than changing a diaper or preparing a grilled cheese sandwich.
Motherhood does not require the managerial skills of a general, in my view. What it does require, I think, is the patience of a saint. This is an admirable virtue, and good mothers deserve praise and respect. But it is a different virtue than leadership and managerial competence.
Feminist leaders almost never protest attacks on women in other countries; they’d be attacking groups that they support. So who cares about female genital mutilation, stoning women, and burning down schools for girls? Not their problem . . .
Marxists use division and envy as a strategy to gain power. Don’t ever take them literally.
Western Feminism was always Transgenderism at its core desiring all the privileges and cultural considerations of femininity with power and control of masculinity in a self-absorbed narcissistic sterile existence. In the process it destroyed both.
It is my expectation that Jill Biden – excuse me, Dr. Jill Biden, is going to start a hashtag campaign, something like : #SaveAfghangirlsforJoe
I’ll say the obvious again. The only explanation is the Chinese told Biden what he had to do to keep them silent about his fraud with them. Not even Biden is as stupid as he’s behaving. He’s just avoiding jail for himself and his son.
Progs are like spoiled teens. They hurl accusations at their parents but have no intention of confronting actual villains. Attacks on the patriarchy are about creating a career path based on complaint. Abused women in burkhas in Islamawhateverstan have nothing to do with promotion and tenure criteria in Los Angeles or Washington DC.
Not exactly. It’s withdrawal itself, not the manner of withdrawal, that will lead to Afghanistan becoming a horror show for women. Whether the withdrawal had been well orchestrated or the dog’s breakfast that the Biden administration has given us, in the end the Taliban would still be in charge and life will be hell for women and anyone who doesn’t want a barbaric totalitarian government.