International Women's Day. Much of the world and the Woman Worshipping West will celebrate this event with glowing reports of initiatives, programs and progress.Enlightened people everywhere are and should be appreciative of this.
"In countries where the birth of a boy is considered a gift and the birth of a
girl a curse from the gods, selective abortion and infanticide eliminate girl
babies.Young girls die from neglect, because food and meds are reserved
first for brothers, fathers, husbands and sons.In countries where women are considered the property of men, their fathers, brothers and husbands murder them for choosing their own sexual partners.
These are called "honor" killings, though honor has nothing to do with it.
Young brides are killed if their fathers do not pay sufficient money to the men who have married them; these are called "dowry deaths" although they are not deaths; they are murders.
The brutal international sex trade in young girls kills uncounted numbers of women.
Domestic violence is a major killer of women in every country on the globe.
Women between the ages of 15 and 44 are more likely to be killed or maimed by
their male relatives than as a result of cancer, malaria, traffic accidents or
war – or all of them put together.So little value is placed on women’s health that every year roughly 600,000 women die giving birth.
Six thousand small girls are victims of ungodly gender apartheid every day, according to the UN. Many die. Others live the rest of their lives in crippling pain.
According to the World Health Organization, one woman out of every five is
likely to be a victim of rape or attempted rape in lifetime.And this is genocide.
These killings are not silent--- all the victims scream. It is not so much that the world does not hear them; it is that we fellow human beings choose not to pay attention. "
Commissioned by and Xposted at Middle East Interests by MaXiM
What a deeply moving message Courtney. The figures are staggering. And presenting them in such a straight forward sparse manner, minus your usual creative use of language -- which I so admire -- in this case makes your statement all the more powerful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with absolutely everything in the article. Ironically, as much as I find to criticize in the militant self-centered, self-importance of our homegrown 'feminists' and of our (thankfully waning)'Women's Studies' programs in our Universites, I do sincerely believe that the fate of our world lies in the empowerment of these devalued, disenfranchised and Truly Victimized women of the world.
I also agree that it is no accident that societies who respect, honor, and give real opportunities to their women to have full and meaningful lives are also successful by other standards.
if only there were more women like yourself willing to speak out and stand up for their downtrodden sisters.
Good -- very good work, Courtney.
i admire you more and more.
rg
I was reading a news report where it said nearly 100 Muslim women go missing in the UK every year. Most sent to Pakistan to marry strangers, then return. Some others just killed.
ReplyDeleteA lot more has to be done to empower Muslim women in the West too.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/politics/article3508264.ece
ReplyDeleteForced marriage fear prompts a national count of missing girls
Actually, I teach politics of the developing world, and discuss these issues in class. You've done a very good job laying out the statistics and challenges, and I like your rhetorical flourishes:
ReplyDelete"The American experience proves as girls advance status wise, so do families, communities, career work places - and the entire nation.
Tolerance and egalitarianism are the handmaidens of success - on every scale - personal, national and international, wealth, education, self worth."
Great writing, sister. Ditto to Roger's comments about our own domestic feminists here. I never will understand the hypocrisy of turning their collective backs on the women in the Middle East, for example, who will be the biggest beneficiaries of our pushing democracy and freedom into the region. I guess only American women are to be blessed, in their minds.
ReplyDelete"Women who are treated with cruelty give birth to murderous intolerants and oppressors."
ReplyDeleteThis is so true. Excellent article.
The deafening silence from the American women's lib movement for women abroad it a real shame.
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth
Right in line with the other comments here, one of the biggest pieces of a stable state is Mom.
ReplyDeleteIt's no accident that the more stable and moderate Islamic states (think Turkey or Pakistan... Yes I know the latter is a stretch) are also led by regimes that don't kick women into abject servitude.
Nicely said, Courtney. One of the biggest problems in the Middle East is the lack of equality and basic rights for women. Bernard Lewis pushes this point home in his book "What Went Wrong." Believe me, if women had more power in those countries they'd be much better off. There needs to be some balance to all that testosterone!
ReplyDeleteForm Middle East Interests by Imate1972
ReplyDelete"Another point to include is that every major economic study on developing world nations show that unless women are educated and have basic human rights, that country’s chances of achieving parity with other counties decreases significantly.
Excellent post. Thank you."
http://inmate1972.wordpress.com/
From Middle East Interests by Anahiita
ReplyDelete"Excellent post!?
On the contrary, in the beginning, the post promises much but fails to deliver, as is always with Western feminists, you only hear general blah blah blah. As a Persian woman, I reject them for failing to show solidarity with their sisters in the South. Their cultural relativism is an excuse for their lack of sympathy with the oppressed women of 3rd world countries."
http://javaanaan.wordpress.com/
From Middle East Interests
ReplyDelete"By the way, the other version of the same post in her blog is even more shallow."
Annahiita
http://javaanaan.wordpress.com/
From Middle East Interests
ReplyDelete"As a western woman, I allow that I can have a skewed view regarding this, so I’m very interested in your opinion. Where in the post do you feel she loses her way? In your opinion, how would solidarity ideally be shown?"
Inmate1972
http://inmate1972.wordpress.com/
From Middle East Interests
ReplyDelete"Hi Inmate1972, Thanks for pointing that out about the economics - essentially proving that societies that cannot bear to empower their own mom’s, daughters’s and wives tend to kill their economies by 50%.
I tend to agree with your concern about going off track. I’d honestly like to learn."
GsGf
From Middle East Interests
ReplyDelete"Hi Anahiita, It’s true - as a greeneyed, semi blonde,untatted, extra-curricularly
unpierced, unmarried, childless young daughter of the Great Satan in the top 5% of the desirability foodchain (if only I was taller I could have made the top 2%) I conceed shallow is my middle name. I have never experienced anything other than the girl obsessed West.
When commissioned for creating this, my first hundred drafts were fire breathing, face shredding rage as all the horrific data washed over me and I honestly bawled my eyes out and had that really hot burning on the back of my neck all the way to my stomach. I was physically ill at times and felt small, helpless and hopeless. I tended to take it out in the drafts.
After several proofreadings I realised that guys held the key. Consider, here in the Great Satan - even the smallest of counties, provences etc had more guys in charge than all the women of the world in power combined.
So, I stripped it down to the facts - in what I had hoped was a subtle - yet unmistakable way to put the burden on men. They are overwhelmingly in charge of this planet have the machinations on and in hand to be, well MEN - gallent, chivalrous and protectors. To end and confront gender apartheid.
I honestly thought the facts were more powerful than any rage, specifics or plans.
I agree with your view of Western feminists - they are increasingly out of touch and are increasing their irrevelancy exponentially.
Having said all that, any ideas you would share about solidarity would be honestly appreciated.
I thought your blog was awesome."
GsGf
wow, this is incredible, courtney. thank you so much for posting this.
ReplyDeleteas to your partial statement pertaining to mother's day ("...where the concept of Mother's Day has never really caught on."
did you see where justice ruth wants to ban mother's day because it's demeaning to women???
A couple of points I'd like to raise.
ReplyDelete#1 Courtney, your blog just gets better and better!
#2 International Feminism is just a code word for socialism--if we care about the particular plight of women in oppressive cultures, we simply care about human rights, not women's rights. To make the distinction is to make a political declaration.
#3 the idea that "egalitarianism" is an ideal says it all. Egalitarianism is the mantra of the guillotine and gas chamber operators...good luck to the stoonts of Donald Douglas!
#4 GSGF you go girl!
p.s. you didn't underline it Courtney, but obviously the huge overwhelming majority of these 'missing' girls is from selective abortion and infanticide--an alleged "right" hailed as the key to all the others by so-called "international feminists" so far as I can tell...
ReplyDeleteCourtney, 'shallow' is just about the very last adjective I would use in your description!
ReplyDelete"Courtney, 'shallow' is just about the very last adjective I would use in your description!" -- perfectly said Karen.
ReplyDeleteLet people argue with those stark statistics, and at the abject and undeniable failure of those male-dominated, female-excluded societies. 'The proof is in the pudding'.
RoGeRbAbE! Well, like I said - the first few drafts were not getting it done.
ReplyDeleteThere is a lot of work to be done - no doubt - which is why the spread of democracy is so essential in the new millenium. Only in free societies can everyone be granted choices and opportunities.
These stats are another reason NOT to tolerate intolerance.
To be admired by you is very heady indeed.
I'm honoured.
Beaman! Hey there - this is awesome - the best writers of the English language alive here almost at once! Thanks for the links. My research was overwhelming - you are correct about the West. It's too easy to look the ohter way. That is wrong.
ReplyDeleteHi Donald - I learned the fact laying out bit from you. Another example of American Power's August influemce?
ReplyDeleteAppreciate the acknowledgement.
Hi Karen - you are so right. Growing up in the Great Satan and all the attention on girls and girl power is overwhelming when the fact that many parts of the world are weak, sick and down right scary - I would use the term - evil.
ReplyDeleteThis will be the challenge of the next generation of future femmes to put paid to once and for all.
Hi Debbie, yeah I can't get over it either. It just seems so self defeating. The whole idea of IWD needs to be rebranded.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was first commissioned to create the essay "Internat'l Gendercide Day" I took a smooth move from the one and only Ayaan Hirsi Ali. I asked some GF's in Little Satan if it would be cool to use term 'holocaust'.
After I shared the stats they agreed the word was highly appropiate - though they did have a case to make that thanks to Abu Mazen and his Palestinian 'Holocaust of the Week' speak - it may not have the desired effect anymore. It had been rebranded.
IWD is slowly being rebranded - and the traditional femmists are missing the boat. As Phyllis Schlafly points out, the femm movement is exponentially increasing their irrevelancy and decreasing their influence.
And all for what? For ignoring their own 'sisters' in scary places in the world where Mother's Day and St. Valentines Day are either unheard of or forbidden? Essentially, they are worrying about the wrong thing.
Like the old school realpolitikers and isolationists of a century ago, the Femm movement will change into a human rights plus group that will no longer tolerate pitiful, gender apartheiding, intolerance, suffering and misery on a Hitlerian scale.
Since guys make up the vast majority of elected leaders, Admin cats and shakers with their hands on the foreign aid strings, it may very well be up to guys (there's irony for you) to be, well, MEN, and stand up to intolerance and be chivalrous, gallant and true protectors of the weak, the voiceless and the tormented.
Ideally by creating, enforcing and maintaining near future policies of constant confrontation and selective intervention.
Hi Subadei - you are correct sir - Mom is the key. Horrifically retarded ideas that outlaw St Valentine's Day or places where Mother's Day is an alien concept.
ReplyDeleteMom should be the the very 1st concept of love - and authority that we learn.
Hi Jeff, I broke out my copy of "What Went Wrong" - every time I read it - I learn something new.
ReplyDeleteIn the West Ttone seems balanced by an innate bit of gallantry in guys.
Thanks for reinforcing that fact.
Hey there Heidianne - I think I heard something about it a while back - but I honestly never made the connection til recently. Mom is essential - the very concept of momhood should be respected and honoured.
ReplyDeleteDumb Ox! Hey there! Thank you for noticing - just teasing. It must be a passion or something but I am convinced that the 'West is best ' not only in movies and hotdogs but in everything.
ReplyDeleteTolerance and egalitarianism are the keys to success in this life at all levels - personal and national.
Those 'missing stats' were chilling to contemplate.
Current Femmes have a tough row to hoe about seperating their ideology from horrific torment and outright murder.
Reckon they are trapped in their own snare about 'repro rights'?
Hi Karen - thank you. All seriousness aside, I think it kinda fits - I tend to be self absorbed to a nigh unsustainable degree. Now, why don't you argue with my semi retarded adjective? Just teasing!
ReplyDeleteThank you for saying that - I needed the hug!
RoGeRbAbE! - hey you know it - ily
ReplyDeleteYou are the bestest indeed. Facts are powerful weapons in debates. And I was fully stocked!