American Feminsts Finally take a Position on the Plight of Islamic Women (Hint: The American Feminists, are the Victims, of Course!) UPDATE: I didn’t Mean to Offend Spencer, Horowitz or their Readers

We, at FHK, have been asking for months (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here, just for starters) where the American feminists are when women all over the world are actually NEEDING their relentless activism, because of oppression, abuse, and neglect in Muslim society (including, Muslim communities in Canada, and most recently, Texas).

Well, we finally got a response, and, not surprisingly, American feminists have once again managed to portray THEMSELVES as the VICTIMS – this time of the media. Yep – you read that right. Liberated American women are cashing in on the plight of the oppressed in other cultures – unashamedly.

Katha Pollitt, of The Nation:

With advice and counsel from the History in Action e-mail list, I wrote up the Open Letter below to protest the way the media slanders the women’s movement as indifferent to the human rights of women in the developing and/or Muslim world.

All together, now: Awwwww….(sniff, sniff!)

From David Horowitz and Robert Spencer, who are taking full credit for this [insert "male cheuvenist" joke here]:

This week, seven hundred feminists signed an Open Letter complaining that “columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world.”

We recognize this Open Letter as a delayed response to the Freedom Center’s Islamo-Fascism Awareness Week, which protested the silence of feminists over the “Oppression of Women in Islam” on campuses all over the country last fall, organized sit-ins at a dozen Women’s Studies Departments to protest the absence of courses and department-sponsored events confronting the issue, and made this a matter of national discussion and debate.

From The Nation, here is a copy of the “Open Letter”:

An Open Letter from American Feminists

Columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to the Washington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world. A number of reasons are given for this supposed neglect: narcissism, ideological rigidity, reflexive anti-Americanism, fear of seeming insensitive or even racist. Yet what is the evidence for this apparently now broadly accepted claim that feminists don’t support the struggles of women around the globe? It usually comes down to a quick scan of the home page of the National Organization for Women’s website, observing that a particular writer hasn’t covered a particular outrage, plus a handful of quotes wrenched out of context.

In fact, as a bit of research would easily show, there are dozens, if not hundreds, of US feminist organizations involved in promoting women’s rights and well-being around the globe–V-Day, Equality Now, MADRE, the Global Fund for Women, the International Women’s Health Coalition and Feminist Majority, to name some of the most prominent. (The National Organization for Women itself has a section on its website devoted to global feminism, on which it denounces a wide array of practices including female genital mutilation (FGM), “honor” murder, trafficking, dowry deaths and domestic violence). Feminists at Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch and the United Nations have moved those organizations to add the rights of women and girls to their agenda. Feminist magazines and blogs–Ms. magazine, Feministing.com, Salon.com’s Broadsheet column, womensenews.com (which has an edition in Arabic)–as well as feminist reporters and commentators in the mainstream media, regularly report on and condemn outrages against women wherever they occur, from rape, battery and murder in the US to the denial of women’s human rights in the developing or Muslim world.

As feminists, we call on journalists and opinion writers to report the true position of our movement. We believe that women’s rights are human rights, and stand in solidarity with our sisters who are fighting for equal political, economic, social and reproductive rights around the globe. Specifically, contrary to the accusations of pundits, we support their struggle against female genital mutilation, “honor” murder, forced marriage, child marriage, compulsory Islamic dress codes, the criminalization of sex outside marriage, brutal punishments like lashing and stoning, family laws that favor men and that place adult women under the legal power of fathers, brothers, and husbands, and laws that discount legal testimony made by women. We strongly oppose the denial of education, health care and equal political and economic rights to women.

We reject the use of women’s rights language to justify invading foreign countries. Instead, we call on the United States government to live up to its expressed commitment to women’s rights through peaceful means. Specifically, we call upon it to:

–offer asylum to women and girls fleeing gender-based persecution, including female genital mutilation, domestic violence, and forced marriage;

–promote women’s rights and well-being in all their foreign policy and foreign aid decisions;

–use its diplomatic powers to pressure its allies–especially Saudi Arabia, one of the most oppressive countries in the world for women–to embrace women’s rights;

–drop the Mexico City policy–aka the “gag rule”–which bars funds for AIDS- related and contraception-related health services abroad if they provide abortions, abortion information, or advocate for legalizing abortion;

–generously support the UN Population Fund (UNFPA), which supports women’s reproductive health including safe maternity around the globe, and whose funding is vetoed every year by President Bush;

–become a signatory to The Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW), the basic UN women’s human rights document, now signed by 185 nations. The US is one of a handful of holdouts, along with Iran, Sudan, and Somalia.

Finally, we call upon the United States, and all the industrialized nations of the West, to share their unprecedented wealth, often gained at the expense of the developing world, with those who need it in such a way that women benefit.

Signed,

Katha Pollitt, writer
Marge Piercy, writer
Susan Faludi, writer
Alix Kates Shulman, writer
Julianne Malveaux, president, Bennett College for Women
Anne Lamott, writer
Mary Gordon, writer
Linda Gordon, historian, NYU
Jennifer Baumgardner, writer
Ruth Rosen, historian
Jane Smiley, writer
Anna Fels,MD, psychiatrist and writer
Debra Dickerson, writer
Margo Jefferson, writer
Jessica Valenti, writer
Dana Goldstein, The American Prospect
Karen Houppert, writer
Gloria Jacobs, The Feminist Press
Carole Joffe, professor of sociology, UC Davis
Janet Afary, Middle East historian, Purdue University

And more than 700 more women and men.

Please add your name to this powerful list, and thanks.

---

UPDATE: In response to the above, I have received an e-mail from a reader of both FHK and FrontPage Magazine, who wrote (I’m assuming the writer prefers to keep his/her identity private, or this would have been posted in the comments section of this post):

IslamoFascism awareness week was a cross-country speaking tour on college campuses that received a severe reaction, and included more than David Horowitz.

• Brown University
  
  
  
  • Robert Spencer – 25th, 7pm, Salomon Hall 101
  
  
• Cal Poly San Luis Obispo
  
  
  
  • Greg Davis – 24th, 7:30pm, Phillips Hall
  
  
• Clemson University
  
  
  
  • Mike Adams – 25th, 7pm, Hunter 100
  
  
• Columbia University
  
  
  
  • David Horowitz – 26th, 12pm, Lerner Cinema
    
  • panel with Phyllis Chesler, Ibn Warraq, and Christina Sommers – 24th, 8pm, Math 203
  
  
• DePaul University
  
  
  
  • Robert Spencer – 22nd, 7pm, Cortalyou Commons
  
  
• Dartmouth
  
  
  
  • Robert Spencer – 26th, 7pm, Dartmouth Hall room 105
  
  
• Emory University
  
  
  
  • David Horowitz – 24th, 8pm, White Hall 208
  
  
• Lawrence University
  
  
  
  • Jonathan Schanzer – 24th, 7:30pm, Youngchild Hall
  
  
• George Mason University
  
  
  
  • Luana Saghieh and Alan Nathan – 22nd, 8:30pm, Johnson Center Cinema
  
  
• George Washington University
  
  
  
  • Michael Ledeen and Daphne Patai – 22nd, 10am, Mt. Vernon Campus, Eckles Auditorium
    
  • David Horowitz – 25th, 8pm, Marvin Center
  
  
• Penn State University
  
  
  
  • Rick Santorum – 23rd, 8pm, 119 Osmond
  
  
• Princeton
  
  
  
  • David Horowitz – 16th, 8pm, McCosh 10
  
  
• Pepperdine
  
  
  
  • Tammy Bruce – 22nd, 7pm, Student Lounge
  
  
• SFSU
  
  
  
  • Brian Sussman – 24th, 12pm, Jack Adams Hall
  
  

• Temple University
  
  
  
  • Rick Santorum – 24th, 8pm, Student Center 218
  
  
• Tufts
  
  
  
  • Daniel Pipes – 24th, 7pm
  
  
• Tulane University
  
  
  
  • Ann Coulter – 22nd, 7pm, McAlister Auditorium
  
  
• UC Berkeley
  
  
  
  • Nonie Darwish – 22nd, 7pm, Evans Hall 10
  
  
• UC Santa Barbara
  
  
  
  • Dennis Prager – 25th, 7pm, Girvetz 1004
  
  
• UCLA
  
  
  
  • Cyrus Nowrasteh – 23rd, 6:30pm, Moore 100
    
  • Nonie Darwish – 24th, 7pm, Haines 82
    
  • Joe Kaufman – 25th, 7pm, Moore 100
    
  
  
• University of Miami
  
  
  
  • Cyrus Nowrasteh – 24th, 7pm, Whitten University Learning Center
  
  
• University of Pennsylvania
  
  
  
  • Rick Santorum – 24th, 5:30pm, Hillel-Steinhardt Hall
    
  • panel with Daniel Pipes, Dr. Stephen Gale, and Ed Turzanski – 22nd, 7pm, Huntsman Hall
  
  
• University of Rhode Island
  
  
  
  • Robert Spencer – 24th, 7pm, Memorial Union Ballroom
  
  
• University of Washington
  
  
  
  • Michael Medved – 25th, 7pm, Smith 120
  
  
• University of Wisconsin, Madison
  
  
  
  • David Horowitz – 22nd, 7:30, Wisconsin Union Theater
  
  
• USC
  
  
  
  • Ann Coulter – 24th, 6pm, Annenberg School of Communication – G26

The statement calling feminists to end their silence on the oppression of women in Islam goes back to the October Islamo-Fascism awareness week – 17 weeks ago, at the end of September of 2007.

Can you show me what campuses and what television appearances you did?

Because it seems to me that you’re taking credit for the feminist response in this post.

What exactly justifies your making fun of Horowitz for taking credit for the the feminists put out in response?

[Insert someone should have had their morning cup 'o joe before blogging this morning joke here.] In no way did I intend to take credit for anything the feminists did or for anything Robert Spencer and David Horowitz did. We promoted Islamofascism Week here at FHK, as well, and congratulate Spencer and Horowitz on a job well-done.

A LOT of people in the old and new media have been wondering why the feminist groups have been incredibly silent on this issue – and I find it astounding that when they finally do respond, it is from the perspective of “the victim.”

 

 

 

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