The transfer of sovereignty to the Iraqi government marks a new day for Iraqi women. Thanks to the courageous action taken by the Bush administration and its allies, Iraqi women have renewed freedom. The administration has insisted that women receive educational and small business opportunities, as well as active participation in government. For months radical feminists have been silent on the plight of Iraqi women. Instead this hypocritical bunch has condemned the war in Iraq and its subsequent liberation of women simply because the war is supported by conservatives.

In March feminists gathered in front of the White House to protest military action against Saddam Hussein. The protest was called "Code Pink: Women's Pre-Emptive Strike for Peace." On the other side of the world, Iraqi women were being denied the most basic rights and freedoms. Iraqi women lived in fear knowing that Iraqi law freely allowed male relatives to murder them in the name of honor. In Iraqi prisons, women were raped and tortured for being related to Iraqi opposition activists. Videotapes of the acts were sent to the families.

Despite obvious human rights violations and limits on freedom, feminists, led by the National Organization for Women, ignored Saddam Hussein's reprehensible treatment of women. Under the Saddam Hussein regime Iraqi women were not allowed to work outside the home. Feminists, on the other hand, talked about America's "tyrants" and the threat of "tyranny in our homes, our workplaces and our schools."

Radical feminists witnessed a legitimate case of tyranny and violence against women in Iraq, but they remained steadfastly against policies and actions taken by America and the Bush administration that helped these women. NOW President Kim Gandy stated, "The real terrorism is the Bush administration's disregard for international law and destruction of civil liberties at home. This has become an issue of one dictator versus another."

Feminists are more comfortable allowing Iraqi women to endure torture than supporting the Bush Administration. For example, a report by Amnesty International documented the beheading of 50 young women in Baghdad. The report also said, "The heads of these women were hung on the doors of their houses for a few days." Saddam's son Uday led the group of men who beheaded the women and terrorized their families.

The US State Department reports that human rights organizations receive continuous testimony on the psychological trauma women have suffered after being tortured and raped by Iraqi military personnel. Despite this overwhelming evidence, feminists in the US praised Iraq and cited a suspicious United Nations report that said Iraq "scored highest in women's empowerment." Before the capture of Saddam, NOW stated in a press release posted on their website that Iraqi women "currently enjoy more rights and freedoms than women in other Gulf nations, such as Saudi Arabia."

At an International Alliance for Justice press conference in 2002, Safia al-Souhail, an Iraqi woman whose father was murdered for opposing Saddam, said, "We are here begging the support of the free world to liberate us from the nightmare we have been living in for the past three decades." Al-Souhail also said, "Disarmament alone will not end our suffering. This regime should be indicted for its crimes against humanity."

NOW and their cohorts were deaf to these women's pleas and still condemn the war in Iraq. Feminists invent problems in the U.S. and ignore the real problems faced by women around the world. NOW accuses President Bush of "reversing women's rights here and abroad." Feminist Majority leader Eleanor Smeal odiously said that the Bush Administration "needs to construct a foreign policy as if women mattered."

The deceptively titled March for Women's Lives in April brought thousands of feminists and leftist supporters to Washington, DC. Rather than march against the atrocities and violence against women in Iraq and other countries around the world, feminists waved coat hangers and demanded taxpayer-funded abortions. Cybill Shepherd held a sign that said, "Too bad John Ashcroft's mother didn't believe in abortion." Amid "Fire Bush," "Tarts for Choice" and other placards feminist icon Gloria Steinem told the crowd, "This government is the greatest danger on earth!"

Echoing the hateful and hysterical rhetoric, Senator Hillary Clinton, with no apparent sense of irony regarding the previous administration, said she was there to criticize President Bush for "not upholding laws against sexual harassment and discrimination."

These radical feminists' stance on military action in Iraq and the global war on terrorism illustrate how they have consistently fallen short of their purported mission to "eliminate sexism and eliminate all oppression." Their motives are clearly political and not based on advancing the rights of women around the world. When faced with a war that liberated the Iraqi people, a majority of whom are women, feminists would much rather turn a blind eye to the horrors of Saddam than support America and the Bush Administration.

Liberal and moderate feminists have remained mum, but radical feminists have been saying that women had it better under Saddam. The government was secular, women had equal rights, and the general direction of womens' rights was toward westernization.

Today, with this hybrid secular/theocratic state (of chaos), women will find their rights restricted, not only in fact (as before), but also in spirit.

This non-radical site (about.com) tells a similar story:

http://womensissues.about.com/cs/iraq/a/iraqi_women.htm

Womens rights declined along with the Iraqi economy. This is typical. When the economy grows, a certain kind of workplace feminism arises, but, as the economy contracts, women are the first fired. Their participation is conditional.

That's not that different from anywhere else, where women occupy relatively segregated labor conditions. The idea of "womens' work" still persists.

Here's a website that's pushing to turn Iraq into a sweatshop by stocking it with sewing machines.

http://www.spiritofamerica.net/requests/1086384717.html

Let's sell them the technology, but don't teach them to make their own.

Liberal and moderate feminists have remained mum, but radical feminists have been saying that women had it better under Saddam.

That's because they're fucking idiots.

The government was secular, women had equal rights, and the general direction of womens' rights was toward westernization.

Comforting thoughts when they weren't in the rape rooms and torture chambers.

Usually it's those farthest away from the nightmares who say, "At least under Saddam, the trains ran on time." Except under Saddam, you could be tied to the tracks at any moment.

wow

very dull

Parrot,

Please.

stop.

no.

Yeah, the truth is never comfortable for a leftist.

Call it a hate crime and adjust your blinders.