A Source of Sad Wonder -- The Western Left's Abandonment of Muslim Women
When I saw that science fiction writer jaylake had posted the following article by Jonathan Lyons, "Islam, Women and the West," essentially dismissing the Western image of Muslim women as oppressed as a mere Orientalist delusion
http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/lyons-islam-women-and-the-west.html
on his blog at
http://jaylake.livejournal.com/2735669.html?view=19059765#t19059765
I felt I had to comment. Here's the comment
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It is a source of never-ending wonder to me that the Western Left is willing to cooperate in the assignment of lesser rights to Muslim women compared to Western women, and term this progressive. Legally and extra-legally punishing Muslim women for being unveiled would alone damn the Muslim world to condemnation by any rational man lacking misogynistic sentiments, but this is the least of what Muslim men do to Muslim women in countries under Muslim rule.
And no, we're not as bad here. In fact, women are oppressed more extremely in the modern Mideast not only than they are in the modern (20th-21st century) West, but also than they were in the West of the 19th or even 16th-18th centuries. Yes, the European Ancien Regime on the average treated women better than do modern Iran and Saudi Arabia. Yep, even with the Burning Time included.
My "wonder" comes from the fact that I'd think that the right of women not to be enslaved, raped, beaten and murdered would be one thing on which all political factions in the West could agree. But apparently, the fate of these women is not important enough to the Left to pass up on the chance to snipe at the Right for being "bigoted" enough to criticize Islam on this topic.
To me, women are female human beings with rights naturally equal to those of male human beings, and they still possess these rights even if they are swarthier-skinned than me and happen to live in a Muslim land. To the American Left, if they are not Western women, then this is apparently not the case, if criticizing the men in those societies would violate the precepts of multiculturalism.
Would it make a difference to you if I pointed out that the women you personally care for are thought of as infidel whores by those same Muslim men, and that it is only the fact that the modern Western Right is not so willing to lie down before multicultural dogmas and submit that preserves their rights? But then, I suspect that you expend a lot of intellectual energy avoiding just that truth, so I doubt it.
http://www.juancole.com/2012/02/lyons-islam-women-and-the-west.html
on his blog at
http://jaylake.livejournal.com/2735669.html?view=19059765#t19059765
I felt I had to comment. Here's the comment
----
It is a source of never-ending wonder to me that the Western Left is willing to cooperate in the assignment of lesser rights to Muslim women compared to Western women, and term this progressive. Legally and extra-legally punishing Muslim women for being unveiled would alone damn the Muslim world to condemnation by any rational man lacking misogynistic sentiments, but this is the least of what Muslim men do to Muslim women in countries under Muslim rule.
And no, we're not as bad here. In fact, women are oppressed more extremely in the modern Mideast not only than they are in the modern (20th-21st century) West, but also than they were in the West of the 19th or even 16th-18th centuries. Yes, the European Ancien Regime on the average treated women better than do modern Iran and Saudi Arabia. Yep, even with the Burning Time included.
My "wonder" comes from the fact that I'd think that the right of women not to be enslaved, raped, beaten and murdered would be one thing on which all political factions in the West could agree. But apparently, the fate of these women is not important enough to the Left to pass up on the chance to snipe at the Right for being "bigoted" enough to criticize Islam on this topic.
To me, women are female human beings with rights naturally equal to those of male human beings, and they still possess these rights even if they are swarthier-skinned than me and happen to live in a Muslim land. To the American Left, if they are not Western women, then this is apparently not the case, if criticizing the men in those societies would violate the precepts of multiculturalism.
Would it make a difference to you if I pointed out that the women you personally care for are thought of as infidel whores by those same Muslim men, and that it is only the fact that the modern Western Right is not so willing to lie down before multicultural dogmas and submit that preserves their rights? But then, I suspect that you expend a lot of intellectual energy avoiding just that truth, so I doubt it.