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COMMENT ON NEW TREND'S EDITORIAL ON the NOBEL PRIZE AS A POLITICAL TOOL:
In WHAT WAYS ARE
AMERICAN
WOMEN
OPPRESSED?
[Ms. Hoorie, near the completion of her Ph.D in Psychology, in the
Fairfax, Virginia area, has written the following comment on
New Trend's editorial on the Nobel Prize awarded to
Iranian
woman Ebadi while she recommends our editorial to friends on her email list.]
I like Ebadi's work; she has been cited in
Ms. Magazine
quite a few times over the past five years. However, I agree with a large
part of the following editorial (see below). I believe the US is heading
steadily toward an attack on Iran, using the so-called "modernists"
fighting to "free" their country from Islamists as "allies." As such,
the Nobel peace prize is certainly a political tool. Although I
personally take issue with all organized, monotheistic religions, I don't
believe that anyone who thinks that women in hijab are "oppressed" and
must be freed is very reflective about the role of women in western
cultures. If you speak to or read stuff written by Muslim women who wear
hijab, etc., they wonder quite a bit about the oppression of western women,
who by and large have to spend their lives looking thin, striving to be
young, shaving their armpits, and getting rid of all body hair.
Without exception, all the intelligent,
"feminist" women I know struggle with the oppression of being
young-thin-beautiful. It is certainly not OK to be a woman in the US and
not be these things. A very interesting perspective, written by a secular
Middle Eastern (woman) scholar is "Scherezade Goes West," subtitled the
oppression of western women. I recommend it! When people think of
"conservative" Islam in the US, images of honor killings and stonings jump
into their heads (put there by sensationalist
media
of course). These
terrible things do happen, but they are very much the exception. That is
like saying that the murder of Chandra Levy, the Central Park jogger, etc.
epitomize the victimization of American women. We should be careful who we
demonize...
Ebadi is one more woman trying to help women, but the personal is always
political (and vice versa), and I am certain she is part of a much larger,
cynical, strategy.
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2003-10-18 Sat 17:39ct