6.08.00
Clueless

6.07.00
Gore's Scary Internet Plans

6.06.00
Hillary at the U.N.

6.01.00
Clinton and Castro Game the System

5.31.00
A Farmer's Tale

5.31.00
All the Wrong Lessons

5.26.00
Intellectual Harassment in Connecticut

5.24.00
Another Silken Thread

5.18.00
Tufts to be a Christian on Campus

5.12.00
Gore's Russian Fans

6/08/00 2:20 p.m.
Clueless
The women gathered at the U.N. this week have some issues.

By Kathryn Jean Lopez, NR associate editor------------lopezk@nationalreview.com

omen of the World: Where would you rather live — Afghanistan or the United States? A no-brainer? Think again.

At one of the countless sessions at this week’s United Nations conference on women, feminists gathered in a City University conference room on Tuesday afternoon to discuss “Faces of Extremism: Countering Right Wing Attacks on the Human Rights of Women Worldwide.”

The patriarchal Vatican, with its hang-ups on abortion and homosexuality, is right at the top of the list of international right-wing threats to women, right alongside the Taliban in Afghanistan, and a Turkish government-sponsored militia that tortures, rapes, and kills.

And, in the view of these feminists, the United States doesn’t rate much better. A woman from the U.S.-based Human Rights Watch, who by profession pays attention to real atrocities, simply doesn’t see any differences. Very carefully, emphatically, and repeatedly, she explained that: "Every government violates women's rights."

You see, in the United States, “every day, women and girls struggle to secure the same rights that women in Afghanistan are denied," according to a woman from Eleanor Smeal’s organization, the Feminist Majority Foundation. The most common example of these human-rights abuses: domestic violence. "Many police are reluctant to intervene in domestic disputes."

In fact, she says, in many ways it is "worse" to live in the United States, because U.S. courts are unwilling to admit they are guilty of human-rights abuses. She continues: “Lack of enforcement of the Violence Against Women Act is similar to extremist forces in Afghanistan. There is a direct correlation.”

As a concluding thought during the Q&A, one speaker summed it all up: “Women are oppressed because men want to control their sexuality and reproductive rights.” This is the face of feminism, circa 2000: Endangering women by promoting ignorance.

Columns / Current Issue / Goldberg File / Nota Bene
Washington Bulletin / Subscribe / Ad Info / Home