"The stoning of 17-year-old Dua Khali Aswad is not a woman's issue. It is a human issue . . . It is time for men to stand up, too." Yes, I'm with ya. The video of the girl's murder that circulated on the Internet was one the most appalling things I've ever seen.
I appreciated the article on the National Catholic Reporter link you shared. Everyday, in so many large and small ways, many of us are silently complicit, if not overtly condoning and perpetrating the abuse of women (the article carries on with the stoning image, and that might be apropos).
About 20 years ago I belonged to a men's support group. We talked a lot about "men's issues." The linkage we understood between ourselves and the fate of women led a bus load of us to travel one weekend to Madison, Wisconsin for a Men Against Rape march around the state capitol building for some legislation we supported. I still recall that event - and it is woven into strong memories of my own mother's care for me and then later, my care for her. The need to defend, support, and respect women in our society is no joke.
Today, as I raise my daughter, probably as overprotective as most fathers, but hopefully to be the strong and self confident woman her grandmother was, I wonder why so many other men with cherished women in their lives just don't get it. All women everywhere are sisters, and we are their brothers.
Don't think for a minute we couldn't backslide to this state of things.
I'm sickened, and scared, that there is so little reaction to this on the part of our authorities AND on the part of Amnesty International and other groups whose stated purpose is to fight for the rights of harmless individuals to walk free in the world.
Women's rights are still considered to be a side issue, a trviality, something to be dealt with, perhaps, after Democracy is instituted and the "important" human rights issues are taken care of.
Notice our own leaders did not insist upon equality for women in the new regime in Iraq.
During Desert Storm, in the 90s, our own military women were not allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. Of course, this most conservative country is our ally and no one here said word one when dozens of school girls there were locked inside a burning school building and made to burn to death because the men did not want them escaping without their veils on.
2 comments:
"The stoning of 17-year-old Dua Khali Aswad is not a woman's issue. It is a human issue . . . It is time for men to stand up, too." Yes, I'm with ya. The video of the girl's murder that circulated on the Internet was one the most appalling things I've ever seen.
I appreciated the article on the National Catholic Reporter link you shared. Everyday, in so many large and small ways, many of us are silently complicit, if not overtly condoning and perpetrating the abuse of women (the article carries on with the stoning image, and that might be apropos).
About 20 years ago I belonged to a men's support group. We talked a lot about "men's issues." The linkage we understood between ourselves and the fate of women led a bus load of us to travel one weekend to Madison, Wisconsin for a Men Against Rape march around the state capitol building for some legislation we supported. I still recall that event - and it is woven into strong memories of my own mother's care for me and then later, my care for her. The need to defend, support, and respect women in our society is no joke.
Today, as I raise my daughter, probably as overprotective as most fathers, but hopefully to be the strong and self confident woman her grandmother was, I wonder why so many other men with cherished women in their lives just don't get it. All women everywhere are sisters, and we are their brothers.
Don't think this couldn't happen here.
Don't think for a minute we couldn't backslide to this state of things.
I'm sickened, and scared, that there is so little reaction to this on the part of our authorities AND on the part of Amnesty International and other groups whose stated purpose is to fight for the rights of harmless individuals to walk free in the world.
Women's rights are still considered to be a side issue, a trviality, something to be dealt with, perhaps, after Democracy is instituted and the "important" human rights issues are taken care of.
Notice our own leaders did not insist upon equality for women in the new regime in Iraq.
During Desert Storm, in the 90s, our own military women were not allowed to drive cars in Saudi Arabia. Of course, this most conservative country is our ally and no one here said word one when dozens of school girls there were locked inside a burning school building and made to burn to death because the men did not want them escaping without their veils on.
We still aren't considered QUITE human, anywhere.
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