Ahmadinejad's Woman Problem

The atrocities committed against women in Iran are shocking but are no surprise to the educated American public. President Ahmadinejad has perpetrated horrific human rights abuses since he came to power and his despicable treatment of his own people, especially women, has generated international outrage. Ahmadinejad has argued that women in Iran, in fact, enjoy a great deal of freedom, more than they would in most of the world. But his parochial conception of women's rights is fundamentally flawed, as evidenced by his statement today that women in Iran are free and honored by being "exempt from the legal responsibility of men." If this view stands unchallenged, there is little hope for much-needed improvement in the policies of the Iranian government.

The treatment of women in Iran has been reprehensible in a number of ways. Public executions, punishment for rape victims, draconian restrictions on public dress, and many other oppressive and downright abusive regulations have kept women in their antiquated place of inferiority to the male population. In 2004, Atefeh Rajabi Sahaaleh was executed after being tried for crimes against chastity. Her crime was falling victim to a brutal rape, and the punishment for this "crime" was a public hanging. This type of medieval brutality can be expected in a place where women are considered naturally inferior and are subject to a system in which men must necessarily come out on top.

Despite these and more disgusting violations, Iran does grant women certain important rights. They are allowed to vote and to stand for election, valuable rights that are still denied to many women in the Middle East. While such electoral empowerment may be seen as allowing the potential for greater reform and expansion of women's rights, these freedoms unfortunately exist within a rigid legal and ideological system that nevertheless undermines women's rights at their most fundamental basis.

Revisiting the theme mentioned above later in his speech, President Ahmadinejad said today that "women are respected in Iran," and followed it up with this astonishing comment:

They are exempt from many responsibilities. Many of the legal responsibilities rest on the shoulders of men in our society because of the respect, culturally given, to women, to the future mothers. In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, respect for women. And we are proud of this culture.

We can only understand that Ahmadinejad's concept of women's rights is fundamentally stuck in another century. Women have the privilege not to have rights and responsibilities. There is no comprehension of these women's desire for rights that confer both greater freedom and greater responsibility on the "the best creatures created by God".

In reality, Ahmadinejad surely understands that responsibility is power and that in giving women that power, they could begin to have a much greater impact on the Iranian society that now holds them hostage beneath the weight of an oppressive interpretation of religious traditions. This would undermine the social order of a country that does not equate women's rights and equal rights and could even lead to agitation for a genuine expression of respect for women -- the potentiality that truly frightens reactionaries like Ahmadinejad.

Comments

[bobtr900]

Agreed, giving women power is against the tenets of all fundie religions, including my own, Catholicism.
Islamic, Catholic and evangelical fundies are not so very different in many respects as they all do their very best to keep women down and under their thumbs. They are all egregious hypocrites.

[outnow]

Fundamentalists in general are all about keeping women from choice of any kind.

Secular democracies where the Fundies are not in charge accept women as equals.

Maybe you need to look back a few years in this country or even over your shoulder in present-day America to see that women are being exploited and discriminated against. The battle begins at home.

My mother fought for women's rights right here in the USA. She never thought of fighting the battle abroad. Maybe if we nuke Iran women will have more rights there, just like the result in Afghanistan and Iraq after our wars.

[ms.understood]

It's horrible that the young lady was executed for being raped, and I have always heard that abuses like this existed in Iran, and probably elsewhere in the Muslim world. The truth of the matter remains that just because crimes like this occur there and not here, or just because women aren't "executed" for rapes, doesn't mean that women in necessarily in a better position in America, or the world even. In the event of a rape accusation, her name is still dragged through the mud, she still is addressed by horrific names if she "sleeps" around, and women are still being abused by their spouses, as prehistoric as that sounds. Yes, women can work jobs and attain higher positions, but are still not bringing home equal pay. And no, women don't have to wear burqua's in public, but are still objectified and viewed as second class citizens in all forms of entertainment and in everyday life. My point is, until we correct some of our own ways of thinking, we can't possibly put those demands on someone else.

[RobertArend]

you trivalize the execution of a rape victim when you say women are not in a better position in this country. Shame on you.

[realitytrumpsbull]

If countries like ours stopped buying oil from
countries like theirs, a lot of this stuff would
permanently end, I think...

[Dohiyi]

Ms. Leonard, Thank you for standing up for the natural human rights of women condemned to live in fundamentalist Muslim societies. As an aging Berkeley hippie/radical from the sixties, I am always amazed by the politically correct new lefties who insist that we cannot be critical of the flaws in third world societies.

Get real, people; fundamentalist religion is anathema to human liberty, dignity, and rational thought no matter which religion is involved, so-called Christianity, Islam, or any other. Ms. Leonard said nothing to indicate that she supports the Bush/Cheney regime's evil plans to bomb Iran.

She is criticizing a society for atrocities committed against women, such as hanging a rape victim for the crime of being a rape victim. Do you really think that we cannot criticize such inhumane abuse of women because our corporatist/consumer society demeans women by over-sexualizing them? I would much rather be exploited by being paid large sums of money to display my body to the public than to be executed because another person violated my body against my will. But then I'm male, so what do I know?

[Desiderata]

War is not the answer. Still, let all of us not make light of any woman anywhere executed for being a victim of rape.

It is undebatable that the most important human right is to be allowed to live, no matter male or female.

[avergejoe]

Are you saying the western sexploitation of women is better than "In Iranian culture, men and sons and girls constantly kiss the hands of their mothers as a sign of respect, respect for women. And we are proud of this culture."

The west gives women just enough rights to exploit/sell them...

So I guess you are arguing for Iranian
Paris Hilton's
Madonna's
Britney's
Lindsay's
Anna Nicole's.

I feel bad for the Iranians-
no star mag
no joan and melissa on the red carpet
no ...

[realistic2008]

The most frightening thing is to have a reactionary man full of dilusions of being the missionary from heaven in charge of the most powerful destructive force ever conceived my men and women.Do you know who that man is?

[mommadona]

Why, that's our very own

George W Bush!

"God told me I was chosen as president for a reason"
~George W Bush

"I always knew he was the 'Chosen One'!
~Barbara "Bar" Bush, mother of George W Bush

[realistic2008]

I am sure in Iran like everywhere else abuses are committed but the fact that American women have "liberated" from the slavery of men they still are considered a minority in this country and are not allowed many rights or recognized for the same or superior work they perform.
That said, one can argue academically whether the women liberation has had a positive or negative impact on society and whether their actions have contributed to it's decay.
I do not have all the facts to argue exactly how women are treated in Iran, I do not know however that they are not as your portrait to be particularly concerning how they dress and what they do based on recenty TV documentaries which render your claims as a little bit exagerated, and yet one can also argue whether exposing your private parts in public and or having them replace with silicone is a moral attitude that we want everyone else in the world to follow.

[RadicalRepublican]

...That said, one can argue academically whether the women liberation has had a positive or negative impact on society and whether their actions have contributed to its decay...

Your statement assumes society is in a state of decay. I suggest it is not decadence but instead is turbulence. Our forefathers created nation in which all men are created equal, provided of course they be white. Over the last fifty years non-white men have gained power in governance and all women have most of the rights once reserved for men. More work and progression is needed and certain niceties will be swept aside by the equalizing of America.

Respectfully,
mike

[hoopoe]

great points. 'women's lib' is definitely a double edged sword, and choice is often an illusion.

yes, women in the west can have careers, but we also have an economic crisis where two income families can barely get by, due, in part, to women flooding the workplace. we now need jobs to satisfy 100% of the population, as opposed to 50%, making it nearly impossible for a single person, and especially a single mother, to get by on one salary.

yes, americans have the right to choose what they wear, but society places unfair demands on women, and many feel compelled to modify their bodies in unnatural and harmful ways to conform with society's ideals.

yes, women are able to choose careers, but it is becoming increasingly impossible for women to stay at home, if that is their wish; and balancing family and work is a highwire act for most. i know many women who would choose to be free of the responsibilities ahmadinejad speaks of, but simply cannot afford to.

women have a right to divorce their husbands, but there is still great difficulty in leaving abusive relationships, largely for economic reasons.

it is so arrogant to assume that one's own culture has the answers for everyone, and to assume that the traditional roles of women are, in fact worhtless and unfulfilling - they must take on men's roles in order to be of value. these things are all difficult questions which it is frankly not our business to answer for them.

when women in iran demand social change, it must be on their terms and in their own time. when the time is right, they'll change their circumstances, if that's what they want. but forcing those changes before the society and/or economy are ready could ruin the entire process and place women in an even more precarious position.

we need, above all, to recognize the right of all peoples to choose their own path and to adapt and evolve as their unique circumstances allow. this is not our fight.

[Henry]

We'd all like to see Muslim girls in mini-skirts. However, there is a more artful way than military shock-and-awe to accomplish this.
A culture does not change because external forces will it. Do you have a problem with the way Amish treat their women? The PRC and stories of treatment of female children?
Ahmadinejad is most likely not responsible for the culture he was born into.
What opportunity does the catholic church offer to catholic women? Slim or none. Does that bother you?

[TheQuestion]

The dominating issue of most religions is that they were formed ceturies ago - in a relativly primitive environment. Religions are not prone to change since that would admit error in the holy documents. Thus religions usually lock themselvs into "traditional" and unchangable beliefs.

The most dangerous belief of all is the idea that only one religion could be right - and that all others are wrong. Sometimes those who are wrong find themselfs at the wrong end of a sword, a gun, a riffle or maybe even an atomic bomb.

[whistlingfish]

How is Mr. Ahmadinejad's treatment of women any different from any other religious fundamentalist's? Here in the South -- short of the executions -- most of the charges you rightfully level against him would apply to the treatment of women in fundamentalist Christian churches. How soon we forget that the *mainstream* Southern Baptist convention recently suggested wives should "obey their husbands?" Mr. Ahmadinejad is merely a more egregious symptom of a much larger disease.

[ordinaryguy]

no no no. let's try something new.

we'll invade with conventional forces, overrun their major cities, and move on with mission accomplished. next will follow decades of occupation, filled with death and attrition.

[mommadona]

Lets focus on our OWN problems here at home, shall we?

[realistic2008]

Now that is an intelligent request, additionally, he/she should not cast stones in a glass house

[cognate]

Right. Let's nuke them because Ahmadinejad denies any homosexuality in Iran and claims their women are free.

[realistic2008]

So the oil and rightful gods mandate to do so.

[ccalee]

Glad to see someone else recognizes that we demonizing Iran so Bush can push the button.

We don't want the rest of the world to have nuclear power plants, because it would hurt big oil..., and jeez, they could make nuclear weapons and have ICBM capaiblity overnight! All the while our President builds tactical nuclear weapons, throws out the ABM treaty, and somehow five nuclear-armed cruise missiles (each 10 times more powerful that what blew up Nagasaki and Hiroshima) make it to Barksdale AFB, where we ship munitions to the ME. We don't want to talk about that now do we.

[OldKnute]

Hahaha! SPOT ON!

Bollinger looked like a FOOL.

OH and how long have women been barefoot and tired to the stove here in America?

Heck, women still can"t even find jobs that pay well. We just about crapped out pants when Nancy Pelosi became Madame Speaker. Women find themselves in relationships where they are beaten every day but won"t leave because they know it is a sentence to complete poverty and suffering for their children.


Iranian women are Vice Presidents, have been for years, they vote, they are protected under the LAW more than men are.

You can LOOSE a hand if you beat your wife. In Iran.

Oh if BUSH is in trouble, COWARD that he is, let*s drag out the Shocker Moms and fire them up!

We can rant because their women are forced to wear scarves.

Excuse me. Stylish or not, usual in the west or not, many dress traditionally to honor GOD.

You want to affect change, how about engaging in exchanges, go TALK with these women, share your views of liberty, educate the women AND their leaders, as to why you think Desperate Housewives or Sex in the City present a better role model for the liberation of women.

OR fight for women*s right HERE!

And don*t hand the keys to the Atomic Bomb to BUSH.

10,000,000 DEAD Iranian women and children will NOT advance our cause for social liberation.

Hey! Can a man join the Feminist movement????

Gosh, I hope so!

Go American women GO!

We NEED you gals!!!!!!

Come out from under the bed and smell the Cordite.

Bush has taken us to war using your CHILDREN.

Killing 10,000,000 Iranian women and children is,,,

NOT GOOD!

Just my opinion

All the best

Knute (Neo-LIB)