.... It’s not new for the US and other countries to believe it’s up to them to “liberate” women in countries embroiled in conflict and war. But the concern for women’s rights is usually short-lived, often only used as a tactic to initiate military action, and not an end goal. And much like the far right’s fake concern for women in the Middle East to be “free” like women in their country, Trump is also conveniently overlooking his past record regarding women’s rights.
This is a man who has openly bragged about sexually assaulting women, signed in a global gag rule that’s been described as a “death warrant for women around the world”, and repeatedly attacked Planned Parenthood in the hope of rolling back American women’s access to reproductive healthcare. So it’s hard to believe that he’s stumbled on to a new-found concern for women’s rights in Afghanistan.
[TOP RATED COMMENT 316 votes] There is no point talking about this subject till The Guardian actually states and condemns the treatment of women in Islam.
Wrong, though his causes may be, if Trump succeeds in establishing a Westernized Afghanistan away from the Taliban, radical islam will decline and women will get more liberty.
However, that does not align well with the narrative "oooooh evil Trump" does it?
I am far from a right voter but jesus, pieces like this tip me over the edge to vote Tory.
[2ND 256] "Accompanying the photos, they write comments that compare Afghan women with western women, claiming Islam has “oppressed” women to the point where they can no longer dress how they want."
Well that's more or less true.
It's disappointing that the Guardian continues to swerve any real discussion of the treatment of women in Islam and instead focuses on a tiny minority of far-right posts on social media.
[3RD 237] I don't think it's anti-islamic, or pro - Trump, to point out that many women did have more freedom in much of the middle east in the 70s. I was there then, and they did.
[4TH 192] "And it’s also the same far-right social media users in the US or Europe who feign concern for women in the Middle East for the purpose of undermining, derailing or silencing women, preventing them from speaking up about feminist issues at home. A photo that the far right has long wielded as a sexist trope against women, and as an anti-Islam meme in their social media feeds, is now being presented to Trump by national security advisers."
Anyone who has any issues with the way women are treated under Islam is far-right in your book. And when something closer to home happens to women and girls, you just try to brush it under the carpet.
Yet conservative Islam is far, far to the right of the most hard-right Tory MP on social issues.
[5TH 169] "claiming Islam has “oppressed” women to the point where they can no longer dress how they want,"
If we accept the two leading strands of Islam are Sunni and Shia, and that the two leading examplars of Sunnism and Shiaism are Saudi Arabia and Iran respectively then the far right are, in that claim at least, entirely correct.
Both Iran and Saudi Arabia have laws determining how women can dress, and both enforce them vigourosuly.
Lets file this under arkward truth, shall we? [Guardian Cif] Read more
