Women and the War on Terror

The display of cruel pleasure taken in punishing Iraqi prisoners has reverberated throughout the world, confirming in many countries the negative stereotype of westerners as decadent and sexually obsessed. Many people have questioned the motives and conduct of the war in Iraq, but these pornographic images have stripped bare what little force remained in the humanitarian rhetoric concerning the war. In the Arab world, the damage has been done, and is irrevocable. - Joanna Bourke

Ah yes, those “decadent westerners.” They have all sorts of crazy beliefs - especially when it comes to women.

For the jihadists, at stake in the war against the infidels is the control of women. Western freedom means the end of women’s mastery by men, and the end of dictatorial clerical control over all aspects of sexuality — in dress, behavior, education, the arts. Taliban rule in Afghanistan was the model of what the jihadists want to impose upon the world. The case the jihadists make against freedom is that wherever it goes, especially America and Europe, it brings sexual license and corruption, decadence and depravity. - Charles Krauthammer

If only we were as enlightened as these fine gentlemen.

A village council in Pakistan has permitted a landlord to rape the sister and sister-in-law of a man he accused of an illicit relationship with his daughter, police say. The incident happened on April 30 in the small village of Donga Naich in the central province of Punjab, after a ruling by a three-men local jury, or panchayat…Javed said such incidents were not uncommon in rural Pakistan. In a notorious case two years ago that highlighted the plight of women in rural areas, four men were sentenced to death for the gang rape of a woman authorised by another central Punjab village council and two council members accused of abetting the crime also received the death sentence. Their appeals are still before the courts. Eight other council members were tried and acquitted. - Reuters

I am not sure that at least with certain individuals, things have not been “irrevocable” since the 7th Century. And lest anyone think this is an isolated sort of thing, we have this.

They (the guards) must be punished in kind. - Moqtada al-Sadr

I think Lynndie England and the others should end up in prison. But there is no way they deserved what al-Sadr is thinking of.

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Women and the War on Terror

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