Thursday, March 8, 2007

International Blog Against Sexism Day

I'm a feminist.

That means that I believe women are good leaders. That means I believe women exist for themselves, not to make babies or please men. That means I believe that women of color exist for themselves, not to lend legitimacy to the white women's feminism. That means I believe women who are transgender are women who are transgender. That means I will fight anyone who does personal or political violence against women, and I will fight any so-called feminist who fractures and cheapens feminism by keeping certain groups of women down—disabled women, women of color, trans women, sex workers, Muslim women.

I'm also a man.

Let's talk about oppressive religious headcoverings, shall we? A symbol of women's supposed inferiority to men, these garments are enforced in backwards countries, and even in fundamentalist religious communities in the West, as a way to protect men from the potentially corrupting sight of women. Women who refuse to wear these garments are considered sinful and don't have recourse to their countries' religious protections against rape and murder; they may not be allowed to partake of religious services.

See these women here.

It's not the headscarf, folks. It's not the hijab, it's not even the chador. It's that some people around the world think that violence against women is okay, or inevitable. Muslim women's headcoverings have been held up as a reason to bomb their countries in the name of liberating them. We're not bombing the Russian Orthodox Church, Amish schools, or Catholic convents.

What's the impact the 'War on Terror' is having on women in Muslim countries? Well, it's killing them, first of all. The Iraqi insurgents don't conveniently separate out their military infrastructure from their people's homes, schools, and hospitals; whenever you hear on the news that an important terrorist base was bombed into oblivion, chances are good that women and children were killed. It's making it next to impossible for women in Muslim countries to get health care, food, and other necessities. And it's increasing violence against women—whenever a region is in chaos, women there will suffer. So-called feminists who support violent means of overthrowing oppressive regimes—especially when the symbol of oppression they rally around is a piece of cloth somewhat less oppressive than the bombs they think will solve the problem—forget this.

Case in point: In the Congo, women are still being raped in ongoing brutal violence by armed militias, including the Interhamwe from the Rwandan genocides and the Congolese Army. One of the reasons for all this violence is the metal coltan which is a component of every piece of electronic equipment we all use daily. How does the one affect the other? Demand for coltan means that various groups in the Congo are fighting for control of it. Lacking the resources to engage in all-out war on one another, and recognizing that that would leave fewer of their own people able to mine the coltan, they've developed a system of using brutal rape of the other factions' women as a weapon of war. For an understanding of the extent of the problem, read this; for a more detailed explanation of the issues behind the violence, check out Chris Clarke's post from Pandagon.

There are things you can do. Contribute to aid organizations like Doctors Without Borders. Talk about the coltan problem and get it covered in mainstream media. Speak out against the assumption that a Muslim woman wearing a headscarf is any more oppressed/likely to be a terrorist/deserving of being bombed than a Catholic nun or an Amish woman. And if you're a man and you've set aside a whole category of human rights issues as "women's issues," think again; they affect us all. No one is too far away, too insignificant, too female, too black, too Asian, too Muslim, too transgender, too queer, too disabled, or too poor to fight for.

Here is some of what feminist bloggers have been saying today.

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