Giving Thanks for Being a Woman in America
21 November 2007 1:22 pm by Taylor Marsh
 |
| via The Village Voice |
The news is focused on the fact that Clinton
will not cross the picket line for the CBS DNC December 10th debate. Edwards
and Obama joined her, as will others I hope.
But the Clinton statement that caught my attention today had to do with the
Saudis punishing a gang rape victim (something I spoke about last week on my
radio show).
“In 1995, I went to Beijing and said, ‘It is time for us to
say here in Beijing, and for the world to hear, that it is no longer acceptable
to discuss women’s rights as separate from human rights.’ We have made some
progress since then. But we have not made enough. The latest example is the
punishment of 200 lashes that a Saudi Arabian court has given to a victim
— the victim — of a gang rape. This is an outrage. The Bush administration
has refused to condemn the sentence and said it will not protest an internal
Saudi decision. I urge President Bush to call on King Abdullah to cancel the
ruling and drop all charges against this woman. As President I will once again
make human rights an American priority around the world.”
No other candidate for president could have sent this shot across the Saudi’s
bow. It does remind me of Clinton
in Beijing in 1995, which I remember well.
… .. … The voices of this conference and of the women at Huairou must
be heard loud and clear:It is a violation of human rights when babies are denied food, or drowned,
or suffocated, or their spines broken, simply because they are born girls.It is a violation of human rights when woman and girls are sold into the
slavery of prostitution.It is a violation of human rights when women are doused with gasoline, set
on fire and burned to death because their marriage dowries are deemed too
small.It is a violation of human rights when individual women are raped in their
own communities and when thousands of women are subjected to rape as a tactic
or prize of war.It is a violation of human rights when a leading cause of death worldwide
along women ages 14 to 44 is the violence they are subjected to in their own
homes.It is a violation of human rights when women are denied the right to plan
their own families, and that includes being forced to have abortions or being
sterilized against their will.If there is one message that echoes forth from this conference, it is that
human rights are women’s rights — and women’s rights are human
rights. Let us not forget that among those rights are the right to speak freely
— and the right to be heard. … .. …
People are talking about change a lot in this election. I find it odd that
you have to represent a different generation to be associated with “change.” To have that be the only representation
of change. Walk in my underpaid shoes and those of every other woman who is
earning less than her male counterparts, or getting less air time to talk
about issues that matter to us all. Look at “Meet the Press” and count
the women, as I’ve done over the years. Count the women talking about foreign policy and national security
on the cable shows. Count the liberal women who represent freedom of choice, no matte what it is, on cable and radio. Now count the majority of all political sides, which is women. Having the first
viable female candidate, which doesn’t mean anyone should vote for her unless
she earns it, is the very definition of change in America. Anyone saying it
isn’t equal to other change represented, whether it’s Edwards’s policies, or Barack Obama’s presence as well as Bill Richardson, is ignoring the obvious.
A female president would send the loudest signal of all to every oppressed female on the planet. It’s not the answer by itself, but it’s one hell of a shout out.
Women really have the power to change the world now.
In studies, it has been proven that unless women have a full voice in a country’s
government the chance of that government thriving and remaining whole is less.
A country’s female population must be respected and given a place and a say, which
even in places
like Pakistan is getting recognized. Islamic law and religious
conservatism threaten a country’s stability (Nigeria,
as one example, going back seven years), but it’s across the globe in any shuttered society that does not respect its women.
It’s something to think about.
Change comes in many forms and it doesn’t mean any less just because the person
in question has the last name of Clinton.
