Amanda Marcotte passed on an open letter from American feminists that was written by Katha Pollitt.
Columnists and opinion writers from The Weekly Standard to theWashington Post to Slate have recently accused American feminists of focusing obsessively on minor or even nonexistent injustices in the United States while ignoring atrocities against women in other countries, especially the Muslim world...
We reject the use of women’s rights language to justify invading foreign countries. Instead, we call on the United States government to live up to its expressed commitment to women’s rights through peaceful means.
The letter goes on to call for promoting women’s rights, offering asylum, putting diplomatic pressure on other countries, particularly Saudi Arabia, and supporting international efforts to improve women’s conditions. Sounds good to me. That said, I don’t have the authority to sign stuff with a meaningful title, so I’ll just express my support here.
I certainly do still support our invasion of Afghanistan and women’s rights, as well as the general human rights situation, was certainly a supporting factor. However, I don’t tend to think that human rights violations short of genocide or politicide can be considered a casus belli in its own right. I’m not aware of a mass killing specifically targeting women, although mass rape or sexual enslavement does qualify as a war crime and often accompanies mass killings. I think that could qualify as a casus belli, but I’m not aware of a case where it happened independent of mass murder.
My logic is that civil war and occupation are such terrible things that the decision to start one over human rights should be made within a country and not by outside powers.
On the same topic, Broadsheet has a round-up the recent women’s rights issues world wide. I recently attended an Afghanistan survey event and when I get my hands on the relevant report I may post a follow-up with data on women’s rights in Afghanistan.
Recent Comments