Cross posted at the dailykos
The movement towards womens rights in this country started like every movement, a few but powerful voices, which built to a crescendo and forced change through knowledge. In Iraq, it’s an entirely different story right now. Womens rights are being rolled back and ceded as just another casualty in this “war” for “democracy”. Though we all know how horrible Saddam was, he still managed under his rule to appeal for secularism and implement laws regarding freedom for women.
The protections put in place are now utterly crushed under the boot heel of forced “Democracy”, and I say it’s time for us to show that we do not agree that women have less of a right to freedom than men. The women of the Middle East have fought so damn hard for their freedom, only to be told they must sacrifice it for their…uh…Freedom????
This is my call to action, and some history about how it started in my heart.
When the war in Afghanistan started, I protested it. Some may have thought it a noble cause to invade, but I know who ultimately loses in any war; women, children, the aged, the handicapped, those who can not fend for themselves are left to die.
The day that it was announced that we were truly going to war, I started wearing a black head covering as a sign of solidarity for the victims of war.
I wore it for a very long time, almost a year and a half, and my employer was very supportive of my convictions. Unfortunately, I uprooted and moved to Ohio, and was asked to stop wearing it by family who feared for our safety. So, I took it off.
Now, however, I am back in Seattle, and am putting it back on to show my support for all the women forced to be second class citizens, forced to cover themselves because “men just can’t help themselves around women”.
The injustice must stop. Please, I ask all women here who believe in justice and solidarity to cover their heads with black cloth, so that whenever someone asks why, we can tell them the truth about what our wars have done to harm women and children.
While I have been screamed at, spit on, excluded from social functions, and harrassed, all it did was prove my point of how women are seen as less than human when they are forced to cover themselves up and are singled out.
It makes women an object of ridicule by having a visual display of submission.
I say, take up the covering, to see what it’s like to walk in these womens shoes, and to show others what true empathy is.
I proudly have taken up my covering tonight, and look forward to telling the truth to anyone who asks “why are you wearing that?”
Please, join me if you can, and let the oppressed women in Iraq, Afghanistan, and the World know that we are willing to feel their pain, and work to end it.
Thank you.