To put it mildly.
From Iraq, purportedly the democratic jewel of the middle east where an election was just held a few days ago, an ugly little story of religious extremism used to exploit women:
A WOMAN suspected of recruiting more than 80 female suicide bombers has confessed to organising their rapes so she could later convince them that martyrdom was the only way to escape the shame.
Samira Jassam, 51, was arrested by Iraqi police and confessed to recruiting the women and orchestrating dozens of attacks.
In a video confession, she explained how she had mentally prepared the women for martyrdom operations, passed them on to terrorists who provided explosives, and then took the bombers to their targets.
I can’t put it any better than PZ Meyers, who writes:
This is where a pathologically religious culture can end up: with parasites like this who exploit the fear and hatred to create more fear and hatred.
“Where, pray tell, are the feminists?” shriek the self-righteous anti-feminists.
Right here, bitch, and we don’t like this any more than you do. But we’re also cognizant enough to recognize that religious extremism, not just one particular flavour of it, is the malignancy at the root of this evil illness — this story is just one of the more outrageous symptoms. Those who’d enslave women to their reproductive systems for ideological reasons share more with the jihadists than they’d ever be honest enough to admit.
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/tny_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
unrepentant old hippie 
Where are the feminists? Oh for fuck sake. Somehow this is our fault?
Dr. Prole, of course it’s our fault. We feminazis emasculated the men, killed the baybees, and therefore, um, well, you know, everything else happened.
Dr.Prole – Exactly. The insinuation is that feminists (who tend to lean left) would NEVER criticize Muslim extremists because, well hey! We love them!!! Because they’re brown!!! And brown people can never be bad to a “leftist”!!! Allah Akbar!!!
What utter fucking tripe, and I’m getting sick of it.
fern hill – Right, the *cough*white*cough* population is going down, the “demographic winter” is upon us, and it’s ALL OUR FAULT. (It wouldn’t be because the baby boom was a demographic anomaly, oh nooooooo, let’s not confuse the issue with FACTS.)
My comment for the lovely Ms Pellerin, in case it suddenly goes down the memory hole (like every other comment I’ve mad over there):
“”Where, pray tell, are the feminists?”
Where, Brigitte?
In jail in Iran, mostly. A few are running for office and orgnaizing. And those that hear about this kind of disgusting thing here are outraged by it.
What do you expect the feminists to do, Brigitte?
I’m curious how the crazed actions of a religious zealot are the fault of feminism? Or how feminism, which has fought this kind of thin in Muslim countries for years is even involved.
Be sure to really have a good anti-Mulsim rant though eh? Its not like the Catholic Church ever treated women like crap. Its not like you aren’t advocating for treating women like second class citizens and chattel either.
Hypocrite.”
Hey, my last comment got eaten by your spam filter…
Mine too…
What? Let me check.
Brebis – I can’t find your comment. Mike’s was there in the spam trap (sometimes if you have more than one link in a comment, it’ll get caught as spam).
PZ has been serving up a steady stream of the toxic levels of Teh Stupid today, did you catch the video he posted? I couldn’t stand to watch more than 60 seconds of it.
as for Brigitte Pellerin take on the news article and then ask “where are the feminist?” Sweet Jebus, Brigitte, water is wet, the grass is green, rape is wrong and this woman is evil, but hey it is still good enough to use this evil woman actions to try to score political points, what a twit-waffle,…
Mike – Well said, *applause*
I’m getting sick unto death of these people blaming all the ills of the world on feminism. If not for feminism, they sure as hell wouldn’t have the luxury of expressing their opinions in a public forum — they’d be stuck in the kitchen, and nobody would give a shit about their opinions, if they even had any.
I wish more people could remember what life was really like for women pre-feminism, like my mom. It wasn’t the bowl of cherries they make it out to be, that’s for sure.
Zorph – Yes, I saw the vid via CC. ARRRGGHHH!!! Did you also read that email he got? OMFG. The wretched, burning stupid.
Ah, ok I’ll try again (though I didn’t have any links).
I was just thinking that it’s getting past annoying when anti-feminists always ask “where are the feminists”? every time something bad and Muslim-related happens. It’s just a reflection of the fact they can’t beyond the ends of their noses – not even to take note of the fact that feminists are behind many of the rights and opportunities they benefit from today.
It makes you wonder what her source is for “official Islam” anyway. All of your major religions make it pretty shitty to be female. It makes me wonder why it’s always the women that are expected to pass the religion on to the children.
Why do women pass on philosophies that undermine women, weaken them, deprive them of equality, deprive them of sexuality and expect them to jump on their husband’s funeral pyres?
Also. Heheh, “Feminazis”. That term, as nasty as it is, makes me giggle. As if women were this ultra-powerful political force sending men off to the gulags. Yep, that’s what I notice whenever I look at our Parliament and see an endless sea of grey haired men.
brebis – Exactly.
All it is, as I said above to Dr.Prole, is a variation on the old worn-out routine about how “the left supports the terrorists”. Absolute and utter bullshit, and it’s time the idiots propagating it started getting called on it.
Ain’t that the truth. Ingrates and spoiled brats, they need a slap in the yap. Or better yet, a time machine and a tour of my mother’s life in the 50’s.
I left the following comment at PWPL; let’s see if it gets posted.
Why are you gals getting your knickers in knots?
She’s a fundamentalist religious anti-abortion zealot, no doubt. She believes in male authority. She’s on your side.
Stockholm Syndrome? It’s the only thing I can think of…
This feels the same as when gay rights activists were being challenged by anti-gay rights supporters (especially those motivated by religious motives for their views) to speak out about every publicized abuse in Islam towards homosexuality back when gay marriage was the hot topic, with about as much relevance to the underlying argument/issue, to whit little to none IMHO. Besides, religious extremism and zealotry being accepted in a culture/society (especially the Abrahamic religions but hardly exclusive to them) breeds this sort of abuse/exploitation, and it is not inherently a male or female trait to be so abusive/exploitive but a human trait, those that want to exploit will do so where they can, period. It is a sad but true aspect of being a member of the human race, and one of the main reasons why I have such problems with overt religiosity in the political domain is it enables this sort of particularly ugly victimization and exploitation and cloaks it in the disguise of righteousness and morality to both the exploiter and exploited.
Besides, in these societies local feminists are generally fighting under threat of severe retribution of violence easily to the point of death not just to themselves but those close to them, and feminists in our society have many times made this point as well as condemning such treatment of those that stand up for women’s equality in those societies. As already noted the Jihadists there and the Talabangelists of our culture have far more in common when it comes to this sort of thing than either would ever be willing to acknowledge, especially in terms of casting their views of the proper role of women as being a religious imperative. So their bleating in this matter about where are the feminists is particularly offensive and despicable even for them I’d say.
DTK Greg
Intimidation, probably, and lack of options.
Why did women in the 50s stay with men who beat on them? Because they had nowhere else to go. (Some still do this, but at least if they want help, now there are places they can go to get it.)
deBeauxOs
Zing 8)
JAB
It is sort of like Stockholm Syndrome. Even a prison cell looks like home when there’s nowhere else to go.
Scotian
Exactly. It’s exactly the same. Excellent point.
Everything is black and white to conservatives, two sides, with us and against us, and they define everything by who they hate. They hate liberals (which includes feminists and gay rights supporters), and they also hate Muslims, therefore Liberals and Muslims must be on the same side, and if we aren’t — then why aren’t we speaking up against Islamism? They don’t realize that there is work being done against these abuses by feminists and gay rights activists, but in the Islamic world it’s necessarily clandestine.
I don’t know any feminist who would be in favour of stoning women or genital mutilation or the other abuses that go on against women in extremist Islam, but I’m not about to slag all Muslims because of what the extremists do. Just like I don’t slag Christianity because of what their nutbars do.
brebis — I think you accidentally posted your comment that’s missing from this thread in the one above it called OMFG. JJ tried to move it to here where it belonged, but it was stubborn.
Apologies in advance for this soap-box length contribution. ‘Though it’s probably so late in the thread hardly anyone will see it! Hope I’ve said it all. Got no more time to tinker with it!
(DTK Greg -) “‘Why do women pass on philosophies that undermine women? …’ (JJ -) Intimidation, probably, and lack of options. …”
I agree. Intimidation and lack of options, yes. And today beaten women who don’t leave tend to be stuck in a psychological hole they’ve been driven into and coming out of it becomes very difficult. (And often there’s still inadequate access to shelters.) So, historical economic and psychological victimization and its effects, yes.
But I think there’s another reason why women propagate sexism. It’s the flip side of the same coin. Like the energy of sexuality, the urge to assert oneself, determine oneself, and make decisions over one’s own life cannot be purged from the soul; it can only be denied from consciousness. But that energy, that urge, must express so once denied it will warp into something else and express itself in a different form.
A woman who denies and has been denied power over her own life *and who is deeply invested in continuing to deny it* must strive to keep down other women because the presence of other women asserting themselves directly would both expose to her her own denial and also threaten her warped way of asserting herself with men that has become the only way she knows. This warped self-assertion involves being controlling and manipulative instead of honest and direct. It involves exploiting men’s psychological vulnerabilities while building up their egos to keep them fragile so that they can again and again be expoited, at worst — or allow the woman to soften their overbearingness to protect herself and her children, at best. It is based upon a condescending and disrespectful view of men and a need to continually stifle men’s potential to develop into mature, responsible, caring and respectful adults. Sexism stifles everyone’s potential. It keeps everyone from reaching full adulthood. And it is founded upon disrespect not only for women but also for men.
By calling men’s bullshit, feminism implies that men can do better and so accords them the respect that the conventional feminine posture denies them. By the same token, feminism must call conventional feminine bullshit, because even though it comes out of oppression it can still be a power play and that is not okay.
orange – Well said.
I’ve always thought that to some extent we are all yardsticks by which we measure each other’s and our own success (and by “success” I mean success in living well). A healthy response to seeing someone who measures up a little better than we do is to say “Maybe I can do that, too.” and then take action to improves one’s own standing.
But the flip side is that to some, seeing others who are doing better isn’t an inspirational challenge, it’s a threat. So they react the opposite way, which is to try and run the other person down. Or to keep others down with negative reinforcement.
This goes for both men and women, but especially women (having only recently emerged from being second class citizens, and in some cultures, not even there yet). Those 4000 women who ran for office in Iraq’s election should be an inspiration to all, but no doubt they are still a threat to many.
Exactly.
By calling men’s bullshit, feminism implies that men can do better and so accords them the respect that the conventional feminine posture denies them.
Something I realized a long time ago…most of the women I respected the most were the “pushy” feminists, because they made me question the farm-boy status quo I assumed in relations between the sexes.
Indeed, well said.