DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO

We like to go on and on about how women are oppressed in the Muslim world. And it’s true. Latest news out of Saudi Arabia is that women will not be allowed to vote in their upcoming elections (Wow! Elections in Saudi Arabia!??! For what, dogcatcher?) Big surprise. This is a country where women can be beaten if they show their faces out of doors. Where they cannot drive. Or where they may be kept from fleeing a burning school because they are not dressed “modestly enough” to be seen outside the school.

Reading about oppressed women in Dar el-Islam is a little like reading “Dog Bites Man.”

But it appears that a little oppression is OK by us.

According to this AP article, the US has “refused to join 85 other heads of state and government in signing a statement that endorsed a 10-year-old UN plan to ensure every woman’s right to education, health care, and choice about having children.”

The story notes that the Bush administration withheld its signature because the statement included a reference to “sexual rights.” [US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Kelly Ryan] did not elaborate on the Bush administration’s specific objections to the phrase, but at past UN meetings US representatives have spoken out against abortion, gay rights and what they see as the promotion of promiscuity by giving condoms to young people to prevent AIDS.

What’s interesting to me is that, at the 1995 UN women’s conference in Beijing, the US took a leading role in drafting the conference document, which stated that “The human rights of women include their right to have control over and decide freely and responsibly on matters related to their sexuality, including sexual and reproductive health, free of coercion, discrimination and violence.” Oh, wait - that was in 1995. During the Clinton administration.

I don’t particularly care for the UN these days. Any organization that allows the Sudan to have a seat on its Commission on Human Rights has its collective head seriously wedged up its collective ass. Not to mention its egregious discrimination against Israel. It’s gotten to the point where kids at Hallowe’en know not to ask me for UNICEF money. They’re likely to get a lecture instead of a handful of coins.

But a statement endorsing women’s rights? Health care, education, personal reproductive freedom? What the hell is wrong with that? Even the stupid-ass UN is entitled to get something right once in a while. I thought these were things we, as a nation, supported. Freedom!

But not BushCo. Because they don’t want those rights to possibly include abortion. Or birth control, for that matter. Or gay rights. Just in case any of those formerly oppressed women started getting any ideas.

Might as well start puttin’ on them burqas, girls!