On The Superiority of Western Civilization vs. the Middle East

A senior Egyptian general admits that "virginity checks" were performed on women arrested at a demonstration this spring, the first such admission after previous denials by military authorities.

The allegations arose in an Amnesty International report, published weeks after the March 9 protest. It claimed female demonstrators were beaten, given electric shocks, strip-searched, threatened with prostitution charges and forced to submit to virginity checks.

At that time, Maj. Amr Imam said 17 women had been arrested but denied allegations of torture or "virginity tests."

But now a senior general who asked not to be identified said the virginity tests were conducted and defended the practice.

"The girls who were detained were not like your daughter or mine," the general said. "These were girls who had camped out in tents with male protesters in Tahrir Square, and we found in the tents Molotov cocktails and (drugs)."

And yes, this probably has a lot to do with religion. Religion is the primary reason that Middle Eastern women, for the most part, are treated as second class citizens.

Sometimes people will say to me that I have to understand that there are cultural differences that I cannot possibly comprehend, and that culture makes it "OK" -- or at least makes it beyond the ability of those not within that culture to judge. I disagree. And I judge it foul and unfair. The Middle Eastern culture will continue to be inferior to Western culture until the fair treatment of women is a regular practice and scum like this general are prosecuted for such horrible treatment of women.

Abortion Foes in Oklahoma Go Way Too Far

A new Oklahoma law that forces women who have had abortions to post details of the procedure online is being sharply criticized by women's rights groups, and is now being challenged in court by two Oklahoma women.

As of November 1, doctors in Oklahoma will be compelled -- under penalty of criminal prosecution -- to post the details of each abortion they perform online. Among the details to be posted for every abortion is the patient's age, marital status and race; her financial condition; her education; and the total number of her previous pregnancies.

This is most definitely a violation of the HIPAA regulations (as the story quoted above notes). But it is also violently offensive to women. Hey, let's post the age, marital status, race, financial condition, and dick size of every man who takes Viagra or Cialis. Oh, wait, that'll never happen because men aren't discriminated against like women are...

Proposed Burqa Ban in France

A call by French President Nicholas Sarkozy to prohibit women from wearing the notorious Muslim body garb, the burqa, has led to heated debate and the creation of a government commission to investigate the proposed policy.

On June 22, Sarkozy -- who in the past has opposed restricting the public proselytizing and display of religious symbols in the public square -- described the burqa as "a problem of liberty and women's dignity" that was "not welcome in France." He added that the full-body covering was less a religious symbol than "a sign of subservience and debasement of females" that resulted in "women prisoners behind a screen, cut off from all social life, deprived of all identity."

While many secularists may agree, Sarkozy's proposal puts the government in the position of essentially creating a "dress code" for French citizens. It also raises serious questions about the strategies and limits in upholding the French cultural and political tradition of LAICITE, a term that refers to a robust separation of government and religion. As a political policy ensconced in French law, Laicite grew out of the effort in the 19th century to reverse the power exercised by the Roman Catholic Church over the country's educational and cultural institutions.

The Jules Ferry laws established free, secular education in 1881.

Separation was re-enforced in 1905 with new legislation, including the French Law on the Separation of the Church and the State.

This measure stressed the separation of government and religion, freedom of and from religious exercise, and restrictions on the public power of religious groups.

Today, LAICITE is supported by a wide range of civic and even religious groups, including anti-clerical movements, civil libertarians, freethought and Atheist/Humanist societies, and the Grand Orient of France, the nation's largest Masonic body. There are disagreements, though, on how far LAICITE should go; indeed, the dispute over the burqa highlights the conflict of individual freedom and "inappropriate" proselytizing in the public sphere.

Intelligence sources report that an "affiliate" of al Qaeda has
already threatened violence if the burqa ban becomes law. On the
other side of the political spectrum, Human Rights Watch warns that
such a law would be counterproductive. Islamic religious groups
say that the proposal stereotypes Muslims and is "insulting."

Ronald Sokol, international attorney and author of "Justice After Darwin," examined the proposed burqa prohibition in a recent op/ed piece in the New York Times ("MY Burqa Is None of Your Business, July 3, 2009). Sokol points out that the public display of burqas is not a widespread phenomenon in France, and may be, in fact, a guarantee of privacy and anonymity in public. "A state that proclaims democratic values cannot justify telling its residents what to wear or not to wear any more than it can justify telling them what to think or what to say or to which god to pray when no harm comes from the behavior, save the shock felt by those whose views and customs differ," warns Sokol.

There are other problems as well. Banning the burqa may fuel the ambitions and stature of a small coterie of Islamic fundamentalists who already criticize their brethren for being lax in religious practices. Muslims would see secularism, laicite, as a policy that must be enforced by government force rather than reason. And the policy could fuel the arguments of strident fundamentalists that "Islam is at war" with modern society.

A commission has been appointed by lawmakers to examine public policy is respect to the body garb. A report is expected in the next two weeks.