Before Talking Democracy In The Middle East, Shouldn't They Master Women's Rights First?

From an email I received from DG

Babylon and Beyond brings us: Protest movements give new energy to International Women's Day

Twitter and Facebook were filled with messages of support for the women of Egypt and Tunisia, as well as protesters in Yemen, Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Iran. Some posted video tributes to the female protesters, while others, perhaps bolstered by the energy of the protest movements, published their own demands for equal rights and a greater say in their countries' politics.

In practice, though, the million woman march in Egypt fizzled.


Barry Rubin has more: Egypt and the Middle East: Romanticism Meets Reality

Yahoo News has this interesting take: Palestinian woman mark International women day

Palestinian woman mark the International women day and call for national reconciliation between the rival Palestinian leading factions Hamas in Gaza and Fatah in the West Bank in, as they participate in a rally in Gaza city, Tuesday, March 8, 2011.

Yes, empowering Hamas will definitely be a boon for the women of Gaza!

Hamas has begun operating a "vice and virtue commando" in the Gaza Strip to safeguard Islamic values, Palestinian security officials and residents told The Jerusalem Post.

The new force, called the Anti-Corruption Unit, is believed to be behind the gruesome murder over the weekend of Yusra al-Azzami, a 22-year-old university student from the northern Gaza Strip.

And how does UNRWA celebrate International Women's Day?
Well, if you can't figure out  how Women’s is celebrated in the West Bank,
here's the answer: UNRWA Honors First Palestinian Female Suicide Bomber

Elsewhere in the bizarro world of the UN, Iran serves on the Commission for Women's rights

Again, how appropriate--considering the deep concern Iran has for women's rights.

Caroline Glick writes about Women's surprising defenders, which includes this observation:

But the feminists throughout the Jewish world are silent on this issue. And this isn’t surprising. The egregious mistreatment of Jewish women by their Arab husbands involves two issues that the Left – which encompasses most feminist groups – is intent on ignoring: Islamic misogyny and Islamic Jew hatred. Just as the Left ignores, underplays, trivializes or justifies the fact that hatred of Jews is the most universal sentiment in the Muslim world today, so it systematically ignores, underplays or trivializes the endemic brutalization of women and girls throughout the Islamic world.

The column was written in response to a suggestion from Israel Matzav, who writes about Yad l'Achim, which is not only an anti-missionary organization--Yad L'Achim also rescue Jewish women who are married to Arab men and their children.

Technorati Tag: Women's Rights and Middle East and International Women's Day.