Ending oppression in the Middle East: A Muslim feminist call to arms

[geek tragedy]

13. I have a great deal of sympathy for women such as the author, and in general

find the application of "shock jock" tactics to feminist advocacy to be more a celebration of vulgarity (which is neither good nor bad) rather than a meaningful resistance to patriarchy or other societal ills.

Vladimir Putin's condescending thumps-up to FEMEN protestors was the perfect summation of what they accomplish.

At the same time, those who claim that Islam, or Roman Catholicism, or Mormonism, or whatever are vehicles for combating the patriarchy--that seems more like trying to avoid cognitive dissonance than a viable theory of change. Male supremacism is the foundation stone for these faiths. It's baked into the cake. Nuns who hold non-Medieval views on abortion and same-sex marriage get put in their place by the grand patriarch himself in Rome, etc etc etc.

I don't envy the position these women are in--the faith they cherish is also the instrument of their oppression.

And I can see why they want to reclaim their faith as a progressive one.

But, Roman Catholicism, Islam etc have over 1500 years under their belts, and they're no less male supremacist today than they were in the time of Charlemagne.

Where women have attained greater freedom and self-realization, it has been where there's been secularism, either explicit or implicit (e.g. women feeling free to pick and choose which faith tenets to observe and which to ignore).