Saving the burkha woman?
All the things Western women
take for granted are denied Afghan women, said Mrs Blair. “Here,
we can dress as we please; in Afghanistan, that’s forbidden.”
Well, what happened to Hillary Clinton? And will British voters have the
confidence to put another woman in No.10? It’s only a few years since
Prime Minister John Major had an all-male cabinet.
The last time I wore nail varnish,
I must have been about 19. I never get round to painting my nails, and
my cuticles are shocking. But many women do look after their hands, and
manicure parlours have become large cottage industries, popping up everywhere.
These places look enticing and relaxing: small businesses packed with
women; always run by women.
Now, it seems I must buy some nail varnish because it is, apparently,
a burning issue in women’s fight for equal rights. The personal is
the political, they say. And Britain’s “First Lady”, Cherie
Blair, tells us that in Afghanistan, “If you wear nail polish, you
could have your nails torn out.”
All the things Western women take for granted are denied Afghan women,
said Mrs Blair in a speech made at Downing Street. “Here, we can
dress as we please; in Afghanistan, that’s forbidden.”
Cherie Blair, highly intelligent, extremely high earning (she makes a
lot more than Britain’s prime minister), a powerful woman and a role
model to many, never speaks in public about politics.
Her unprecedented appearance on a political platform occurred two days
after another politically-silent woman, America’s First Lady, spoke
of the “severe repression and brutality against women in Afghanistan”.
Laura Bush commandeered her husband’s Saturday national radio address
to open up about female human rights — unaware, perhaps, that women’s
and children’s lives are being torn asunder by her country’s
“smart” bombs.
Suddenly, the two wives can speak. I’m sure no one in Downing Street
and the White House had taken count of the obviously sour women worldwide
looking askance at two white Western war leaders (warmongers?) who insist
that Muslim female emancipation from torrid male oppression is as important
as revenge on Osama bin Laden.
Read the full
story in the January 2002 edition of New African Magazine
Copyright © IC Publications Limited 2001. All rights reserved. No part of this site may be reproduced or transmitted in any form by any means or used for any business purpose without the written consent of the publisher. Whilst every effort has been made to ensure that the information contained herein is as accurate as possible, the publisher cannot accept responsibility for any consequences arising from its use.
Back to the top
Contents
|
