There have been rivers of real and virtual ink, and days of tv network time dedicated to the (eagerly awaited) massive flight of women from the Obama camp. They would never accept Obama. They would be too angry to vote for him after he beat Clinton. They would blame him for all the slights against Clinton in the media. They would go to McCain that made them “feel secure”. Ironically, underlying many of these predictions there seemed to be a thread of (sometimes minor sometimes glaring) sexism; an assumption that women were so emotional that they’d resent Obama forever, so fearful that they’d go to McCain.

Well it’s a good thing virtual ink is free, because as it turns out, the exodus did not happen.

(more…)

The NY Times has a fascinating - and frightening - story up about one Malika El Aroud, a 48-year-old Moroccan now living in Belgium where she spending her time authoring incendiary pro-jihad writings on the Internet. Seems there’s a place for women in Islam after all. Read it all and be afraid.

(more…)

Rebecca Walker, daughter of feminism and author Alice Walker, who publicly called her own child a calamity in her life, has some interesting things to say about the movement.  Well worth reading.

(more…)

Michael Sokolove has a great article at the NY Times Magazine about sports injuries and the seldom-discussed fact that teenage girls are much, much more likely to both sustain major knee and head injuries than boys of the same age.  Despite the unfortunate title of "Uneven Playing Field", this article is highly recommended reading for parents and coaches of teen athletes of the female persuasion.

(more…)

Ellen R. Malcom on Hillary Clinton’s run for the presidency:

This brilliant woman believes that she can compete for the most powerful office in the world. She believes that she can do a better job than any of the men running to lead our country through these challenging times. And millions of Americans, women and men, believe that she is correct.

(more…)

Rob Lowe is fighting back against what he calls an attempt to damage and humiliate his family by a former employee who is threatening to file a sexual harassment suit. Can’t say as I’m a huge fan, but I do appreciate Lowe’s contribution to cinema, mainly because, 20+ years ago, my wife and I went to see Youngblood on our second date.

Lowe says:

when people make false claims of harassment particularly for financial gain, it must be defended vigorously and openly, for it weakens the claims of legitimate victims. (more…)

Two recent articles about the way women work and are portrayed in the media caught my attention.  The contrast deserves an eye, I think.

First, John Hawkins has a really interesting article up in which he interviews 5 female bloggers of conservative mind about their experiences working in Internet media.  One common theme:  Female bloggers are frequently targets of degrading attacks on their sexuality and their intellect. 

(more…)

Lori Gottlieb has written what can only be described as a soul-baring essay about her regrets over never having married.  Highly recommended reading, though many "liberated" women may have a difficult time acknowledging what Gottlieb has to say about her own misspent 20s and 30s.

Of course, we’d be loath to admit it in this day and age, but ask any soul-baring 40-year-old single heterosexual woman what she most longs for in life, and she probably won’t tell you it’s a better career or a smaller waistline or a bigger apartment. Most likely, she’ll say that what she really wants is a husband (and, by extension, a child).

(more…)

The 7th century geniuses who brought us jihad are still hard at work, this time making the world safe for male Muslim coffee drinkers:

A 37-year-old American businesswoman and married mother of three is seeking justice after she was thrown in jail by Saudi Arabia’s religious police for sitting with a male colleague at a Starbucks coffee shop in Riyadh.

(more…)

And why not?

The BBC says that a group of Saudi women plan to deliver a petition to the King Abdullah which would, if approved, allow them to drive cars for the first time.

Members of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars plan to deliver a petition to King Abdullah by Sunday, Saudi Arabia’s National Day.

…

A founding member of the Committee of Demanders of Women’s Right to Drive Cars, Fawzia al-Oyouni, said its electronic petition would highlight what many Saudi men and women consider a “stolen right”.

“We would like to remind officials that this is, as many have said, a social and not religious or political issue,” she told the Associated Press. “Since it’s a social issue, we have the right to lobby for it.”

“This is a right that has been delayed for too long.”

This has been an ongoing struggle for the women of Saudi Arabia.

Saudi Arabia is the only Gulf state to ban women from the road.

…

Correspondents say Saudi women lead some of the most restricted lives in the world, with everything but the most minor public transaction requiring approval from their husbands or fathers.

Those who have tried in the past to defy the ban have been punished for their trouble.

This was originally an unofficial ban, but it became law after an incident in 1990, when 47 women from the Saudi intelligentsia challenged the authorities by taking their husbands’ and brothers’ cars out for a drive.

The backlash from the Saudi religious elite was swift. Many of the women lost their jobs or were harassed in other ways.

Regarding this week’s petition, the usual repressive response is predicted:

Correspondents say the demand is likely to be rejected, as conservatives argue if women are allowed to drive, they will be able to mix freely with men.

The horror, the horror.

Now, if Saudi men were to say that they don’t want their wives to drive because it’s dangerous, that I could understand.

Driving is hazardous in Saudi, what with a per-vehicle traffic fatality rate roughly 7 times that of the U.S. 

Safety of loved ones is certainly a logical and defensible argument, even if it is somewhat condescending toward women.

But no.  It’s always the same knee-jerk reaction to the possible mixing of the sexes.  Never mind the hypocrisy of a social system that allows men to have multiple wives while denying women even the most basic rights.  Men and women might see actually each other and they can’t have that.

The issue is perhaps best summarized by Prince Nayef, who said:  “We consider [the question] to be secondary, not a priority.  These matters are decided according to the general good and what is dictated by women’s honour…”

Cross-posted at Black Shards.

An, umh, slightly unorthodox way of finding yourself a woman:

Marina Nemat’s name had been scrawled on her forehead, and she was about to be shot.

She had been locked up in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison since early 1982, when, at age 16, she complained that math and history lessons in her school had been replaced by Koran instruction and political propaganda.

Nemat was rounded up for speaking out against the Ayatollah Khomeini’s brutal regime, and she was sent to Evin to be interrogated, tortured and executed.

Just minutes from death, her life was spared. But the blessing came with a heavy price.

A prison guard named Ali had fallen in love with Nemat and used his father’s connection to the Ayatollah to commute her sentence to life in prison. Threatening to harm her family and friends, he forced Nemat — a Christian — to marry him and convert to Islam.

She wrote a book about her experiences called Prisoner of Tehran; NPR has an excerpt of the book (which I will get for myself). If you want to read it as well, you can order it at Amazon.