{"id":23660,"date":"2014-10-12T08:42:33","date_gmt":"2014-10-12T12:42:33","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/?p=23660"},"modified":"2014-10-12T08:43:09","modified_gmt":"2014-10-12T12:43:09","slug":"women-over-there-have-it-worse","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/lovejoyfeminism\/2014\/10\/women-over-there-have-it-worse.html","title":{"rendered":"Women Over There Have It Worse!"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

As some of you may know, Bill Maher and Sam Harris have been criticizing Islam lately, with pushback from Reza Aslan and Ben Affleck, among others. For an interesting discussion of one of these conversations,\u00a0see this post by Avicenna<\/a>. Heck, if you want more reading, see\u00a0this post with a video of Reza Aslan<\/a>,\u00a0this response on the Friendly Atheist<\/a>, and\u00a0Reza Aslan\u2019s recent piece in the New York Times<\/a>. But in this post I want to touch on a very specific statement made by Sam Harris (during this segment<\/a>).<\/p>\n

\n

Liberals have really failed on the topic of theocracy. They\u2019ll criticize white theocracy, they\u2019ll criticize Christians.\u00a0They\u2019ll still get agitated over the abortion clinic bombing that happened in 1984.<\/strong>\u00a0But when you want to talk about the treatment of women and homosexuals and free thinkers and public intellectuals in the Muslim world, I would argue that liberals have failed us.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

I have to say, when I heard this bit my jaw just dropped. That Harris could move smoothly from dismissing the very real and very present threat of\u00a0violence against abortion clinics and abortion\u00a0providers to condemning the treatment of women in \u201cthe Muslim world\u201d is mind boggling. This is not how supporting women\u2019s rights works. But even with that aside, Harris is so factually off on anti-abortion violence that I\u2019m actually honestly surprised. I would have thought him more informed on this topic.<\/p>\n

Violence against abortion clinics and abortion providers dates back to\u00a0at least the 1980s and continues in the present<\/a>. Eight doctors or clinic providers have been murdered,\u00a0the last one only five years ago<\/a>. In fact, the clinic that was bombed in the 1984 incident Harris mentions was bombed again in 2012\u2014and completely gutted as a result<\/a>. I hear of arson and death threats, and it shakes me. I\u2019ve served as an escort at my local Planned Parenthood clinic.\u00a0It can be very scary\u2014for all involved. Women often have their license plate numbers recorded by anti-abortion protesters calling them \u201cmurderers,\u201d and in some areas of the country doctors who perform abortions have to wear masks when entering clinics to protect their identities. Just recently a writer for the high-profile National Review\u00a0called for hanging\u00a0women who have had abortions<\/a>.<\/p>\n

To have Harris present concern about anti-abortion violence as \u201cgetting agitated over the abortion clinic bombing that happened in 1984\u201d is horrifying. He should know better.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m tired of seeing people emphasize\u00a0the challenges women face in Muslim countries while downplaying the challenges\u00a0women face elsewhere. This sort of thing makes it\u00a0look like it\u2019s\u00a0more about having it in for Islam (or for religion) than it is about women\u2019s wellbeing. That Harris is willing to dismiss not simply\u00a0structural sexism but also opposition to women\u2019s healthcare access is bizarre.<\/p>\n

Should we criticize laws in Muslim countries that legislate inequality?\u00a0Absolutely<\/em>. But we should also call out the\u00a0horrific violence women face in countries like the Congo<\/a>, or\u00a0sex trafficking in Thailand<\/a>, or\u00a0slut shaming and victim blaming in our own country<\/a>.\u00a0Sexism and barriers to women\u2019s equality should be called out\u00a0wherever they are found<\/em>. Are all of these challenges or barriers equally as harmful? No, but that doesn\u2019t make focusing on\u00a0some while dismissing others okay.\u00a0Calling out challenges and barriers women face in Muslim\u00a0countries\u00a0while ignoring or dismissing those women face elsewhere<\/em>, including in our own country,\u00a0is not okay<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Many Christians have historically held some\u00a0of the\u00a0same\u00a0views of women as many Muslims do today. We need to remember that we are where we are today as a result of\u00a0women of all stripes who have worked to demand equal legal rights for women (remember that only two centuries ago it was legal in the U.S. for men to beat their\u00a0wives, and that women in the U.S. gained the right to vote less than a century ago) and accompanying reforms within Christianity (most Christians in the U.S. today hold very different views of women and their role than Christians did one or two centuries ago).\u00a0We should use our own history as a reminder that improvement\u00a0is possible rather than as a platform\u00a0from which to judge others.<\/p>\n

We also need to remember that we ourselves still need improvement. Whether or not Harris is aware of it, women still face challenges and barriers in the U.S. Women in the U.S. are not guaranteed paid maternity leave. Abortion access has been chipped away slowly and steadily, and it is\u00a0increasingly difficult for poor women and\u00a0women of color to access reproductive healthcare. Women make up the large majority of stay-at-home parents, performing labor that is neither paid nor factored into future\u00a0social security benefits. And this is without even getting into slut shaming and victim blaming.<\/p>\n

Do women in other areas of the world face greater challenges and barriers than we do here in the U.S.?\u00a0Yes<\/em>. But the fact that other women have it worse should not be used to downplay\u00a0the very real challenges and barriers\u00a0women in the U.S. continue to face today.<\/p>\n

I have to believe we can do better than this.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Do women in other areas of the world face greater challenges and barriers than we do here in the U.S.? Yes. But the fact that other women have it worse should not be used to downplay the very real challenges and barriers women in the U.S. continue to face today.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":845,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-23660","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-feminism"],"yoast_head":"\nWomen Over There Have It Worse!<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Do women in other areas of the world face greater challenges and barriers than we do here in the U.S.? Yes. 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