The day after Iran was “elected by acclamation” to the United Nation’s Commission on the Status of Women, Jennifer Rubin at Commentary wrote, "The U.S. couldn’t muster a word of opposition -- not even call for a vote. That would be because . . . why? Because our policy is not to confront and challenge the brutal regime for which rape and discrimination are institutionalized policies. No, rather, we are in the business of trying to ingratiate ourselves, and making the U.S. as inoffensive as possible to the world’s thugocracies."One wishes that Rubin had a voice inside the U.N. instead of the cowardly and hypocritical voice of the Obama administration which is there...but which went stone silent at this outrageous action.
No, once again we see that outside of tokenism and "reproductive choice," liberals have little interest in women's rights -- rights like freedom from torture, mutilation, sexual slavery, severe repression and death. Yet Democrats continue to believe they can downplay the desperate condition of millions of repressed and endangered women around the world and still hold a monopoly on women's votes here. As the Washington Post's Michael Shear recently reminded us (using a particularly unpropitious phrase), liberals are hoping in this next election season to "whip up women, who are a key Democratic constituency."
Isn't it time Republicans in Washington (and conservatives all around the country) make the most immediate and basic women's rights a key part of our political platform? To move against those who ruthlessly mistreat women? To address the international issues of health, family, and poverty by genuine development and not by merely shipping crates of condoms?
To help women and children is a good thing. And because it is a good thing in itself, it's a political winner too, especially as contrasted to the failed policies of liberal "family planners" and the chicken-hearted refusal of Team Obama to stand up to the "thugocracies" who bully and brutalize women.
(For more on the particular plight of women in Iran, I suggest this terrific piece by Faith J. H. McDonnell over at Front Page Magazine.)
