Hatred of women?

["George Snedeker" <snedeker@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

By BARBARA EHRENREICH, Barbara Ehrenreich is the author, most recently, of
'Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By In America.'

KEY WEST, Fla. -- Feminists can take some dim comfort from the fact that the
Taliban's egregious misogyny has finally been noticed. For years, the
oppression
of Afghan women was a topic for exotic list serves and the occasional
forlorn Internet petition. As recently as May, for example, President Bush
congratulated
the ruling Taliban for banning opium production and handed them a check for
$43 million--never mind that their regime accords women a status somewhat
below
that of livestock.

In the weeks after Sept. 11, however, you could find escaped Afghan women on
Oprah and longtime anti-Taliban activist Mavis Leno doing the cable talk
shows.
CNN has shown the documentary "Behind the Veil," and even Bush has seen fit
to mention the Taliban's hostility toward women--although the regime's
hospitality
to Osama bin Laden is still seen as a far greater crime. Women's rights may
play no part in U.S. foreign policy, but we should perhaps be grateful that
they have at least been important enough to deploy in the media mobilization
for war. On the analytical front, though, the neglect of Taliban
misogyny--and
beyond that, Islamic fundamentalist misogyny, in general--remains almost
total. If the extreme segregation and oppression of women do not stem from
the
Koran, as non-fundamentalist Muslims insist, if it is in fact something new,
then why did it emerge when it did at the end of the 20th century? Liberal
and left-wing commentators have done a thorough job of explaining why the
fundamentalists hate America, but no one has bothered to figure out why they
hate women.