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Thursday, May 12, 2005

Feminism, Hamas-style

Backspin notes this paragraph in the middle of a Newsweek article on women in Hamas:
In the meantime, some female Hamas loyalists have chosen to take up arms themselves. In January 2004, Re’em Rayashi, a 22-year-old mother of two toddlers, walked toward the Erez checkpoint in the northern Gaza Strip, where she detonated a suicide bomb that killed her and four Israeli soldiers. Some reports said that she had committed adultery, and been forced into the mission by her jealous husband. Whatever the motive, her act was generally praised by local Hamas leaders, a reminder that elections are not Hamas’s only preoccupation. “Women must decide for themselves what their priorities are,” says Sami Abu-Zuhry, a Hamas official in Gaza. “Raising children for jihad, or participating in acts of martyrdom.”

What a progressive movement! Women seem to have even more choices than men in Hamasistan - men can only blow up Jews, but women can also raise boys to blow up Jews!

No wonder the European liberals are so partial to Palestinian aspirations! How many European women are so empowered that they can blow themselves up along with a bunch of dhimmis? How many liberal women are so empowered that they have a socially-acceptable way to erase the stigma of adultery?

Yes, clearly Palestinian society is the darling of progressive movements because they are just so darn progressive themselves.