Monday, January 23, 2017
Elder of Ziyon
It was perhaps inevitable that during this weekend’s women’s
marches, some “progressives” would feel the need to show off their complete
cluelessness about the utter lack
of support for women’s rights in Palestinian society – where, e.g., 87%
believe a wife “must always obey her husband”. Compared with the prevalent
Palestinian views on women’s rights, Trump should have no problem to pass as a
feminist.
But since facts don’t matter, “legendary activist” Angela
Davis could ignore the ultra-conservative Muslim preferences of Palestinian
society and firmly declare:
“Women’s rights are human rights all over the planet, and that is why we say freedom
and justice for Palestine.” Others proudly
displayed
their cluelessness (and perhaps their flippancy) on signs demanding “Free birth
control and Palestine,” while still others felt oh-so
“emotional” when march participants used American flag-style scarves to cover
women in accordance with the 1400 years-old female “modesty” requirements of
Islam’s founder.
All of this was probably very much to the liking of Linda
Sarsour, the “award-winning, Brooklyn-born Palestinian-American-Muslim racial
justice and civil rights activist, community organizer, [and] social media
maverick,” who was one of the
four national co-chairs organizing the women’s marches. But while the ambitious
Sarsour certainly enjoyed the limelight at this
occasion, her prominent role in the organization of the protest marches also
resulted in some not so flattering revelations. I wrote about Sarsour’s fake
progressivism a few months ago, but it turns out that Sarsour is much more
of a hypocrite than I realized. As the Chilean Palestinian commentator Lalo
Dagach showed,
Sarsour has repeatedly defended Saudi Arabia against criticism, arguing that
there are women in parliament and that it is ridiculous to focus on the fact
that Saudi women are not allowed to drive because they get 10 weeks of paid
maternity leave – which they of course only get if their male guardian allows them
to work and if there is a male driver to take them to work... Astonishingly, Sarsour has also promoted
Sharia Law, claiming that it would mean that “all your loans & credit cards
become interest free.”
I then discovered that seven years ago, Daniel Pipes began
to compile Sarsour’s greatest hits, after she falsely claimed that he had
written about her (at a time when he had actually never heard of her) and that
his criticism (which at that point didn’t exist) had greatly increased her
popularity. Pipes’ compilation includes much revealing material concerning
Sarsour’s views, and there are also some truly bizarre posts – for example,
Sarsour proudly presenting herself as a Muslim mermaid; or an unintentionally
funny post where Sarsour is swooning about her own good looks and taste while
appearing in the colors of the Israeli flag…
But the most revealing statement is perhaps her declaration
in a video for World Hijab Day 2014:
“Without my hijab, I don’t really have an
identity on the outside.”
Pretty sad if your identity consists of a piece of
cloth wrapped around your head – and pretty sad if this passes as
“progressive”.
