My first Maureen Dowdy reference!

The Queen of Spleen wistfully reminisces about the good old days when Uday, Qusay, and sometimes even the Mother of All Father Figures himself would slap her around a bit, violate her human rights, and make her feel like a natural woman. (Thanks to Lance in Iraq for the heads up on this latest Democrass talking point.)


New York Times columinst Maureen Dowd penned an OP-ED piece concerning President Bush's "diplomacy-free" foreign policy on women's rights in Iraq.

See the bias inherent in the system!

Dowd theorizes that Americans prefer when President Bush promotes his pet issue of women's rights in Afghanistan and Iraq.

According to Dowd, this justifies the current conflict to a certain extent.But the reality in Afghanistan is far from peachy-keen.

Dowd notes:
The fundamentalist Taliban is recrudescing in Afghanistan, young girls in Iraq are afraid to leave the house because there are so many kidnappings and rapes, and women's groups in Iraq are terrified that the new constitution will cut women's rights to a Saudiesque level.

[snip]

Clerics running religious courts based on the Koran could legitmize polygamy, honor killings, stonings, public beheadings of women charged with adultery and divorce by "talaq"—where all a husband has to do is declare, "I divorce thee" three times.

That reminds me of a Steve Martin bit from when he was still funny. (That was a long, long, long, time ago, kiddies.) It was called One Way to Leave Your Lover. When you wanted to break up with someone, all you had to do was throw a little dog poop on her shoes.

[snip]

Saddam repressed Islamic politics, so under him, Iraq was one of the most secular countries in the Middle East. It has become far more fundamentalist since the U.S. took over.

A group of young Iraqi women validated Dowd's opinions, telling the Los Angeles Times that they had more freedom in the 1960s.

Said Najla Ubeidi:
During the 1960s, there was a real belief in improving women's conditions. We could wear what we liked, go out when we liked, return homes when we liked, and people would judge us on the way we behaved.

I want this to be a lesson to all of you, gentle readers. Miss Dowdy is what you get when you are mean to other kids in school. So, to avoid producing more lonely, pathetic, and angry old communist ladies, please be nice to the awkward girls in your class.