By Phyllis Chesler

What I have been hearing from feminists is not what either the liberal-Democratic or conservative-Republican media have so far addressed. I am not at liberty to go into details but here’s the essence of what I have been told:

The Democratic Party leaders, despite their feminist-friendly agenda, did everything they could to destroy Senator Hillary’s candidacy. The fact that she is a standard-bearer for Democratic party values and won eighteen million votes made no difference, not only because she came with “baggage,” but also because she is a woman. This is why the “Hillary-ites” are so enraged and distraught. They have seen such behavior before from progressive-radical men and women who have said all the right feminist things (or promised future feminist activism) but who turned out to be no different than anyone else in terms of misogyny. … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

“Shaikha,” a 16-year-old Saudi girl, drank bleach in an attempt to kill herself because her father was forcing her to marry a 75-year-old man. And why? So that Shaikha’s father could himself marry the elderly man’s 13-year-old daughter! Shaikha begged and pleaded not to be forced into this marriage–even her mother supported her plea; all to no avail. … (Continue reading…)

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By Andrew L. Jaffee

I’ve often wondered why Russia freed itself from communism, only to slide back to the paternalistic ways of authoritarian rule (e.g., Putin). Even though there’s been obvious vote rigging, and squelching of the media, it’s probably fair to say that the major of Russians voted for Putin because he makes them feel secure. While skimming some headlines this week, I finally found some insight into Russia’s love for paternalism — literally.

Recently, a Russian judge threw a woman’s sexual harassment case out of court on the grounds that, “If we had no sexual harassment we would have no children.” Huh? Read the statistics — and weep. From the Telegraph:

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By Phyllis Chesler

Yaser Abdul Said, who honor murdered his two beautiful and brilliant daughters Sarah and Amina earlier this year in Dallas, is alive and well and has been using a calling card to allegedly threaten various Christian members of his formerly Christian wife’s family. He did so as recently as three weeks ago. … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

Four female suicide killers just murdered 57 people and wounded 300 others in Iraq. Many of their victims were on a religious pilgrimage.

This should no longer surprise us. Like men, women are human beings and are therefore as close to the apes as to the angels. Thus, like men, women are as likely to nourish as to destroy. Still, we live in a culture that on the one hand, suspects women of being sneaky, “bitchy,” even evil but on the other hand, idealizes women as morally superior to men and as Natural Born Mothers, not as Natural Born Killers. … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

This weekend, on both Saturday and Sunday evenings at 8pm, EST, Fox-TV will be airing a one hour documentary about honor murders in America. They interviewed me at length and you may see my face and my words on camera. … (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

On July 16th, 2008, on a hot and blindingly sunny evening in Battery City Park, I was honored with the first “Emma” Award — no, not an Emmy, an “Emma” — named for the 19th century poet, crusader, humanitarian and Zionist, Emma Lazarus. This was to celebrate her 159th birthday. This first-ever event, was organized by the City of New York Parks and Recreation and by Jewish American Performing Arts.

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By Phyllis Chesler

The photo arrests my gaze. It instantly haunts me. It shows two Afghan women chatting while sitting on their heels, close to the ground. They are both wearing iridescent light blue burqas. One seems to be clutching a shopping bag. They are about to be shot to death by Taliban fighters who accused them of running a prostitution ring that catered to American soldiers. For good measure, the Taliban also accused them of working for the local governor. According to the BBC here: (Continue reading…)

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By Phyllis Chesler

Cultural differences exist, they are real and they matter. As a lifetime critic of injustice, I understand that it exists everywhere but as someone who has also once lived in the Islamic Third world and studied it thereafter, I understand that, as my dear friend Ibn Warraq says, the West is worth defending; our values and virtues, our laws and customs are different from and in many ways more evolved than the (absence) of laws and abusive customs that characterize totalitarian, fascist, tyrannical, and fundamentalist regimes.

Just today, here is a small sampling of news about the recent and ongoing fate of women in the Islamic world. …

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By Phyllis Chesler

Cassandra lives. No, I am not talking about the ancient Trojan prophet whose visions went unheeded and whom the Greek conquerors enslaved. This is another kind of Cassandra. Her visions of danger and doom concern what happens when an American woman marries an Arab and Muslim man. Cassandra herself was once married to an Arab Christian and, based on that experience has, so far, written two books: Escape from an Arab Marriage. Horror Stories of Women Who Fled From Abusive Muslims Husbands (2006) and Thirty Three Secrets Arab Men Never Tell American Women (2008). In the first book, she tells the stories of many American women who married Arab Muslim men and what happened to them. …

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By Phyllis Chesler

In the late 1990s, I was asked to interview a group of female mental patients who had been raped on their state psychiatric ward by other patients. I traveled out to Nebraska to interview these women and to prepare my testimony. My planning sessions with their lawyers were fascinating–but not as moving as my meetings with the brave women themselves. The institutional abuse of our most vulnerable citizens in state care remains a crucial and unresolved problem.

I would welcome other such similar stories and even more: The remedies and just conclusions.

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By Phyllis Chesler

Old News: The sisters, Sarah and Amina Said, are still dead; their father-murderer, Yasir Abdul Said, has not yet been found; the mainstream media continues its uncanny silence.

What’s New: The reward for Said’s capture has been doubled and Tissy Said, his wife and the mother of the two murdered girls, has been ejected from the home of her extended Muslim family. Her beloved son, Islam, (from whom she would not willingly part), has been sent away from her. The Said family presumably want him to be “around a man” (his paternal uncle in New York City) and not around his mother. According to Tissy’s great-aunt, the brave, outspoken, Gail Gartrell:

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By Phyllis Chesler

In the former Yugoslavia, men were not usually gang-raped. Many were tortured, and many were genocidally slaughtered. This happened on President Clinton’s watch and it took a long time and a great deal of persuasion before Clinton allowed America to become militarily involved. Europe did not come to the aid of its immediate neighbor. No Arab or Muslim country came to the aid of their Muslim brethren trapped in this treacherous war-zone.

The public and repeated gang-rapes of both girls and women had become a weapon of war and was no longer merely a “spoil of war.”

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By Phyllis Chesler

This was my first piece for Frontpage Magazine and I gave it to them only after both the New York and LA Times turned it down. A group of Israeli feminists wanted to show a film. The Swedish filmmaker absolutely refused his film to be shown in Israel. Within 48 hours of posting my article, Lukas Moodysson, the filmmaker, changed his mind and allowed his brilliant anti-trafficking film, “Lilya-4-ever” to be shown on a one-time basis at an anti-trafficking conference in Israel. Moodysson knew my work in Swedish and he wrote to me, furious that I had challenged his reputation as “prejudiced.” But he changed his mind.

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By Phyllis Chesler

How do we cut down on honor murders in the West? According to some people, you do whatever it takes to keep the girls from dishonoring their families so that their families do not have to honor-murder them.

According to the New York Times, “home schooling” the girls in America, re-creating a feudal, rural, parallel universe in California in which girls and women are kept hidden and apart, is the sensible, merciful alternative to honor murders in The New World.

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