Honor Killings and Abortion Activists
by Steve Muscatello
Townhall.com
Jan 6, 2006
Unless Samuel Alito makes like Tom Cruise on Oprah—rambling incoherently and jumping up and down like an untrained ape—during his hearings beginning Monday, he will be confirmed to the U.S. Supreme Court in short order.
At which point the world will end.
Or so say ever-apocalyptic pro-abortion groups.
Kim Gandy, President, National Organization of Women:
<<< “Alito is a clear opponent of reproductive freedom […] and other individual rights. […] NOW activists will be calling on their representatives to vote against Alito’s confirmation, to protect the rights and liberties of all their constituents. Women's rights, and indeed our very lives, are at stake.” >>>
Nancy Keenan, President, National Abortion Rights League:
<<< "If he is confirmed, Alito could cast the decisive vote that allows…attacks on women's reproductive freedom.” >>>
Karen Pearl, Interim President, Planned Parenthood Federation of America:
<<< “Judge Alito’s judicial philosophy is […] dangerous to the health and safety of American women. […] Judge Alito would permit restrictions on reproductive freedom. […] There is no room on the court for someone like Judge Alito with a judicial philosophy that places at risk the rights, freedoms, and liberties that Americans hold dear.” >>>
The frequency of such pronouncements will only increase in the coming weeks. The femi-warriors will claw their way in front of every camera and bellow into every microphone. Alito hates freedom. Alito hates women. Alito killed my grandmother.
They are fighting for “freedom,” “rights,” and “liberties,” you see, and they want you to know that. Rest easy, they tell the women of America, the cavalry is here. But they’ve been so busy thwarting Alito’s plot to “attack” women’s freedom (I wonder if he conjured it up with his wife and daughter?) that they didn’t notice what happened in Pakistan last week.
In their stead, I’ll fill you in:
According to Associated Press reports, Nazir Ahmed, a 40-year old Pakistani laborer, slit the throats of his three daughters, ages 8, 7 and 4, and their 25-year old stepsister to “salvage his family’s ‘honor’” after his stepdaughter was accused of committing adultery.
Ahmed told AP that he “thought the younger girls would do what their eldest sister had done, so they should be eliminated.” As poor people, Ahmed continued, “we have nothing else to protect but our honor.”
There were 260 such “honor” killings in 2005, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan. In this case, Ahmed’s wife, Bibi, was forced to witness the killings as she sat clutching her 3 month-old son. In much of the Islamic world women are viewed as little more than property, so in many cases, the perpetrators of these crimes are given light sentences—a wink and a nod.
Islamic extremism at work.
Which brings us back to abortion. Is the abortion-as-female-liberation message a positive development for the women enslaved by Islamic extremists? These are women longing for real freedoms: an education, a vote, the respect worthy of all human beings.
Instead, they are beaten and butchered.
And should they turn to America for inspiration, for evidence of free women enjoying both their rights and their responsibilities, wouldn’t it be a shame if the voice they heard was that of NOW or NARAL?
Now to be fair, NOW, among other groups, has spoken out against “honor” killings. In fact, as far back as 2002, NOW was working with Congressmen Jerrold Nadler to pass a resolution condemning these horrific crimes. However, it is also true that pro-abortion groups focus on an overtly political—and American—issue: abortion. Thus, they can’t be expected to crusade for every women on earth.
But if you listen closely to pro-abortion rhetoric it’s always about more than abortion, more than just American women. It’s about the plight of women everywhere, about throwing off the shackles of male domination, about self-actualization. But if that were true, wouldn’t it require a distribution of efforts, resources—energy, really—based on global priorities? Is it more important that a Pakistani woman isn’t murdered over rumors of adultery or that a New York City lawyer can terminate a child’s life on her lunch break?
I am, to use the convenient label, pro-life. I’ve never been one to support—much less militantly support—abortion. But even if I were of a different worldview —pro-choice, if you will—I would be a reluctant warrior, a somber realist who hated the destruction of innocent life but treasured the power of individual decision making. I would lay off the faux nobility and accept the consequences of my position.
And if I were a pro-choice activist, say a member of NOW or NARAL sharpening my blades for the Alito fight, I would do so with a heavy heart and a troubled conscience. And I would wonder: am I really fighting for freedom, for rights, for equality? And I would wonder if that 8 year-old Pakistani girl had a nice smile.
Steve Muscatello is an Associate Editor for Townhall.com.
Copyright © 2006 Townhall.com
townhall.com |
