By Manda Zand-Ervin

Source:

May 24, 2010

When you don’t hold certain groups of people up to the same standard that you hold yourself or your kind, it is called discrimination. When you think such groups are incapable of living up to the same standards that you yourself live up to, it is called Cultural Imperialism.

And so the elite of the left in America do not hold men and women to the same standard that they hold themselves, nor do they hold American Muslim men and women to equal standards between each other. Even as these elite politicians strive to protect terrorists with the same legal treatment as U.S citizens receive under our Constitution, the elites assiduously avoid protecting American Muslim women equally vis-à-vis American Muslim men under that same Constitution.

France, on the other hand and alone in the West, has decided to protect the rights of women – not only for Christians, Jews and others – but for Muslim women as well. In spite of this noble leadership, some Americans display a cultural imperialistic approach towards the issue.

“The decision of the French government to call for a ban on the headscarf in order to ‘liberate’ women is hypocritical at best,” commented Joseph K. Grieboski, Founder and Chairman of the Board of THE INSTITUTE on Religion and Public Policy. ”Imposing a ban on the right of a woman in France to wear the headscarf is no better than the Saudi imposition that a woman must wear one. In either case, the right of a woman to choose to wear a headscarf according to her religious beliefs is violated.”

Correction: what Muslim women are forced to wear is not something called a headscarf.  It is called a “Hijob” in Arabic language. It is mandatory to wear the Hijob; it is most decidedly not a choice. Mr. Grieboski is using the innocent-sounding word “headscarf” to cover up the oppression that the word “Hijob” represents. In so doing, he is protecting Muslim men’s right to slavery, not freedom of choice for Muslim women and girls.

I am sure Mr. Grieboski knows that Muslim women who wear the Hijob have no right to choose anything, and they are totally subservient to Muslim men. That Hijob is not what women have chosen for themselves; it is what Muslim men have imposed on them.

For some unknown reason, perhaps carried over from the foreign policy of non-interference, America‘s liberal elite have joined the oppressive patriarchal hierarchy of immigrant Muslim men to discriminate against America’s Muslim women.

Their reluctance to enforce the social norms and rules evenly and equally to include all American Muslims is beyond any comprehension. Cultural Imperialism under the disguise of multiculturalism and political correctness allows outright discrimination against a class of American citizens who had hoped they would be free from discrimination when they became Americans.

Christian and Jewish leaders chose to follow the followers. They accepted the misguided idea that if God did not want the people to live by their own choices and laws, they weren’t given the brain or the heart to care. They are wrong.

The Muslim world has been left out of most of the rest of the world’s social evolution, and Western democracies have not only refused to push them, as they push themselves, they have accommodated the patriarchal hierarchy of the Muslim world even in their own societies.

Political correctness and multiculturalism have made American society indifferent to justice for “ALL.” The word “ALL” means only for Westerners; non-Westerners need not apply for human dignity. In a way, the elites of America have even broken the law as they conspire against Muslim women.

The reason for the Muslim world’s anti-Americanism is that the American of freedom and human dignity is threatening the grip of the Muslim men’s totalitarian rule over their women and children’s lives. Freedom is contagious and so it is desired even by Muslim women and youth.

When their men decide to emigrate out of the old oppressive society, Muslim women look forward hopefully to be liberated. But unfortunately, even in the land of freedom, their men are given a pass, with the support of America’s elites, to continue forcing the Hijob and other social constraints.

Separation of religion and state does not apply to Muslim school girls who have to wear the Hijob, forced on their little heads by their fathers. In an age when the psychology of our children is so importantly stressed, how can we allow a group of girls to attend public schools when they are totally estranged and separated from the rest of their peers? The deep-rootedpsychological damage done to these girls in hijobs is not even discussed by the elites or the greater educational system. How can we believe that these children will grow up and be normal adults with their self confidence and social skills intact?

Unfortunately, Mr. Grieboski and his ilk think that little Muslim girls in elementary schools choose to wear that hideous looking Hijob among hundreds of free children and develop no psychological damage.

It is obvious that the Muslim people, especially women, are not the haters of America. As a matter of fact, they love the feeling of the freedom, independence, individualism and choice that is offered in America. This is exactly what has been alarming to the ruling Muslim dictators and clergies who are unwilling to loosen their 1,400-year-old grip on the people, especially women and children.

The world is still under the control of the men, in the west also. Western men and Muslim men in power have agreed not to intervene in their culture of gross violations of the of women and children – in return for their economic cooperation.

This norm has become prevalent in the actions of the . Last week, the democratic countries voted by acclamation that the Islamic theocratic regime of Iran could become a member of the Commission on the Status of Women. Not one representative of any democratic country opposed the vote, not one feminist Western woman walked out in protest, not one human rights advocate has uttered a word.

Unfortunately, American women in power are also following the rules that men have set up. One after another, Madam , pink feminists and movie stars travel to Muslim countries like Iran and follow the rules of the Muslim Patriarchal hierarchies by wearing the Hijob and covering their heads instead of being their own free and equal women, refusing to succumb to discrimination.

The same American women who abide by Islamic rules in Muslim countries do not demand the courtesy of reciprocity from Muslim women, asking them to remove their Hijob when they travel to our playground! Yes, it is obvious that Muslim women have no right to take off their Hijobs and, yes, that should be the main reason to require no woman or girl should be forced to wear a Hijob in America.

Muslim women do not have the right to speak up for fear of violent and cruel response from their men. They’d hoped that the free American society would have given them support and forced their men to join the civilized world. If Muslim men do not approve of our American culture, they can stay in their own societies where western elites have implemented the laws of Cultural imperialism in the name of noninterference, and for the sake of economic interest.

But in this country, perhaps the most certain way to lead to the continued slavery of Muslim women to Muslim men is to allow Muslim misogynist traditions to continue against the will of Muslim women. Sadly, even in our own country, the “home of the free,” such an outrage continues.

Contributing Editor Manda Zand Ervin is an Iranian and president and co-founder of Alliance of Iranian Women.