Today, at 4:10 CT I will be a guest on Dr. Gina Loudon’s radio program. We will be discussing actress Afshan Azad—she plays Padma Patil in the Harry Potter series—who is in hiding, under threat of an honor killing by her family. I wrote about it here.
The almost complete absence of so-called feminists in support of Ms. Azad is one of the most disturbing, but hardly surprising, details of this story.
Dr. Phyllis Chesler is one of the lone voices who fearlessly write about honor killings and the dangers of Islamist supremacists.
The reason it’s not surprising is because western feminists are not really feminists. They are hard left revolutionaries. Their hatred of the west and Judeo Christian values is at the core of their ruthless ideology. Female victims of honor killings are unfortunate but inevitable in their Stalinist world view.
Further, these so-called feminists pick and choose who is the “authentic” Muslim.
Thus, radical Islamists—those who hate Jews, America, Christians—emerge as the new proletariat.
In the ideological swamp of leftist feminist thinking, Ms. Azad, because she is a world famous actress, is not authentic and her deranged culture has the moral right to, well, kill her. The same for Ayyan Hirsi Ali, who was forced to flee Holland because she was under a death-fatwa threat and the Dutch could not be bothered to protect her.
This is what’s known in the liberal press as multiculturalism, but multiculturalism is just the kumbaya version of a totalitarian ideology.
Here’s an accurate and very funny guide to western feminism:
Ariel Chaim Avrech, ZT'L, May His Righteous Memory be a Blessing.
26 Comments
Feminazi is a good term. In today’s America a man needs a woman like a seal needs a shark. Women like to hang out around men. Vultures like to hang out around their next lunch, too.
Until America stops being the Socialist Republic of Feminazism, women can have my company up until about five minutes after I’m satisfied and then it’s good bye time. I make no promises. And I won’t forcibly share my hard earned money with a moocher and parasite that feels entitled to 75% of what I own because she got in bed with me, a few times. Well, I got in bed with her a few times, too, and she didn’t bring to the mattress anything more valuable than what I brought. I got mine. She got hers. So long. Go find a sucker to put you on a pedestal, if you can find one. This one knows the plan and he’s not collaborating with the enemy.
You’ve got feminazis all figured out. Good for you. Women wanted to be equal. Now, to many, they are. Best of luck. They’re gonna need it.
Sorry about your son.
As for Israel, I’m 100% in favor of the Israelis kicking ALL pisslims out and keeping the WHOLE country for themselves. They earned it in 1948. The rest of the pisslims can very well keep quiet about it or be turned into an Israeli parking lot, glass paved.
I’m tired of communists, feminazis, pisslims and collectivists of all kinds.
It is time enough for good, decent people to show a little anger and “make our feelings known”. The hard way.
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The fundamental interpretations of the law have been made in Mishnah, Talmud, Shulchan Aruch et al. Any further interpretation can only be within that framework. If we don’t agree on that, we have nothing to discuss. If we do agree on that, and you accept these authorities, well, those books were all authored by men.
And as for the idea that there are no injustices to be rectified… just ask any agunah who has had to confront a corrupt beit din.
Please, no one disagrees that corrupt practices need to be stopped. So long as we don’t attempt to solve the problem extra-halachically, which is what some feminists are demanding with their senseless cries of “If there’s a Rabbinic will, there’s a way.” That’s just another form of the anti-woman accusation leveled against the Rabbis. No, even if there is a Rabbinic will, there is not always a way, not if we wish to remain within the bounds of settled halachah.
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“Not if the supposed injustice is in the very requirements that God Himself has set out for us (included in which is adherence to Rabbinic law). For a believer, God can commit no injustices, and so there are none to be rectified.”
But that’s exactly my point. The interpretation of the law is in the hands of human beings: “Lo ba-shamayim hee” (it is not in Heaven).
And as for the idea that there are no injustices to be rectified… just ask any agunah who has had to confront a corrupt beit din.
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Rahel (without a c):
This is what I was referring to when I mentioned God teaming up with the patriarchy:
that God, who could have required women to perform these mitzvot, generously and chivalrously gave way before the claims of the women’s husbands on their time and labor.
I assumed this was your point of view; it turns out you were only quoting. My apologies.
Re. your stories about exemption turning into prohibition: I don’t see them as illustrating anything more than one person’s discomfort at going against common social practice. I see nothing nefarious in this. A person is not required to allow guests in his home to run roughshod over his usual practice; in fact, I think it was rude of the guest to demand it. Nor does this strike me as something imposed by men; women are no less likely to conform to social expectations, and that’s generally a good thing in my opinion.
God may have given us the laws, but it is men who have interpreted them for centuries.
Yes, and those same men are the ones who propounded the opinion that allows – and perhaps requires – women to do the zimun. So where is their supposed bias?
In general, I view these claims that men’s interpretations were made for the furtherance of their own power as a chutzpah, considering the sublime greatness of the people we’re discussing (Tannaim, Amoraim, Rishonim etc.). It’s pretty much an attempt to undermine the authority of the Sages, upon which so much of our religious practice rests. It needs to be resisted.
Yes, God has told us how he would like to serve Him. He also recognizes the fact that there is injustice in the world, including in the Jewish world, and commands us to rectify it wherever possible.
Not if the supposed injustice is in the very requirements that God Himself has set out for us (included in which is adherence to Rabbinic law). For a believer, God can commit no injustices, and so there are none to be rectified.
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P.S. I said nothing about “exploited women,” either. That’s entirely your own invention. Women’s labor was necessary for the survival of the household. “When Adam delved and Eva span, who was then the gentleman?” (OK, that’s about class rather than gender issues, but still….)
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Kishke, if I’m speaking in “fuzzy generalities,” it’s only because I didn’t learn the study by heart. The study that I read — and wish with all my heart that I could find again — had all the primary sources and quotes that anyone could wish. If I ever find it again, I’ll make sure to forward it to you, or if I can’t do that, I’ll tell you where you can find it, be-li neder.
As for exemption turning into prohibition — it’s something that I see almost every day here in Israel. For example, an acquaintance of mine once told me that if a woman were a guest in his home during Hanukkah, he would be offended if she brought her own menorah and lit it, but he would not be offended if a man did so. For another, a man I know refused to allow three women who ate in his home to do a mezuman — the ritual invitation to the grace after meals — even though there are opinions in Jewish law that say that a women’s mezuman is mandatory, not optional. In both cases, these men put their comfort level above halacha — something that I’ve seen others quite happy to accuse women of doing.
God may have given us the laws, but it is men who have interpreted them for centuries. The power to interpret laws is just that — power — and it is human nature to want to hold on to power and not share it voluntarily.
Yes, God has told us how he would like to serve Him. He also recognizes the fact that there is injustice in the world, including in the Jewish world, and commands us to rectify it wherever possible.
I said nothing at all about God teaming up with an evil patriarchy. (Who’s stereotyping now?) I was citing, to the best of my memory, a halachic opinion cited in a survey of Jewish legal thought over centuries of Jewish history.
Finally, I spell my name “Rahel,” without a c.
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Rachel: There’s only one place in Talmud that I know of where it speaks of women’s “light-headedness” (not a precise translation) and it has nothing to do with performance of mitzvos. Nor does the description indicate a negative opinion of women in general; witness the Talmud’s characterization of women as possessing greater understanding than men.
The idea that God somehow “teamed up” with the men of the “evil patriarchy” to divide the labor of exploited women is outrageous. It assumes that God has some personal need of our mitzvos, which is nonsense. It also assumes that God favors men over women, and that this is indicated by the mitzvos he wishes each to perform. This is untrue. Rather, God, in His infinite wisdom, and in His intimate understanding of the beings He Himself created, knows precisely which mitzvos are needed for the betterment of each gender, and prescribed them accordingly. If one does not believe that God knows best which of His mitzvos are fitting for which person, then there is no point in that person observing the commandments to begin with. If you want to serve God, you need to do it on His terms. Otherwise, it’s not God you’re serving; it’s yourself.
Your closing statement reads: As I see it, in many cases “exemption” has turned into “prohibition.” A lot of what I see today — regrettably — has more to do with certain elements in the Jewish world wanting to preserve their place in the power structure than an honest inquiry into women’s place and involvement in public Jewish life.
You are speaking in fuzzy generalities. I’d like to see some specific examples of the “many cases” of “exemptions turned into prohibitions” that you cite.
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Jenny, somewhere out there is a study that traces the reasons that various sages and commentators provided throughout Jewish history for women’s exemption from performing certain mitzvot. I have been trying to find this study again for some years without success. In a nutshell, and to the best of my memory, it goes something like this:
In Talmudic times, when negative opinions of women were common across cultures, the reason for women’s exemption from certain mitzvot was that they could not be trusted to perform them properly (because they were considered to be “light-headed,” lacked the required education, and so on). Later, during the Middle Ages or thereabout, a well-known rabbi wrote that God, who could have required women to perform these mitzvot, generously and chivalrously gave way before the claims of the women’s husbands on their time and labor. In the nineteenth century, Rabbi Samson Raphael Hirsch put forward his view that women are on a higher spiritual level than men and therefore do not need the constant reminders of the Divine Presence that the mitzvot provide.
As I see it, in many cases “exemption” has turned into “prohibition.” A lot of what I see today — regrettably — has more to do with certain elements in the Jewish world wanting to preserve their place in the power structure than an honest inquiry into women’s place and involvement in public Jewish life.
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Jenny: I can try to answer, but you’ll have to be a bit more specific. I think I know what you mean by mitzvos from which women are excused. But what do you mean by mitzvos from which they are “forbidden?” Do you have an example?
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What I want to know is, if women are “excused” from certain mitzvot because their family duties conflict, why are they “forbidden” from certain mitzvot if their family duties do not conflict? A little off the subject, I admit.
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Rahel:
No one is blaming feminism for all the ills in America. We, and the video, are pointing out that classic liberal feminism has devolved into a militant radical leftism that, in truth, has no interest in the wretched conditions in which millions of Muslim women live. BTW, NOW is rabidly anti-Zionist. Rush Limbaugh dubbed them FemiNazis, and I think it’s a pretty accurate label.
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Kent G. Budge: My point is that these things were injustices against women, and women fought them successfully. That’s what feminism is, at least to me. If women hadn’t fought these injustices, often at the cost of their freedom or even their lives, these injustices might still be with us today.
It bothers me when people blame feminism and feminists for everything that is wrong in the US (or anywhere else).
On the other hand, I don’t know what to call the so-called “feminism” that refuses to speak up for women in Muslim countries who are subject to barbaric laws and practices. How can a woman speak in favor of forced veiling and still call herself a feminist?
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I mean, Democrats used to be the party of racism, and black Americans voted overwhelmingly Republican during the early 20th century.
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“If the video is meant to be serious, why doesn’t it raise the point that birth control used to be illegal in the United States or that in the early twentieth century, women teachers could not keep their jobs once they were married?”
Perhaps I’m not understanding the significance of the words “used to” or “early twentieth century” correctly?
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Is this video meant to be a serious discussion of feminism, or a parody, or merely a wholesale trashing of feminists and feminism? From this video, one would get the idea that all feminists are as shallow and greedy as the caricature of a feminist that it depicts.
If the video is meant to be serious, why doesn’t it raise the point that birth control used to be illegal in the United States or that in the early twentieth century, women teachers could not keep their jobs once they were married?
Or that women have had the right to vote in the United States for less than a century? I’d be interested to see what sort of video the creator of this video would make about Susan B. Anthony, for example.
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My empowerment is from GOD
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If the word “feminist” has become corrupted so badly, what word shall we use to describe women (and men) who want women to receive equal pay and benefits for equal work and freedom from discrimination — and who also abhor Islamofascism and the global jihad movement?
What word shall we use to describe Dr. Chesler? To my mind, she is a true feminist. I don’t know how to describe the others, who call themselves feminists but won’t speak up for women under threat of honor killings, mutilation and the like. Hypocrites, maybe.
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What really irrites me about these so-called “feminists” isn’t their blatant hypocrisy in re: true feminists agendas (if they were honest they would champion a Sarah Palin) but the MSM’s continued portrayal of them as supporting women’s rights and dignity.
They do so only when it falls in line with their leftist dogma.
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The vid reminds me of the socialists who claim to be for the people yet roundly castigate the proletariat for almost everything they do – which kinda makes sense. Socialists don’t like any expression of choice, even choosing to drink beer and watch football.
“Awright, touchdown! Go Lions! (BUUURRRPP!!)”
“Honey, shouldn’t you be raising your consciousness?”
“Halftime baby, I promise. Can you bring me some more nachos?”
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Correction to my comment: I mean the TV series “Better Off Ted.”
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The woman’s irrational responses in the hilarious animation remind me of the lady executive character (played by Portia DiRossi) in the short-lived sharply scripted TV series “Better Off Dead.” She got away with doing whatever she wanted because she had an answer for everything to fit her whims and disguise her failings.
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Feminism. Looks like Justice Scalia agrees with you.
And I don’t really agree with K; my experience is that most people use the word feminist to slam them.
It’s a beautiful day in the neighborhood.
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We need a new word for “feminist”.
To many independent thinking women and men, the term designates a civil rights movement of the late 20th century. Christina Hoff Sommers designated this brand of feminism as “equity feminism” and the man hating variety as “gender feminism”.
The latter term, however, has become outmoded as the folks using “feminism” as a cover are, as you say, now simply fronts for the hard left and are no longer associated with genderissues per se.
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“…what’s known in the liberal press as multiculturalism…”
There are two ways that the truth about the injustice of Islam can be brought to public light:
(1) The ‘natural’ way :
Spreading the truth through the internet and other avenues not controlled by the mainstream liberal media, until there are enough fed-up conservatives elected to positions of power to bring about responsible balanced reporting.
(2) The ‘supernatural miraculous’ way:
The leftist liberals will eventually be haunted by a spark of integrity, and stand up for deeply held liberal principles, even when these involve criticising Muslims.
As liberals generally are atheistic and do not believe in the miraculous, they will probably wait for way (1) …
(A similar thought was described by Yaffa Eliach, in “Hasidic Tales of the Holocaust”, as a remark by the Gerrer Rebbe about how the war could be ended.)
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I’ll be off the grid at 4:10 left-coast time – gotta feed the chillun – but I’d love to hear the audio. Will there be a link anywhere?
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I’ve been following Phyllis’s articles about the honor killings for a few years now and have been horrified that other women’s organizations aren’t screaming about it. I found your blog last week and have been enjoying very much! Keep up the fight! G-d Bless!
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