Happy birthday to Jennifer Gagliardi who handles the madding subscription of list of CC and WOA through her listserv. Send greetings to gagliajn@netcom.com <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> ........Catt's Claws # 128 ... October 14, 1996......... ........ A Feminist Newsletter by Irene Stuber......... <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> <^> The biggest danger to women today is the radical religious right. THE BIGGEST DANGER TO WOMEN TODAY IS THE RADICAL RELIGIOUS RIGHT. We've said this for years. In the radical religious right we have always included imitation christians such as Jerry Falwell, Pat Robertson, the Christian Coalition, the Promise Keepers, etc. We have always included the far right orthodox Jews such as those who support Netanyahu in Israel (with a LOT of American money) who are now throwing rocks and destroying the property of women who dare wear short sleeved dresses...(We're not talking bikinis. We're talking about short sleeves that show the elbow, or perish the thought, slacks...) We have always included the radical right Moslems of Iran, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, Egypt, and the countries of the "horn" or central regions of Africa that would allow women no human rights, making them completely dependent on the whims of male relatives (who get the monetary benefits of women's work) - not allowing women a voice in village or national politics, genitally mutilating them, and beating women - even killing them - with impunity. The latest horror and a prelude of what could happen on Main Street U.S.A.if these people ever get control here is what is happening in Pakistan where women are being transported in their own buses because men are being openly harassing and sexually aggressive to them in public places or in Afghanistan where it has gotten so bad that the United Nations has issued a warning. Modesty patrols are patrolling the streets of Kabul, Afghanistan, as they are in Kuwait and the Saudi Arabi and in Jeruseleum. Women are whipped for wearing the wrong clothes...but read on ... In an article in the Atheist News (a suprisingly good newspaper), we quote: "THE WAR ON WOMEN. The Taliban (the rebel forces that recently took over Afghanistan) has already shut down all girls schools in areas under its control. One of the first decrees from Taliban mullahs upon capturing Kabul was to prohibit women from holding jobs, attending schools, or wearing `un-Islamic dress.' Women must now wear full head coverings (the notorious `veil'); and men have been ordered to begin growing full beards in accordance with religious doctrine. "Recently Amnesty International accused the new theocratic regime of `implementing a reign of terror'(because it is banning all western culture things like audio and video tapes, but AI's statement did not refer to the strictures against women - why does that not surprise us???) "... Taliban units reminiscent of Orthodox Jewish "modesty patrols" are now roaming the streets. Britain's Electronic Telegraph reported that `Eyewitnesses in the capital say they saw armed Taliban fighters thrashing two women with aerials ripped from a car. The women were apparently guilty of not wearing strict Islamic dress, although they were fully covered except for their eyes. They were crying and trying to run away...'." "Mandatory prayer has also been ordered by the power-hungry clerics..." "The Mullahs have continued their `war on women' in another order which declares that all public buses must immediately have a partition (chain or board) confining women to sit only in certain areas. Radio Kabul said that the order was being issued by the "religious police department." "Taliban youths took sticks to three women in the street...because their ankles showed beneath the head-to-foot shrouds that women are required to wear outside their homes ... growing `fear and anger that the Taliban have stirred among many of Kabul's million people, especially ... women and girls...' "The Taliban decree prohibites women from working even in hospitals and clinics ... The situation can become worse for the estimated 40,000 "war widows" who are the sole support of their families and cannot work. "One unidentified woman physician, who is defying Taliban and keeping her health clinic open, told The Times: `It is so sad, and so demoralizing. In Russia and the United States, women are being launched into space, but here in Afghanistan, women are being told that they have no place but in the home. It is a primative thing.' "(There are rumors that the U.S. Army helped the Taliban faction win victory according to the Los Angeles Times_ and the U.S. is seeking diplomatic ties with the new regime)." Not possible in the U. S. of A.? This horro happened to the women of Afghanistan who were almost as completely free as you and I in just a few weeks - from the 20th century to the Dark Ages in a blink of an eye. In Afghanistan it happened with guns. In Israel it happened in the voting booth. It can happed in the U.S. with the religious right control of the Republican party being voted into power. Just think of Ralph Reed and Pat Robertson dictating policy to President Bob Dole ... We repeat, the great danger to women in the United States is the Religious Right of ALL religions, christian, jew, moslem, and tribal. Madeleine Albright, the U.S. representative to the United Nations and may very well be the next U.S. Secretary of State, welcomed the U.N. statement. "The work that we've all done in making the international community conscious of women's issues has brought them to the forefront," said Ms. Albright, who led a campaign in the Security Council to classify rape as a war crime, based on the widespread abuse of women in civil wars in Bosnia and Rwanda. Minds, she said, are getting "focused on the horrors." . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . We have bought our last Newsweek. It's bad enough that Newsweek has stood by one of its editors, Joe Klein, who wrote a sneering, unsubstantiated piece of shit and signed it anonymous to make big bucks from the pointy-headed Clinton haters, but now they have made William Kennedy Smith the most eligible bachelor in American. Remember William Kennedy Smith? The rape trial in Florida? The seven OTHER women who reported they were raped by him but the news media and the legal system looked the other way? . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . There is a group of self-proclaimed feminist leaders who are backing some Republican candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives - the same kind of "feminists" who backed Christine Whitman for New Jersey governor in order to give themselves phone access to the GOVERNOR!!! - and to hell with the rights of women. (Honest to GAWD, that's what the leader of the group pushing for Whitman told me.) Gov. Whitman, of course, returned the favor by accepting the Republican platform against abortion and by supporting Bob anti-woman Dole - and doing a bunch of other things regarding welfare that would have warranted censure had it been done by Bill Clinton, but not a peeeeeep from National NOW since it was done by REPUBLICAN Whitman. (If you will look VERY, VERY carefully at a LOT of what the national NOW officers have been doing lately you might think they have signed up as Republicans ... well, their incomes are high enough...) BTW, has anyone but me noticed how Dole keeps walking and turning away from Liddy as if she doesn't exist? After the first TV debate it was particularly noticeable. Liddy and Bob's unemployed and now suddenly devoted daughter Robin now on the Dole campaign payroll rushed up to the platform and then after the usual hand-holding for photographs, Dole turned his back on them and walked away. (Clinton, on the other hand, escorted Chelsea and Hillary off stage. He'd better or mamma Virginia would come out of her grave and sock 'em on the side of the head. Bill Clinton, for all of his many faults, was raised with manners.) But back to the self-proclaimed feminist leaders backing Republicans for the U.S. House over equally pro-choice Democratic candidates - Let's go back to first grade, huh? The majority party in the House of Representatives chooses the Speaker and also passes the legislation. Eight seats are said to spell the difference in this coming election of the U.S. House passing Democratic legislation or forcing Bill Clinton to veto, veto, and veto. By supporting a Republican over an equally qualified Democratic woman, NOW, etc., may give Newt Gingrich and Dick Armey continuing control over the House. It's that simple. Sure Patricia Ireland keeps repeating the whoary "We weren't born Democrats, and we weren't born Republicans, and we weren't born yesterday," but I wonder if she understands politics at all? And, as I said, there's a lot of push coming from that direction for the Republicans ... maybe if Clinton would invite her to a public dinner at the White House ... Since NOW's membership is dropping almost as fast as Ross Perot in the polls, the women of American are showing they weren't born yesterday either. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Girls today, in their attempts to be strong, are being sent overt messages through the media that they are to behave in ways that comply with male rules of domination or else. For example, the national publicity about two girls ... one a 14-year-old girl who gave a classmate a Midol pill and was suspended from school in Baker Junior High School near Dayton, Ohio ... then an honor student in a junior high near Houston, Texas who was suspended for having a bottle of Advil in her backpack. Why? Well, because Midol and Advil are considered "drugs" and must be dispensed by the school nurse (who isn't always around). Girls with cramps have a hard enough time in today's schools with boys allowed to make all sorts of sexual remarks - but having to ask permission in class to go to the nurse and have to explain publicly why (when you're doubled over) is horrible beyond words. The patriarchal school systems want these honor rolls girls to be tested for drugs and take drug consuling courses to punish them for having cramps and make an example of them. But boyz are cute when they steal kisses and rip buttons from girls' clothing ... and are not given consuling on inappropriate behavior. Is there something wrong with this picture? Ever been in a school when the boyz soaked the front of their pants in the crotch area and done their dances in front of girls while rubbing themselves to erect their penises - and nothing happened to them? The media - spurred by the religious right who believe in the sacred penis/sperm - is, with studied censorship, ignoring (or covering up) the growing problem of sexual harassment in schools, including young kindergarten girls being stripped of their clothes on school busses or in school basements and being sexually and genitally molested by boys of both their own ages and older (yes, six-year-old boys have been sexually molesting girls, using pencils and other objects to rape, just like their older brothers and fathers do when they can't get it up ... where ever do these children learn these things except from their parent(S). Our schools are a growing nightmare for girls being grabbed by their breasts and buttocks in hallways, where they afraid to go to the locker areas alone or use the restrooms in the school basements because of rapes or gangs of boys lining up "to get a feel." It may be that those two young boys who kissed and/or ripped buttons from a girl's clothese were completely innocent but it is for sure that they weren't ever sent the message from home that NO means NO. GAWD help the young girls when they get older. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . OK - the last Catt's Claws was a test - and yes, you passed. So I forgot about Maude having an abortion on prime-time television way back in the 1970s or 80s even though the episode is an entry in my Women of Achievement. (Blush.) The program had the highest viewership of any TV show to that time and not a single sponsor. They all pulled out! But there were several other TV abortions that readers pointed out. C.K. Smith along with others wrote, "I believe that Erica Kane on the soap _All My Children_ had an abortion years ago." There were others, a small episode here, or implied there which actually doesn't really negate the fact that abortion is a no-no on TV, along with strong women. Yet, on TV, men's erections are referred to all the time ... so is rape ... so is incest ... so is murder ... so is torture ... I guess that's family values to love the embryo and fetus in suto and kill it when it walks. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Those still some in the news business who don't understand why there's a gender gap between President Clinton and Bob Dole. Hey guyz, here's a clue. Read what the old man from Kansas and the football quarterback (the who a fortune getting creamed in hand-to-hand combat on a football field while claiming he was too injured to use a pencil in the army in 1958 WHEN THERE WASN'T ANY WAR GOING ON. Korea ended in 1953 and Nam didn't get really going until 1964) - anyway Dole-Kemp think they know what women REALLY want. At a recent pit stop, v-p candidate Jack Kemp came out with a promise he was sure would woo the little ladies: If we vote for Dole and Kemp, the proposed 15% tax cut will allow us helpless little girlies stay home and take care of our children and husbands. Have either Kemp or Dole been to the grocery store lately? And does Dole - wife Liddy has no children and he deserted his only child and paid no child support - not know that married women don't die of childbirth in their 30s anymore because hubby wouldn't keep his pants buttoned and the law said she HAD to let him rape her? That women have a life beyond birthing and diapering? Boyz, listen up. Women have ALWAYS had a life and an individuality beyond pregnancy and cooking for their husbands - but these Republicans seem to want to return women to the days when no wife had the right to refuse her husband sex, regardless of her health or his veneral diseases. YOUNG Jack Kemp, 61, as the _New York Times_ wrote, makes over $1 million a year as a figurehead leader of a righting Washington influence group called Empower America. It is a Wall Street and corporate millionaires lobby for multi-millionaire Steve Forbes' flat tax ideology. If the 15% flat tax is passed, Kemp would save more than a half million dollars A YEAR in taxes. I loved it when Kemp, in his TV debate tried to reach out to people by saying, "African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latino-Americans, female Americans." Hey, let's take an honest look at things ... women are 53% of the nation ... On the men's side, black men are about 8%, Hispanic about 10%. Asian, Native American, and others of color about 5%, Jewish about 4% ... that subtracts to 20-23% of the entire population being white males - and with a lot of white men being inclined toward equal rights for women - that leave only a tiny fraction of the white male who think they control the sky. Hey, white, me-macho-boss brother, YOU is the little minority. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . By the way anyone wanting the Clinton-Gore record towards women may write me and I'll send out the four-page document to you. Just email me ... Clinton has appointed more women to his administration than any other (40 percent) and appointed a record number of women (73) to the federal bench. What, you didn't know that about the federal judges? And you say we don't have managed news. Get the true, complete story. Email me for the record. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . While Dr. Sannon Lucid was our flying American abandoned in space, she expressed a desire for M&M's. When she finally got back, awaiting her was a large box of M&M's with the presidential seal on top - a special present from Bill. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . Here's another little thing that the religious right does against women - this time in Pakistan. A nurse working at night was raped by two men when she went to care for a male patient. She was unable to press charges because the man was powerful. The two men then went to the police and accused 23-year-old nurse of *zina* -- sex outside wedlock, including adultery, fornication, and rape. She was arrested and raped a lot more by the police which is USUAL perks for policemen in Pakistan and then she was sentenced to five years in prison, given five lashes, and fined to what amounts to a year's salary. The judge agreed with her rapists that she could not have been a decent woman because she worked at night and cared for men EVEN THOUGH SHE WAS A VIRGIN BEFORE THEY RAPED HER. Their rape of her was not a crime for THEM, but it was for HER. (From an article by Marie Claire in U.S.A. who wrote that an estimated 75% of all women in Pakistan's jails are there because they were raped. Once in police custody, 72% are raped again.) All for the love of Allah ... . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . We've been criticized for our opposition to gay and lesbian marriages. I guess I lived in the French Quarter of New Orleans too long (in that unbelieveable period before AIDS) where gay relationships were so often as fleeting as a summer rainstorm. But then, a lot of hetero marriages today aren't much longer and many are longer than they should be. I have read many articles and arguments regarding the Defense of Marriage Act (which I ALWAYS thought was abhorrent) and although I didn't FAVOR gay and lesbian marriages, I didn't think a law should be passed to OPPOSE them. Well, I reverse my position with a blush. The final argument for me came in one paragrah in a column by Richard Cohen: "...Why does anyone get married anymore? Few of the old reason still apply - not for sex, not for economic security, not for a sort of old age pension and not because it's the only way to bring children into this world. No, people often get married now for the same reason people climb mountains: Because it's there. Marriage is the ultimate in commitment. Why should gays (and lesbians) be denied it?" So let those - both hetero and homo - who would defile the marriage committment with passing lust do so, but allow those who would live their committment publicly be able to do so with the dignity and respect such a committment deserves. Personally, I think many of the marriage customs are barbaric against women and that lesbians have the opportunity to strike out in new and more equitable ways for the develpment of legal relationships. But, hey, if white satin turns you one, go wear it. I'll throw the rice. . . . . . . . ^c^c^ . . . . . . . One in eight women in our country will develop breast cancer during her lifetime, compared to one in 20 a generation ago. And 46,000 American women will die of breast cancer this year. Time for your monthly breast exam - remember, the breast you examine is the one you want to keep. ....................... * ........................ Women's rights are young and tender and we must protect them from the plagues of holy hypocrisy and newts. -=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- >>> Send your ideas, comments, and news to istuber@cswnet.com for inclusion in the Catt's Claws feminist newsletter which will be emailed up to three times a week. This is NOT an interactive discussion net but an exchange of information. Catt's Claws is NOT sponsored by any organization. We are accepting *limited* donations (only what can be spared) to help offset the online costs of posting Catt's Claws. Copyright 1996, Irene Stuber. PO Box 6185, Hot Springs, AR 71902.<<<< To receive Catt's Claws by email, write and in the body of the note