International Women's Day--A Personal View

Three eighths of the Geek's genome is Apache. Following the death of the Geek's father during World War II, the Geek was raised by two women, one of whom, his grandmother, was more Apache than Anglo.

This piece of information is important because it describes the context which formed the Geek's view of women and gender relations. This, in turn, does much to make explicable the Geek's highly negative view of Islamists and some who may be observant Muslims but not Islamists who, nonetheless, distort and pervert the relation of man and woman under the color of religous belief.

The Apache, in common with many groups hard pressed by environment and enemies, pursued a life which demanded equality between the sexes. Life itself required the full effort and complete cooperation which breeds respect and equality of roles. Apache women were tough. They carried their end of the log without more than routine complaint. Apache men were tough. They killed enemies and nurtured their children with equal enthusiasm.

Core to the Apache definition of manhood was the stricture that one did not count coup against women. Women, even Anglo and Hispano women, were not to be killed. There was no glory in it. There was no credit in rape. There was no status to be found in violence against a woman.

Men protected. Men guarded. Men nurtured. They did not harm women. Not those of the enemy, even the Navajo. And, certainly not the women of their own group. Not their wives. Not their girlfriends. Not their daughters.

Apache women fought alongside their men. They were willing to die in place if that was what life demanded. But the willingness to fight and die if necessary meant they talked. They participated in what passed for political discourse in the constantly fluid anarchy which constituted Apache affairs. They were respected. They had mouths--and brains--to power those orifices.

This background which the Geek absorbed at a very early age is the reason that he finds the oft expressed contempt for women within Islam so incomprehensible. And, so reprehensible.

Even more than the Arab Muslim origin love affair with autocracy. Even more than the never-ending expressions of hatred which color so much of the rhetoric emanating from Muslim countries. Even more than the willingness, even eagerness, of jihadists to count coup, to kill, to maim, to harm non-combatants. More than each and every one of these the Geek finds the constant religiously justified denigration, oppression, harming and murdering of women an alien behavior which rouses not hatred but loathing within him.

There is no way the Geek can make an internal peace with an ideology which either encourages or, at the least does not firmly condemn, such anti-human actions as "honor killings." The Geek cannot but wonder at the warped mentality which would allow a man to kill the daughter created by his own sperm.

The Geek cannot but condemn a belief system as well as those who participate in it which allows, or at the least does not condemn in clear terms, the subjugation of women. The confining of women within the home. The denial of a woman's inherent right to develop her own abilities, her own personality, her own life.

Had Cochise or Geronimo tried to do such a thing, the women would have dealt with the matter quickly and a lot of white eyes would have lived a lot longer. Just a thought: sometimes interpersonal, intimate violence is justifiable--even laudable.

The Muslim men who toss acid in the faces of unveiled women are not men. They are mere imitations. The Muslim men in Somalia or Iran who bury women up to their necks and toss stones with lethal intent are not men. They are poor simulacra.

The Muslims who take pre-pubescent girls as wives just because Mohammad did are not men. They are child molesting sociopaths.

The Muslims who marry second, third or forth wives without gaining the permission of the first or who casually and without notification divorce a wife are not men. They are pathetic self-centered twerps.

The Muslims who murder daughters, wives, sisters in order to defend the "honor" of their family and name are not men. They are warped, twisted perversions of manhood who do not in any way merit the genitals they were born with.

It makes the reality no less abhorrent when the perpetrators of oppression, subjugation, exploitation, maiming and murder invoke a convenient interpretation of a carefully selected text from the Quran or Hadith to justify their action. This sort of theological cherry picking makes an evil reality worse.

It assures that all Muslims including all those observant ones who do not degrade, exploit or maim and murder women are branded with the same black label. Of course, as long as observant Muslims who deplore the evils done in the name of their religion keep silent, avert their eyes, shrug with defeat, they deserve the brand that is put on them.

Real men, the Geek learned in childhood, not only know right from wrong, they fight wrong wherever and whenever they meet it. No matter what the personal cost.