A (Very) Rare Defeat For Muslim States At The Human Rights Council

Last Friday at the bitter end of its three week Bash-Israel-Fest, the UN Human Rights Council did something almost without precedent.  The majority rejected a Muslim sponsored amendment to the resolution creating a mechanism which would flesh out and provide means to implement effectively the UN convention on the rights of women.

The resolution called upon all member nations to "revoke any remaining laws that discriminate on the basis of sex or gender bias in the administration of justice."  This mildly worded bit of high mindedness constitutes a direct and hard kick in the gonads(?) of such pillars of Shariah as Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia.  In a move as unsurprising as calls to prayer five times a day, the offended Muslim states mounted a counterattack.

The Saudi representative introduced an amendment which, if adopted, would have gutted the measure as it applied to Muslim majority states.  The carefully crafted wording would have allowed Saudi Arabia and other Muslim states, which have formally signed other conventions including the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women with reservations assuring the primacy of Shariah, to ignore the requirements of this resolution.

Islamic law does discriminate against women simply on their status as women systematically and completely.  The extent of the bias is indicated by the legal requirement that a woman's accusation of rape be attested to by four men (or three men and two women.)  This is absurd on its face.  Equally absurd but even more lethal is the differential in punishment for such "crimes" as adultery.

There is no way around the ground truth involved in this resolution.  For countries such as Iran, Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia to abide by its provision--removal of sexual and gender bias in the administration of justice--would demand that Shariah be jettisoned.  And this, of course, is unthinkable to the insecure misogynists in charge of these states and the many others like them.

The delegate from Libya made a valiant effort to muddy the already turbid waters further by introducing the fashionable concept of cultural relativism.  His plea that "some concepts are relative" may haul heavy freight with members of the every-so-sensitive elites of Western Europe and the US but failed to move the majority of the delegates present and voting.  Apparently sensing the failure of his pitch, the Man From Tripoli then offered a veiled threat to the effect that Muslim states simply would not sign nor accept the resolution.  In essence, he challenged the civilized states to just try and make Muslim majority countries act as if they were deserving of membership in the civilized category.

The threat was not effective.  The majority went with the resolution.  Much credit is due the several Central and South American governments, most notably Mexico, which engineered the garnering of support from the Western Hemisphere, Europe, and parts of Africa and Asia.  Their efforts as well as the vote itself well merited the words of congratulation offered by Secretary of State Clinton.

The Mexican representative Juan Jose Gomez Camacho put it with perfection.  The root of the matter was not culture, not religion, not sensitivities, it was "discrimination against women.  Full stop."  Right on, Sr Camacho.

It may be true that this resolution like so much of the paper ground out by the UN and its subsidiaries is purely symbolic, without practical meaning, but as some observers correctly note, symbolism is important, perhaps even central in today's conflict between civilization and the adherents of violent political Islam and their state supporters.

Ms Clinton made a favorable name for herself years ago when as the president's wife she splashed onto the world stage in the context of the women's rights conference in Cairo.  Her dedication to this cause is well established and totally genuine.  Now, she needs to put her formidable political talents to work so as to assure the US actually ratifies the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women.  It is long past time that the US do so--the Convention has been around since Carter was in the White House.  To be on the same side of an issue as Sudan is pathetic to say the least.

The reality is Saudi Arabia, Iran, and the rest of the reactionary Muslim majority states will continue to do everything in their power to maintain the status quo.  To do otherwise is literally unthinkable to the men in charge.  They, like the religion whose tenets they invoke with dreary repetition, is reactionary in many essential respects.  Of these, the most critical is the role and status of women.

When free of legal and other disabilities, the potential of women to change societies, polities, and cultures is impossible to overestimate.  Women are, after all, fifty percent of our collective brain power, our collective energy, our collective will.  In addition, women have the primary responsibility for the early acculturation of children.  The ancient cliche about the hand that rocks the cradle rules the world is laden with truth--and awesome power.

It is this the men of Islam fear more than anything else.  As soon as women get out from under the heel of the oppressive weight of Shariah, they will be able to fatally perturb the adolescent boys gang structure seen in so many manifestations of contemporary Islam including the adherents of violent political Islam.

Removing the shackles of Shariah will mean that some (perhaps many) Muslim men will have to do something shockingly new, revolutionary even.  They will have to look women straight in the eye as equals in all respects.  They will also have to finally toss aside the junior high fantasies of honor, of killing mom, of treating women in ways no self-respecting Homo erectus would have thought proper.  In short, they will have to grow up.

And, being grown up is a hard thing to do.  But only by exhibiting maturity can Muslims overcome their own worst enemy.  No, not the West.  Not the "Crusaders."  Not even the Jews and the "Zionist entity."  Themselves.  More than most, Muslim men can say along with Pogo, "We have met the enemy and it is us."

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