Do Tarts for Choice have anything meaningful to say to Iraqi women?

Faced with real violence against women, what do feminists do?

Apparently, they avert their eyes.
 
“Radical feminists witnessed a legitimate case of tyranny and violence against women in Iraq, but they remained steadfastly against policies and actions taken by America and the Bush administration that helped these women,” writes Lisa De Pisquale. “NOW President Kim Gandy stated, ’The real terrorism is the Bush administration’s disregard for international law and destruction of civil liberties at home. This has become an issue of one dictator versus another.’”

“NOW and their cohorts were deaf to these women’s pleas and still condemn the war in Iraq. Feminists invent problems in the U.S. and ignore the real problems faced by women around the world. NOW accuses President Bush of ’reversing women’s rights here and abroad.’ Feminist Majority leader Eleanor Smeal odiously said that the Bush Administration ’needs to construct a foreign policy as if women mattered.’

“The deceptively titled March for Women’s Lives in April brought thousands of feminists and leftist supporters to Washington, DC. Rather than march against the atrocities and violence against women in Iraq and other countries around the world, feminists waved coat hangers and demanded taxpayer-funded abortions. Cybill Shepherd held a sign that said, ’Too bad John Ashcroft’s mother didn’t believe in abortion.’ Amid ’Fire Bush,’ ’Tarts for Choice’ and other placards feminist icon Gloria Steinem told the crowd, ’This government is the greatest danger on earth!’”

Hmmm, Tarts for Choice–do they have something valuable to impart to the women of Iraq as they emerge from a dark age of real violence against women?

There is insane–women in really tough spots like Iraq or other places in the world where women really are second class citizens don’t need rhetoric; they need the same institutions that have made women in the U.S. first class citizens.

This is what the Independent Women’s Forum’s Michelle Bernard had to say at a luncheon for a delegation of Iraqi women leaders earlier this week at our headquarters:
 
“Democracies which embrace a respect for the rule of law, property rights, and economic liberty offer the greatest hope for women,” said Bernard. “Advancing and supporting democracies based upon these principles is the greatest defense against the subjugation of women, religious and ethic minorities around the world. The ability of Iraqi women to fully participate in the political, economic and social structures of their country can only strengthen the emergence of democratic institutions in Iraq.”