A Feminist Goes To Iran.

In the midst of the ongoing crisis about Iran I thought it would be fun to remind everyone what former Liberal Democrat MP and current head of the RSPCA had to say about her time in the country. The article titled 'Another Kind Of Freedom' appeared in the Guardian five years ago and I like it so much that I've referred back to it frequently. Put it this way she makes Walter Duranty look like a perceptive observer of tyranny. I won't add any further comments myself, the only purpose is to point and mock. Although I'm sure she's going to appear on the media soon spouting off about the hostage crisis, so feel free to refer back to this post. All bolding is by me.

But how many "liberals" who blame the religion for denial of women's rights, especially the compulsory wearing of hijab (a headscarf and roopush or coat), blame protestantism in Britain or catholicism in Mexico for endemic domestic violence? ....

....The other day I had lunch with three Iranian women.... They talked about their lives and what they thought about the west - only the older woman had been out of Iran. She felt sorry for western women who not only have to bring up children and run a home, but also have to go out to paid employment. She thought in that respect Iranian women were more free......

...Women in Iran have other freedoms denied to many in the west. I have a British friend, for example, married to an Iranian, who has a one-year-old child. Rather than finding the baby (who is still being breastfed) a barrier to resuming her academic career she has been given help and encouragement, including a work-based creche, by potential employers. She also will happily feed her baby in public - in restaurants (not in the toilets) and in shared taxis, and no one complains or comments....

....I find it refreshing not to see naked or half-naked women on posters advertising everything from cars to ice-cream. On the other hand, I am reliably informed that Iranian men see it as their duty to make sure their wives are satisfied in bed - not a responsibility I think many British men are familiar with. Women also keep their own names after marriage, whereas in the west the woman who does this is still seen as an oddity.

It is many years since British women have felt free to walk the city streets after dark without fear of attack. I feel very safe here.....

.... If women dress in a sexually provocative or attractive way, perhaps it is not surprising that men respond to them as sexual beings rather than as professional women or mothers or shop assistants. I am not saying that a woman who wears a short skirt is "asking for it" but I do think western women ought to examine their complicity in a society in which men are given "come-on" signals and "don't dare" messages in confusing profusion.