France to Women in Burquas: We're Liberating You


If the French are trying to reach out to women in the strict Muslim community that requires its women to hide everything, even their faces, they have a funny way of showing it.

The French Assembly just passed a law that if ratified by the Senate will fine women who are out in public in the full-body veil. Um, thank you? I'm sure these French residents feel more liberated already. If by "liberated" you mean staying indoors instead of going out, since the law will force women who wear the full-body veil to stay at home, or risk a fine.

It's hard to argue with a law against these fashion disasters. They should be burned and banned. But by outlawing the clothes, the French are to some extent outlawing the women who are covered up.

Granted, the law would threaten jail and fines for men who force the burqua on their wives. I have a better idea: How about men who force their wives to wear them be forced to wear the face-and-body covers instead? That is a punishment that fits the crime.

Justice, Sort Of.

So the Iranian woman charged with adultery and sentenced to stoning has gotten a reprieve. No stoning. But no word on whether the death sentence has been lifted. A kinder, gentler death in a not very kind country?

Did I Read That Right?

There is something so wrong with this world when a headline on CNN can read this: "Son pleads for help as mother awaits stoning in Iran."

Clinton and McChrystal

Back in the day, (OK, back before 2008) when a male leader would mess things up (almost always), the eye rolls would begin. A woman could do a better job. Just let her at it. Then we had the chance to elect Hillary Clinton as president, and passed.

Now, things with a man, a historic man, but nonetheless, still a man, look as grim as ever. (See: environmental disaster, two wars, economic woe.) And I can't help but wonder, what would the world look like with Hillary in charge?

The subject came up with the now infamous Rolling Stone article that exposed the sass-mouthed Gen. Stanley McChrystal and his posse going after the president and his. The only person spared? Hillary. In fact, the general and his labyrinth of people praised her. As Michael Crowley writes in his blog Swampland,

"It remains remarkable to me that a woman who in the 1990s was routinely accused of being a radical leftist has emerged as a real national security wonk and shattered durable gender stereotypes along the way."

Not that she gloats. But she must wonder what might have been. I know I do.