This week, students around the country have been encouraged to stage sit-ins. But unlike the sit-ins from the ’60s that promoted peace, these are actually promoting the conservative agenda and being spearheaded by an unlikely source (at least when it comes to protests): David Horowitz.
Horowitz is the vehement conservative who founded the David Horowitz Freedom Center. He’s spoken out about liberal biases on college campuses, even creating an “Academic Bill of Rights” aimed at curbing liberal speech in university classrooms.
Horowitz now wants students to stage sit-ins outside women’s studies halls to protest women’s silence over the mistreatment of women in the Middle East. This kind of political action has two major flaws, it’s a red herring to the real problems in the Middle East and is factually inaccurate.
Since WMDs failed to materialize in the years following the invasion of Iraq, conservatives have tried to shift focus from the reason given for the invasion. All we heard about before the war was impending doom and the terrible threat Iraq posed.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell presented a pretty scary case before the U.N about secret bio-weapon stations on trucks, where WMDs could be instantly deployed. Now, conservatives are trying to claim the commitment of the U.S. is to better the lives of Iraqi people.
Neocons would have people believe the invasion was needed because Saddam Hussein was a cruel and vicious dictator who tortured people (which was true), and that the U.S. invasion was, or should have been, welcomed with open arms (which is definitely not true).
Now, I am as hip to women’s rights as anyone. Seeing Iraqi women with purple fingers was a very powerful and emotional moment, but that wasn’t the reason we invaded Iraq. We were told there was an imminent threat and that our safety was in jeopardy – and it wasn’t.
Whether or not the compelling information was intentionally falsified is anybody’s guess.
Women’s studies programs are exploring hegemonic structures in all facets of society, including those that may exist in Muslim countries. Unfortunately, brutality against women is practiced across the globe and deserves the attention of influential organizations and university programs.
To say that atrocities against women are “[O]rdained by the Qur’an itself … female genital mutilation and honor killing are praised by Islamic clerics and hallowed by Islamic culture” will only deepen existing prejudices against Muslims – many of whom do not believe in those types of cruelty.
What’s more insulting is that Horowitz is using traditionally liberal tactics to draw attention to conservatism. Civil protest for equal rights has traditionally been the stomping ground of liberals.
With conservatives now using similar strategies, defending women’s rights might not sound that bad to on-the-fence students. But it’s a conniving conservative ploy to distract people from the main issues in the Middle East, so let’s protest the Freedom Center’s protest. Let’s protest their misinformation on Islamic culture and women’s studies programs.
We can show them we’re not that easily distracted.
Lauren Williams is a senior journalism and political science major, the managing editor of the Daily Forty-Niner and a weekly contributor.
