"Never forget that it only takes one political, economic or religious crisis for women's rights to be put in jeopardy. Those rights are never to be taken for granted; you must remain vigilant throughout your life."

Simone de Beauvoir

@RustyBertrand the same stark difference between the ~1970s and now can be found in Iran, Lebanon, and many other places in the middle east.
This is what conservatism brews.
it plummets humanity hundreds of years backwards, on the broken memory of the "good old days" forgetting they weren't all that good for everybody.
it's happening in the "western part of the world" too, were more and more conservatives are getting power.

@unlucio

The hardest thing for me to wrap my head around is conservative women.

Elected conservative female politicians have reached a level of power that would have been refused to them if their vision had been a reality before they were elected.

(Sorry, that sentence might have benefitted from more punctuation)

@RustyBertrand

@axnxcamr @unlucio @RustyBertrand likewise Clarence Thomas will, when the time comes, happily vote to allow his own marriage to be made illegal.

@oddhack @axnxcamr @RustyBertrand oh wow, I wasn't expecting this to turn so USA centric 😼

I indeed wonder too how, those so clearly bashed by conservatives, often end up voting for them.
It does blow my mind.
I think demagogy, indoctrination, false promises and dichotomies confuse those minds.

I'm always baffled by those in the west of the world that still have the "red scared"

@unlucio @RustyBertrand Not the same, but the light version can be found in Europe: In the 70ies it was quite normal that women were topless at the beach or swimming pool in Central Europe, at least in France and Germany.

Nowadays it is almost everywhere forbidden in Germany and we discuss the (re-)opening. (Some cities already allow it.)

@RustyBertrand some people decide to wear hijab because of religious beliefs! It’s not our job to judge people based on their beliefs. Just let’s mind our business and leave people alone!

@adcody @RustyBertrand

Feel free to wear one, then. Shut up about telling other people what to think.

@adcody @RustyBertrand some people should also have the freedom to not wear hijab, without being beaten or executed. Like some kind of a fundamental right

@adcody @RustyBertrand Would you say the same about female genital mutilation? Let’s not judge people based on their beliefs, really?
I doubt any of the children subjected to the procedure are asked for consent.

@adcody @RustyBertrand The whole point of modern liberal society is that you can *choose* to wear whatever you want, whether for religious reasons or any other.

Modern society is prosperous and free exactly to the degree that it is not religious.

@adcody @RustyBertrand Folks, this guy just set up his account yesterday and is obviously one of those disingenuous "both-siders". He's not arguing in good faith, he's fine with forcing women to conform to male oppression but doesn't want to say so upfront. Block and move on.
@isotope239 In one post they used a hashtag I now added to my filter list. So they provided some value before I blocked them.
@isotope239 @RustyBertrand You look very pathetic after this comment! So because I’m new to this app and you don’t have any logical arguments to defend your point of view you started to attack me and undervalue my opinion! Seriously, Why do people basically attack you when you disagree with them? #Just_Asking
@adcody @RustyBertrand I await with great interest the fascinating sociological study that outlines how, in a few decades, Muslim women in one specific country decided to not only impose stricter rules on how they live their lives, but also give absolute power to men to punish them with death if they break any of those self-imposed rules.

@adcody @RustyBertrand

Joined Oct 28, 2023
7 Posts 0 Following 1 Follower

Stop feeding this troll.

@starlily @RustyBertrand so if I joined yesterday so what đŸ€ŠđŸœâ€â™‚ïž! Stupidity always makes me sick đŸ€’. If you have an adult discussion go ahead otherwise ho find a life and stop wasting time.
@RustyBertrand though also, whilst it's easy to roll out this as an example, we must also look into our own countries and how women's rights are changing internally as well, otherwise we're just "othering" the problem, and people will be like "that could never happen _here_"

@RustyBertrand

The image doesn't portray how the USA backed and funded ultra conservative religious groups in Afghanistan when it was occupied by CCCP.

In fact, there's a *pattern* of the west, USA in particular, funding fascist or ultra religious groups to overthrow governments that don't cooperate economically with the interests of the US.

@RustyBertrand Please, can we just have a matriarchy and rid the world of the power of sad, ignorant old men!
@RustyBertrand Sarah Jama, a black, disabled woman who was a member of the Ontario NDP was kicked out from the NDP for simply having an opinion. Note that the party is led by a woman. This was 2 weeks ago in Canada. Women's rights?
@RustyBertrand Cover them completely to erase their humanity. Men are cowards.

@RustyBertrand
The top photo is disingenuous; it suggests mini skirts were the norm in 1972.

They were not. The original caption notes religious Muslims would throw acid on nude legs.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/women-skirts-kabul-70s/

The second photo is from 2012, not 2013. Possible misrepresentation; see concurrent work by the same photographer with women in western dress.

The Simone de Beauvoir quote has no provenance.

#agitprop

Are These Women Wearing Skirts in Kabul During the 1970s?

Yes, but this image does not represent what life was like for the majority of Afghan women during that time.

Snopes
@kegill Thanks a lot! I assumed this often-distributed image pair surely had a more complex background than what the simplistic captions suggest, but I couldn't quickly find any analysis myself.

@tml

You’re welcome! And thanks! As I worked on it, I felt I was in “someone is wrong on the Internet” mode. No idea why it triggered me.

https://xkcd.com/386/

Duty Calls

xkcd
@RustyBertrand Lower photo - USA any minute now

@RustyBertrand That’s when they were commies, comrade. Everyone seems to overlook that these days.

@RustyBertrand

Fundamentalism is the new disease.

The truth, however, is that there is no God


Only people pretending that there is, to get confirmation for their reign and power gained.

Don’t fall for these echoes from the past. Fight these people and their points of view wherever and whenever you can.

The only Hell is man-made, and it is here on earth, nourished by those that cling to the aura of religion. Shame on them!

@RustyBertrand seems like the lesson here is that it only takes a single CIA backed intervention to overthrow a socialist government

@RustyBertrand çš„çĄźïŒŒèż™æ˜Żæˆ‘æ”ŻæŒć„łæƒèżćŠšçš„ćŠšć› äč‹äž€ïŒŒć„łæ€§æƒćˆ©çš„èą«è·”èžïŒŒćŸ€ćŸ€æ˜Żć„ç±»ćŠšèĄ/ć€’é€€çš„ćż…ç„¶ćŽæžœïŒˆććș”äč‹äž€ïŒŒć„łæ€§äžæ­ąæ˜Żćż…ç„¶çš„ć—ćźłè€…ïŒŒä蟿˜Żćż…ç„¶çš„æ›żçœȘçŸŠïŒŒèŻžćŠ‚â€œçșąéąœç„žæ°Žâ€äč‹èŻŽă€‚

【"æ°žèżœäžèŠćż˜èź°ïŒŒćȘèŠć‘ç”Ÿäž€æŹĄæ”żæČ»ă€ç»æ”Žæˆ–ćź—æ•™ć±æœșïŒŒćŠ‡ć„łçš„æƒćˆ©ć°±äŒšć—ćˆ°ćšèƒă€‚æ°žèżœäžèŠèź€äžșèż™äș›æƒćˆ©æ˜Żç†æ‰€ćœ“ç„¶çš„ïŒŒäœ ćż…éĄ»ç»ˆç”ŸäżæŒè­Šæƒ•"。

è„żè’™ćšœ-ćŸ·-æłąäŒćšƒ

由 DeepL.com çż»èŻ‘è‡Ș English】

@RustyBertrand
Remember, The Law (and Human Rights) doesn’t protect us.
We protect the law and, by that extension, our human rights.

After all, ‘One of the penalties of refusing to participate in politics
’ #Plato #Democracy #HumanRights

@RustyBertrand In this case, it was caused by Cold War meddling from the US and USSR. That eventually lead to control by an internal political party that modeled itself after the Soviets, which then got into a war with those same Soviets. The war tore the country up so bad that it turned into regional factions fighting for control until the religious extreme rose to power.

I recall seeing similar images of Iran in the 1960s. If you didn't know any better, it could have been mistaken for any American city of the same time period.
@RustyBertrand A picture says a thousand words. This is a superb post. I’m following the shocking story of Shilan Mirzaee, and I’d like to see others following it too.

@AGT @RustyBertrand

As I have particular hate toward this particular juxtapoxation, I feel compelled to say that the pictures give very dishonest view of the change.

The first image showcases upperclass women who were living a more-or-less global existence in a capital that (like most capitals) takes more after other capitals than it does on its provinces. Still, they were in endanger of having acid thrown on their legs.

The latter picture shows a more honest view of reality decade ago.

@AGT @RustyBertrand

This is, in essence, the same problem as majority (who believe in such things) saying that in their past life they were a prince[ss] - without realising that not everybody could have been royalty, that you don't really grasp what being royalty involved, and it's unlikely that only royalty got reincarnated.

(Pictured: moving a barge on Volga in 1900 and today.)

I'm not saying this get better (polycrisis and all that), but more that juxtapoxations are done for an agenda.

@iju @RustyBertrand Having not visited Afghanistan I can’t vouch for the pics, but I was shocked after working in Hyderabad, India, a decade ago. We were guarded while having a twenty minute “tour” around the city centre, which was packed with hundreds, if not thousands of couples. The men wearing lightweight t-shirts, sandals and jeans, while every woman in sight wore a full length black burqa with a slit in the eyes on a sweltering day.
There’s equality for you
@iju @RustyBertrand I worked all over India, and enjoyed it, but I’ll never forget our sightseeing tour around Hyderabad city centre. No brightly coloured Saris, just women dressed head to foot in black. Inside our workplace it was different, but equality outside didn’t appear to exist.
I really do hope things have changed. Women should always have equal rights, and a woman’s lifestyle should NEVER be determined by male or “religious” domination and oppression.

@AGT @RustyBertrand

I'm not going to disagree with your anecdotes. My dislike of the photo comes from an ongoing discourse where greatness is the existence of something available for the 1%, not something far more ordinary available for all.

For example, getting a rocket to the orbit (eg. the billionaire space race) is overvalued as a human achievement over a province having high literacy rate, clean tap water, reliable electricity, and working drainage (for example, the problems at Sochi).

@RustyBertrand the first picture is not representative of the full country of Afghanistan, it is a really minority of people that can wear miniskirt https://ajammc.com/2017/09/06/weaponization-nostalgia-afghan-miniskirts/
The Weaponization of Nostalgia: How Afghan Miniskirts Became the Latest Salvo in the War on Terror - Ajam Media Collective

Why is it that non-Afghans only care to learn about Afghanistan when there are pictures of women in miniskirts involved? By shifting the topic to women's clothing, broader questions around the problems facing Afghanistan become elided – and the discussion goes back to a simplistic dichotomy between Islam and secular modernity.View Post

Ajam Media Collective
@RustyBertrand
Focus on clothing is a silly distraction from whether women have freedom of speech, the press or movement; medical care, education, healthy food, clean water, decent housing, political power; freedom from violence, war, exploitation and toxic pollution.
If you actually care about hijab more than all these other things, that is islamophobia.
@RustyBertrand
American women in Republican-run shitholes are learning this lesson the hard way right now.

@RustyBertrand

If aliens visited from another world, they could easily see: Oppression by abusive males is a pretty basic and key problem in the species.

It's abusive males willing to engage in force that CAUSE problems in ALL of our most pressing situations: climate related, economic related, war related, social stratification related.

Abusive males are most likely mess it up for EVERYONE ELSE. Yet other males -routinely- "don't get it" when they oppress others until it's too late.

@RustyBertrand As far as I know, the 1972 photo is from french photographer Laurence Brun, who states that this scene was unusual, hence the photo. She also condemns the use of her work to this propaganda.
https://www.gettyimages.com.br/fotos/laurence-brun-afganistan
And also, do never forget that who created the mujahidins that later became Isis was the US government.
But yes, Totally agree with de Beauvoir
Getty Images

Getty Images Brasil. Encontre imagens de alta resolução royalty-free, fotografias editoriais, vetores, vĂ­deos e mĂșsicas na mais rica biblioteca online de fotos e imagens.

@RustyBertrand I finally saw the Barbie movie, and this is so true.
@RustyBertrand same goes for the incredibly fragile LGBTQ rights (and those of ethnic minority communities) worldwide. Constant vigilance and broad coalitions!

@RustyBertrand I recommend the book by Dervla Murphy: Full Tilt, Ireland to India With a Bicycle. In it, she gives a certain view of Afghanistan - and Iran - contrasting rural and urban living.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2022/may/28/dervla-murphy-girls-own-adventurer-who-showed-how-to-live-full-tilt

Dervla Murphy: a girl’s own adventurer who showed us how to live at full tilt

The Irish writer cycled mountains and deserts, but her biggest legacy is a reminder that people are fundamentally good

The Guardian

@RustyBertrand

@axkra - I understand the point, but from my POV it's better made if we reflect on how "Western" religion is being used to segregate and disallow full participation of individuals.

A man invents a device that covers men's eyes -- so women don't have to wear hijabs. | The Manchador

YouTube