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> Dig this: "Of Hillary Clinton, another supposed advocate, she simply says: > 'She cannot defend her own rights against her husband. How can > she defend the rights of my country?'� > > WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 28 2001 > West's feminists under fire from female general > FROM STEPHEN FARRELL IN KABUL > THE general leans forward in the gathering gloom, her eyes glinting > with anger, and delivers a surprise attack on an unexpected foreign > enemy. > > Not the Soviet Union for invading Afghanistan, nor the Americans > still bombing her country. Not the Pakistani-backed Taleban, nor > yet their Arab legions, whose Wahhabi fundamentalism fuelled > much of the regime�s misogyny. > > Instead General Suhaila Siddiq, 60, sighs with exasperation at > Western feminists and their obsession with the burka, the > all-enveloping veil whose forcible use symbolised for many > outsiders the Taleban�s oppressive rule. > > �The first priority should be given to education, primary school > facilities, the economy and reconstruction of the country but the > West concentrates on the burka and whether the policies of the > Taleban are better or worse than other regimes,� she says > dismissively. �Let these things be decided by history.� > > She believes that the burka, which was worn long before the > Taleban and still is by most women around Kabul, is not the > battlefield upon which to fight their war. > > General Siddiq is Afghanistan�s only woman general, a surgeon, > hospital director and heroine to a generation of young women who > remained in the country. Born in Kandahar the daughter of a > powerful regional governor, she is that rare thing: an Afghan > Pashtun who is not comfortable speaking her own language and > prefers Persian, historically the language of the Kabul elite. > > Now head of the Women and Children�s Hospital in Kabul, she is > scornful of exiled Afghan women�s rights campaigners and > Western feminists who champion their agenda. Her most withering > comments are reserved for such vaunted women�s champions as > Emma Bonino, the former EU Commissioner, who brought the > wrath of the Taleban down on Afghan women when a CNN crew > accompanying her filmed women patients in Kabul in 1997. > > Of Hillary Clinton, another supposed advocate, she simply says: > �She cannot defend her own rights against her husband. How can > she defend the rights of my country?� At the 400-bed hospital in > Kabul, where she now heads a separate women�s section, her > colleagues speak reverentially of the woman who took on the > Taleban on their own ground. > > �General Siddiq, General Siddiq,� repeated nine times, was the > universal answer from women medical students asked to name the > person they most admired in the world. > > ==^================================================================ This email was sent to: [email protected] EASY UNSUBSCRIBE click here: http://topica.com/u/?a84x2u.a9WB2D Or send an email to: [EMAIL PROTECTED] T O P I C A -- Register now to manage your mail! http://www.topica.com/partner/tag02/register ==^================================================================
