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Author Topic: Turks Challenge Hughes On Iraq
writer
editor emeritus
Babbler # 2513

posted 29 September 2005 10:52 AM      Profile for writer     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
quote:
A group of Turkish women's rights activists confronted Undersecretary of State Karen Hughes on Wednesday with emotional and heated complaints about the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq, turning a session designed to highlight the empowering of women into a raw display of the anger at U.S. policy in the region.

Washington Post

quote:
"War makes the rights of women completely erased, and poverty comes after war - and women pay the price," said Fatma Nevin Vargun, a Kurdish women's rights activist. Vargun denounced the arrest of Cindy Sheehan, the mother of an American soldier killed in Iraq, in front of the White House this week ....

"You're concerned about war, and no one likes war," Hughes said. But "to preserve the peace, sometimes my country believes war is necessary," she said.


Remarkable.


From: tentative | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
ronb
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 2116

posted 29 September 2005 01:20 PM      Profile for ronb     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
It's always bracing to hear folks in power quote Orwell without an ounce of irony.
From: gone | Registered: Jan 2002  |  IP: Logged
writer
editor emeritus
Babbler # 2513

posted 29 September 2005 02:12 PM      Profile for writer     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Exactly what I was thinking. This is a double plus good example, I'd say.

More coverage:

quote:
"I am not anti-American, but I am anti-war and anti-violence," said Serpil Sancar of the Women's Studies Center at Ankara University. "We would be pleased to cooperate not on violence, but for increased freedom and well-being."

World Peace Herald


[ 29 September 2005: Message edited by: writer ]


From: tentative | Registered: Apr 2002  |  IP: Logged
writer
editor emeritus
Babbler # 2513

posted 30 September 2005 10:54 AM      Profile for writer     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
Some more interesting details about this exchange:

quote:
Hughes, a longtime confidante of President Bush with the job of burnishing the U.S. image overseas, has generally met with polite audiences - many of whom received U.S. funding or consisted of former exchange students - during a tour of Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Turkey this week.

In this case, the U.S. Embassy asked Kader, an umbrella group that supports female candidates, to assemble the guest list. None of the activists currently receive U.S. funds, and the guests apparently had little desire to mince words. Six of the eight women who spoke at the session, held in Ankara, the capital, focused on the Iraq war.


quote:
"War is not necessary for peace," shot back Feray Salman, a human rights advocate. She said countries should not try to impose democracy through war, adding that "we can never, ever export democracy and freedom from one country to another."

Tuksal said she was "feeling myself wounded, feeling myself insulted here" by Hughes' response. "In every photograph that comes from Iraq, there is that look of fear in the eyes of women and children. ... This needs to be resolved as soon as possible."


Turkish women blast U.S. envoy on Iraq war
SFGate.com


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skdadl
rabble-rouser
Babbler # 478

posted 02 October 2005 02:24 PM      Profile for skdadl     Send New Private Message      Edit/Delete Post  Reply With Quote 
There is reason to be concerned about what is going to happen to women's status in Iraq now. The new constitution sets up a very curious and shaky tripartite structure in the country. In that context, it seems likely that women's rights should be assured among the Kurds at least, and maybe in the central Sunni areas. But the struggle for control among the majority Shiite groups, the continuing possibility of civil war, the increased influence of the current Iranian regime -- none of that bodes well for the struggle for women's rights as we would interpret them.
From: gone | Registered: May 2001  |  IP: Logged

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