Women respected by Muslim Countries?

[PoliticsGuru]

One of the lowest things in radical Muslim society is a woman. My issue with Hillary Clinton as president is that many radical Muslim countries will almost view us as a joke because a woman is running our country.

What is your guys thoughts?

[AAF]

My first thought is: Even to worry about what a "radical Muslim country" thinks about whom we choose to run our country is itself a joke. Who cares what they think? They are obviously paddling upstream in the river of historical precedent? (see list below).

My next thought is: It's quite shocking that we STILL don't have a woman leader on our own roster. The USA is conspicuously ABSENT on the list below, as are "radical Muslim countries".... strangely ironic, eh?
(Note: There are many "Muslim countries" with women leaders.)

My thought after that is: I'll exercise my freedom to choose (as a woman) to support the candidate I believe is best, that being Barack Obama. I would love to see a woman US Prez, unfortunately Hillary doesn't cut it for me.

So, if we truly want equality, may the best PERSON win!



Women Leaders....to name ONLY a few:
---------------------------------------------------------

Argentina - President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner

Argentina - President Isabel Perón

Bangladesh - Prime Minister Khaleda Zia

Canada - Governor-general Michaëlle Jean

Cherokee Nation - Wilma Mankiller (How's that for a name!!)

Chile - President Michelle Bachelet

Denmark - Queen Margrethe II

Germany - Chancellor Angela Merkel

Great Britain - a plethora of Queens

Guyana - President Janet Jagan

India - Prime Minister Indira Gandhi

Indonesia - President Megawati Sukarnoputri

Ireland - President Mary McAleese

Japan - Empresses galore

Liberia - President Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf

New Zealand - Prime Minister Helen Clark

Pakistan - Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto

Senegal - Mame Madior Boye

Switzerland - President Ruth Dreifuss

Ukraine - Prime Minister Yulia Timoshenko

Yugoslavia - Premier Milka Planinc

AND LAST BUT NOT LEAST ........ Egypt - Queen Nefertiti !!!!

The list goes on.............
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0801534.html

ALSO, a list of "Muslim Countries" of the world:
http://www.islamic-world.net/countries/index.htm

[SDLinda]

PoliticsGuru Wrote:What is your guys thoughts?

My first thought is that it is fine with me to be a country that pushes the envelope, especially in the area of equality and social justice. The unfortunate thing here is, as AAF has already noted, the US is in the back of the line when it comes to equality in leadership. To have had only white men as our highest leader for the last 200+ years is a very poor showing in deed. The more important issue is that we are already "a joke" (to use your phrase) with radical Muslims because we have a President who started out chasing weapons of mass destruction, who declared victory years too early, and who didn't have a strategy for the civil unrest that Muslim history should have told him to prepare for.

On another note, we have had two very competent female Secretaries of State, Madeleine Albright and Condoleezza Rice, one of them even chosen by the joke I mentioned above.

[PoliticsGuru]

I do understand your guys point but most radical Muslim countries don't have issues w/ those other countries who are run by women. Radical Muslim countries have some serious beef with us and view our leadership as not very strong. A woman wouldn't make their view much better. I am not being sexist, I am just looking at it from a radical Muslim view.

[AAF]

PoliticsGuru Wrote:I do understand your guys point but most radical Muslim countries don't have issues w/ those other countries who are run by women. Radical Muslim countries have some serious beef with us and view our leadership as not very strong. A woman wouldn't make their view much better. I am not being sexist, I am just looking at it from a radical Muslim view.

I understand your point and don't take your comment as sexist. It is a legitimate point. But it seems to me that, in the broader context of global politics, it's beside the point to seriously consider what "radical" groups (no matter where they are) think about the choice of leaders. People way outside of broad mainstream thinking base their decisions on very faulty world views. In my opinion, we even saw some of that in our own election and re-election of this Failure president we got stuck with.

I guess its hard to see the point also because I never equate the Muslim person or country with the "radical groups" that associate themselves with Islam. So I hit the same wall: why worry what "radical groups" think or want in our leader?

Many "moderate" countries in the world have "some serious beef with us and view our leadership as not very strong." And if we don't adjust our attitude toward the rest of the world and clean up our exploitive, empirialist-type of foreign policy then still..."A woman wouldn't make their view much better."

So I see what you're saying, but I think the focus on "radical" Muslims is based on a false premise. I have believed from 9-11 onward that "the powers that be" have profitted from keeping the world fixated on the "radicals". They have even inflated the true level of danger these groups are capable of (even given the fact that they did get through on 9-11). This is also EXACTLY the kind of attention and inflated importance the radicals want.

And by attributing all problems to the radical Muslims, it shifts attention away from legitimate criticism of US foreign policy by Americans, moderate Muslims, other Western democratic countries, even traditional allies and NON-Muslim countries.

IMO we have bigger problems to solve that completely overshadow the gender of our leader, whether man or woman.

[PoliticsGuru]

I do see your point. I agree that there are bigger problems than the gender of our president but I think we should look at all the pro's and con's of our next president. Even the nit picky things like this.

I think because we are fighting a war on terror, its right for us to look at the radical Muslims and not just other moderate countries. Obviously you don't think this, but I do think the way they look at us is something we should consider.

They considered airport security weak and look what they did, the flew some planes into the twin towers. When they see us as weak, what are they going to do to us?

[SDLinda]

PoliticsGuru Wrote:I think because we are fighting a war on terror, its right for us to look at the radical Muslims and not just other moderate countries.

I agree with the above part of your argument.

Radical Muslims have a very particular view of us and we need to be aware of it. They hate our materialism and our present government's desire to spread our form of democracy in an imperialistic fashion.

Where I disagree is that I believe that we don't need to conform to their image of us. Lasting peace can only be created by factions learning more about each other. And this usually means helping each other learn DIFFERENT aspects of each other, not trying to make the other side change their minds about the part they already know and dislike. This argues for letting them see a more feminine side of us (a woman), or a more rational, inclusive side of us (Obama).

Whether the President is a man or a woman, the President is only the symbol that is attached to policy and the actions of our government. With a President of either gender, radicals will find derogatory adjectives to describe POTUS until they begin seeing our entire country in a different light.