While the Bush Administration (and to be fair, presidential administrations that long preceeded the current one) emphasizes the fundamental human rights violations that plagued pre-invasion Iraq, it continues to play its double-standard in the region by ignoring similar abuses in other countries… like, Iran:
On Sunday, August 15, a 16-year-old girl in the town of Neka, northern Iran, was executed. Ateqeh Sahaleh was hanged in public on Simetry Street off Rah Ahan Street at the city center.
The sentence was issued by the head of Neka’s Justice Department and subsequently upheld by the mullahs’ Supreme Court and carried out with the approval of Judiciary Chief Mahmoud Shahroudi.
What was the crime she committed? Who knows? The article certainly doesn’t say… because it doesn’t matter. According the to the judge on the case:
The judge personally pursued Ateqeh’s death sentence, beyond all normal procedures and finally gained the approval of the Supreme Court. After her execution Rezai said her punishment was not execution but he had her executed for her “sharp tongue”.
There should be little doubt amongst people of the West that in the wake of the Islamic Revolution and overthrow of the Shah of Iran that the 28 year reign of the Islamic Republic has been carrying out a WAR AGAINST WOMEN. In the new regime, a question that continues to beg answer is what place, and what purpose, do women have in the Society? It is believed that women invariably distract the minds of men from concentration on serving God. To serve God is the purpose of Man. However, it is recognized that without women, there would be no mechanism for the birth of men, and without men, there would be no one to serve God. One must keep in mind that believers in Islam also recognize that Adam and Eve are the original parents of all man, and are keenly aware that it was the temptation of Eve that drew Adam to sin. Women are perceived, in a sense, as a “necessary evil”, that has existed along side man since the dawn of time. Women are thus tolerated to a degree, but have no rights that can be enforced under the law. This simple pragmatism spares women from what might be called “The Final Solution” to the Female Question. Were it not for their role in bearing children, and most importantly, male children, they–the mothers, sisters, daughters of everyone, would most certainly be rounded up and killed. They would be wiped out in a call to eliminate the source of original sin. Only those who passion was service to God would be allowed to live. If one follows the precepts of fundamentalism to the ultimate conclusion, it fortells the destruction of Civilization as we know it, and the restoration of God’s Kingdom on Earth. Unfortunatlely, in seeking the Restoration of God’s Kingdom, all too many seem bent first on the destruction of Civilization, and it is of these Forces that we must all be wary, and vigilant to resist.