Assault On Women

Around the world and close to home

A young woman died in Cairo for rebuffing a man.

Russian soldiers rape women in the Ukraine, a war crime.

Saudi women can drive now, but they can’t leave the country without permission — or even their houses.

Women fare even worse under the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Forget about attending a school if you’re a girl.

Brutality against women in India is still increasing — with only half-hearted government intervention.

Seventy percent of people trafficked every year are female,

women and girls of all ages.

I could go on and on.

At least we enjoy equal rights and freedom to choose our own lives in western democracies, right?

European women complain about being harassed; In 2018, over 600 women were murdered by a partner or family member.

But here in the U.S., the bastion of liberty and equality, we can count on women being treated fairly. — Or not?

The Supreme Court in the U.S. overturned Roe v. Wade today; Justice Thomas will take on contraception next, he says.

I am against abortion, but that is not the issue here.

The issue is that there seems to be a systematic attack on women’s rights and women’s autonomy everywhere, even here.

My daughter wants to have a baby soon. She worries what would happen if something went wrong and her life were at risk.

She knows a woman died in Poland when she was refused an abortion.

I tell her that would never happen here. We would not refuse a woman any life saving treatments. Or would we?

CNN is already warning about the economic implications of forcing women back into the home and the kitchen. Will that sway republicans not to pursue this path?

My daughter is upset and angry, and I don’t really know what to tell her.

Many things I thought would never happen in the oldest democracy on earth already happened — like the assault on the American democracy on Jan. 6th. Am I losing my faith in this country?

I hope Winston Churchill was right when he said, “Americans will always do the right thing, only after they have tried everything else.”

I hope we will do the right thing for this country and its women even if we cannot help the many women that are oppressed all around the world.