America’s fishwrap, USA Today, ran an article recently about the feminist movement: “Feminist icons reflect on past.” It quotes Phyllis Chesler, author of The Death of Feminism, which contains a harrowing must-read chapter about Chesler’s experiences as the wife of a Muslim in Afghanistan.
The article says this:
Chesler believes the future of the movement depends on a global view.
“If we’re going to have a future, it’s going to have to be a world future,” she says. “If our ideas mattered for us “” and they did so nobly “” we’re going to have to find a way to share that vision universally.”
However, Chesler has informed me that that was not all she said, writing me the following in an email:
Here is one of thousands of examples of how we have all failed to influence mainstream liberal media and thinkers. This article was about a gathering of pioneer feminists. This article came out on Wednesday. Please note that the paper removed “Muslim” “Islam,” “Islamist,” “Islamic gender apartheid” and “jihad” from all my remarks about feminism as a philosophy of universal human rights and about our obligations to extend that vision into the twenty first century. As we all know: The NY Times did not use the word “Muslim” either to describe the sixteen suspected terrorists captured in Toronto this past week–they described Mohammed, Ahmed, Jamal, etc. as “south Asians.” Time magazine did not say Muslim either.
The denial is well-nigh universal.