Hey, NOW! Are you listening?

NOW's hysteria about abortion is preventing it from realizing that President Bush is the best friend that women have ever had, or so says Ralph Peters in a compelling argument regarding the battle over women's rights shaping up in the Islamic world:

The Washington establishment would shrink from any such claim, but the Global War on Terror is a fight over the social, economic and cultural roles of women. The core issues for the terrorists are the interpretation of God's will and the continued oppression of women. Nothing so threatens Islamic extremists as the freedom Western women enjoy. *** The true symbols of the War on Terror are the Islamic veil and the two-piece woman's business suit. The math is basic. No civilization that excludes half its population from full participation in society and the economy can compete with the United States and its key allies. Yet Middle Eastern societies, especially, have dug in their heels to resist change. Some, such as Turkey, Pakistan and Iran, have tumbled backward. Islamist terrorists have formed the last, great boy's club, meeting in caves and warning girls to stay out — or, in the case of the 9/11 hijacker Mohammed Atta, demanding that women be kept from his grave to avoid polluting it. Their vision offers women fewer rights by far than those enjoyed by the wives of the prophet Mohammed. They are women-hating sadists for whom faith is an excuse. Their fears are primal.

Read the whole thing, and then think about it really hard the next time you hear some "feminist" shriek about how the Bush administration is attempting to send women back to the 1950s. I'd rather think about this when I think about the Bush administration and women: Iraqi women on election day Afghani women on election day Afghani woman on election day They may be swathed in burkhas, but they're participating in the democratic process, and that's the beginning of true freedom. Hat tip: Independent Women's Forum Inkwell