Females Are A Key Component In GWOT

A Classmate who's opinion I respect a great deal wrote this the other day, and I think it hit the nail on the head. His name is Commander Curtis M. Lesher, United States Navy, and I think this is important for all of us to understand. Let me know what you think.

God Bless America

Bryan

From CDR Lesher:

Females are a vital component to solving the problems posed by Islamic fundamentalists. I will to use the word “females” rather then “women”, because I believe young girls are as important as mature women in changing the radical views of the Muslim faith. In the following few paragraphs I will describe how important an impact females could have on how Islam treats females and how that could potentially change Muslim ideology, especially in regard to the concept of jihad. In addition, I will discuss how this might be accomplished. I want to alert the reader to one large assumption I am making in discussing this strategy and that is that females of the Muslim faith would in deed like to see a change in the way they are treated. I believe my assumption is correct.

First, let’s take a page from our own U.S. history and look at the transformation of U.S culture as females have achieved a mostly equal stature with that of men. It’s not the point of this article to debate whether there is still progress to be made here at home, so I won’t, but few would argue that equality is much closer now than even 20 years ago. As women have acquired the right to vote, hold public office and help dictate U.S. policy, the U.S. has become much more liberal in the areas of women’s rights, human rights and civil rights. Also, the past few elections have been heavily influenced, if not swayed, by female opinion.

So how can this be applied to radical Islam? Think for a minute how drastically different Muslim countries would be if females in those countries had the same stature that they have in the United States. Consider the policies of the Taliban in Afghanistan and Pakistan and how females are required to wear Burkas, how females are prohibited from attending schools and how a man is permitted in some instances to rape his wife. Also consider how women are punished and disfigured for actions that are legal everyday occurrences elsewhere in the world. Now consider hypothetically if the population of females in that region of the Middle East was transformed into a population of females from the western world with all the rights and privileges seen in western societies. The Taliban and Islamic fundamentalists would have two choices based on their recent actions. One choice would be to kill and/or disfigure every female they came into contact with thus ensuring their own extinction. Choice number two would be to accept women as equals and establish new policies for civil and human rights as they should apply to both genders.

It is my belief that many of the Taliban, Islamic fundamentalists and radical teachers of Islam already recognize the threat that females pose to their power. This is why we see images from these areas of schools being destroyed and girls being murdered for attending these schools. In a best seller by Greg Mortenson entitled Three Cups of Tea, Mortenson describes his quest to build schools in Pakistan and the cultural roadblocks he must circumnavigate. Mortenson felt that education for both genders was important to combating poverty, but he stumbles on to the realization that true progress would come through educating the girls. I believe Mortenson was right on track. Dr. Thomas P. M. Bennett has a similar view and writes, “Do not push women’s rights so much as women’s education- especially for girls.” As you can imagine, a population of educated females would mean a more liberalized way of thinking and that would worry Muslim leaders. Colonel Thomas E. Snodgrass remarks, “Quite simply, Islamic clerics are in the same position that Soviet nomenklatura were in during the last days of the Soviet Union, in that liberalization means loss of political and cultural control; therefore liberalization is something to be resisted, not embraced, by the societies power brokers.” The secret is no longer a secret. Females are the key to liberalizing Islamic ideology and potentially changing radical thinking from jihad to one of tolerance and progress.

So where will this education come from? I believe educating females in schools should be one component of a larger information campaign. This campaign should be designed to utilize all forms of media to deliver information and education to all areas of Muslim society. Internet, television and radio broadcasts, books, leaflets, word of mouth and all other kinds of communication should be used. I also believe most of the materials should originate from more moderate Muslim countries in order to mitigate the perception that western society is trying to change Muslim values.
Education will take time. The modern western woman did not materialize over night so patience will be important. The way to moderate the radical Muslim way of thinking and possibly curb terrorism is already in place in the form of the Muslim female. Now, it’s up to moderate Muslim countries, backed by the international community, to empower them through education. Sphere: Related Content