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aftaabmagazine · 6 years ago

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The Lost Treasures

By Mir Hekmatullah Sadat From the October - December 1997 issue of Afghan Magazine | Lemar - Aftaab

[caption: Kabul Museum with no roof. Photo September 2002, photo by Farhad Azad]

At the climax of the Afghan civil war of the 1990s, it was unknown what had happened to the Kabul Museum. Mir Hekmatullah Sadat wrote about the topic.

It was the chivalry of courageous Afghans led by Shah Amanullah Ghazi (r. 1919-1929) that made Afghanistan the first Muslim nation to be liberated from the tentacles of colonialism. It was this great individual who built the foundations of the Afghan National Museum at Dar-Al-Aman (Rowland, 1976). The National Museum once covered 50,000 years of history and holds one of the worlds most significant multicultural antique collections: Persian, Indian, Chinese, Central Asian, Greco-Roman, Arab and more.

The book Ancient Art from Afghanistan makes this remark about the museum: "An institution unique in the world in being composed entirely of objects acquired, not by purchase, but by excavations in the native soil" (Rowland, 1976, p.15).

[caption: The Bost Room, Kabul Museum. This was from the Ghaznavids era, 10th Century, Helmand, looted and burned during the 1990s civil war. Photo September 2002, photo by Farhad Azad]

Rowland (1971) explains, "the Kabul collections begin with the work of the French archaeological mission in 1922...The Italian mission at Ghazni continuing the work begun by the French in 1948, has added a precious collection of objects reflecting the splendors of the great Islamic civilization of the Ghaznavids" (x-xi).

German and Russian expeditions also took part in the excavation of priceless artifacts for the Kabul Museum. The Begram collection discovered in 1939, dating from the 1st century, comprised of 1,800 lacquers, bronzes, ivories, statutes and glassware items from Ancient Rome, Greece, India, China, Egypt, and Central Asia. Begram was the site of Kapisa, the summer capital of Kanisha, King of the Kushans. Rashid (1995b) cites Nancy Dupree (Vice-Chairperson of the Society for the Preservation of Afghanistan’s Cultural Heritage) referring to the Begram collection as "The most spectacular archaeological find of the 20th century" (p.51).

According to Rashid (1995a), another excavation was the Bactrian gold discovered in 1978. A Russian expedition made the Bactrian discovery. Dupree (1996) suggests that the 21,000 gold objects dating from 100 BC to 100 AD discovered in 1978 at Tilla Teppe, northern Afghanistan were displayed in 1991 to Western Diplomats in Kabul. Rashid (1995a) adds, "The gold was then packed into crates and moved for safety to a vault in the Presidential Palace in central Kabul" (p.61).

However, today the first Afghan National Museum is just crumbled walls and mere rubble. Magnificent palaces and mansions have been destroyed; historical monuments have been shelled. Afghanistan has lost its past to war, and its future is merely ruins and devastation. Every item of state treasure has been smashed, sold, or stolen. Its people and foreign powers have so systematically raped few countries.

The warring parties in Kabul saw those treasures in the museum as ready cash, to be blasted out of their vaults and hauled away to buyers across the world. According to Rashid (1995b), "A trail of looted artifacts stretching from middlemen and antique dealers in Kabul, Peshawar, and Islamabad to provide art collectors in Tokyo, Islamabad, Jidda, Kuwait, London, and Geneva exists" (p.51).

Rashid (1995a) firmly believes that the looters knew precisely what to take, what to break and to find the arts as if they had a sketched map. Each new victor would come to the museum doors to collect their spoils. Dupree (1996) estimates, "about 70% of the museum's collections are now missing"(p.42). It is a saddening occasion for a nation, one that was so victorious against many foreign hands, to fall to the knees of international art dealers. In the process, more unreplaceable and precious antiquities and monuments are lost along the way.

The collection can never be reassembled, or even located. Clara Grissmann (American art historian) suggests: "If new artifacts are dug up, they will be disconnected from the past because the record here has gone" (Rashid, 1995a, p. 62).

This loss destroys significant periods in not only Afghanistan’s cultural heritage but also others it has come in contact with. Pottery from prehistory was bundled into bags like cheap china; ivory statues of Indian courtesans from the 2nd century AD stuffed into the pockets of gunmen and carted off to Pakistan to be sold for a song, eventually turning up on the worlds antique art markets for huge sums.

Global organizations are unsuccessful in trying to recover the looted artifacts, such a piece held by Nasurullah Babur (Pakistani official) who bought an object from the Begram collection for $100,000 (Rashid, 1995a).

In 1995, the historic pistol of Wazir Akbar Khan that was used to kill Gen. McNaughton at Bala-Hissar marking the end of the 1st Anglo-Afghan War was discovered in the hands of another Pakistan official (Arif, 1996). In November of 1996, other artifacts like Babur Shah's (founder of the Mogul dynasty) and Ahmad Shah Baba's (founder of the Afghan Nation) swords were looted and sold to high ranking foreign officials.

During September of 1997, the Pakistani newspaper NNI wrote about former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto being linked to looted art treasures from Afghanistan: Wajid Shamsul Hassan is accused of having given customs clearance to eight crates flown by PIA, without charge from Karachi to London in April last year. The contents are said to have included swords and antique guns.

According to an article in the French paper Le Monde, Benazir said to be a keen collector of antiquities, visited Peshawar last year, accompanied by an academic advisor, to authenticate relics from Afghanistan artifact amassed by Zardari (Bhutto's husband) left the country. According to a journalist who visited a close friend of Zardari found at his house several pieces, including guns and other weapons, that he thought might have come from[Afghanistan].

Not only antiquities, but contemporary arts such as Afghan music, films, photographs, and great Islamic literature were also among the destroyed. Also, ancient graves are being dug up for the jewels they contain. Loyd (1997) points out that the gravediggers go further to even selling the bones of Afghans for money obtained in Pakistan (p.30).

A civilization that once flourished from the land of the Afghans is presently not noticeable, and the future looks even grimmer. We might have won lots of wars, but we are losing the battle to preserve Afghanistan. The country has disintegrated socially, economically, and regionally but arguably as disastrous has been the destruction of its heritage. This unique heritage was due to Afghanistan’s position at the crossroads of commerce and conquest for thousands of years yielding to a culture that has transformed into a legendary myth and fantasy.

When will we speak out and say enough is enough? It is now our time to address our nation and the world. We must reassure our brothers and sisters in Afghanistan, that we will not let them become mere myth or legend. We must struggle to keep Afghanistan alive in every shape and form.

To do that, we need to get rid ourselves of the chips on our shoulder. If we, in the West, away from the bloodshed and misery in Afghanistan cannot come together for our nation; then we should not blame our people back home for perpetually fighting a stalemate war. We must set a model for our people we must unite for our people back home.

Afghan educators, elders, and students from all side of the political and social spectrum must get active in efforts to bring together the largest immigrant population of the world. Otherwise, we will succumb the same fate as the people and treasure back home.

References

Arif, G. (1996, November). "Endless Tragedy." TASSWIR(dari text), p. 13.

Dupree, N. (1996, March/April). "Museum under Siege." ARCHAEOLOGY, p.42-51.

Loyd, A. (1997, January 12). "A Market in Human Remains." THE NEW YORK TIMES MAGAZINE, p.30.

Rashid, A. (1995a, September 21). "Crime of the Century." FAR EASTERN ECONOMIC REVIEW, p. 60-62.

Rashid, A. (1995b, December). "Plundered Afghan Treasures." WORLD PRESS REVIEW, p. 51.

Rowland, B. (1971). "Art in Afghanistan." London: Penguin Press.

Rowland, B. (1976). "Ancient Art from Afghanistan." New York: Amo Press.

Staff Writer. (1996, November 11). "Afghanistan: Artifacts Plundered." LOS ANGELES TIMES, A6.

Staff Writer. (1997, September). "Trial may link Bhutto to stolen Afghan treasure." NNI (Pakistan).

About Mir Hekmatullah Sadat

Mir Hekmatullah Sadat has a BA from the University of California, Irvine and an MA the California State University, Fullerton, and a Ph.D. at Claremont Graduate University.

#afghanistanhistory #afghan #kabul #archaeology

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americaniukr08 · 2 years ago

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American International University Kuwait Reviews

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americanre10 · 3 years ago

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American International University Kuwait Reviews

Website: https://www.aiu.edu.kw/careers/faqs

Address: Block 3, Saad Al Abdullah , Kuwait

Phone: +965 22262500

#Education #American International University Kuwait reviews

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Twitter: https://twitter.com/aiu_kw

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ladystylestores · 4 years ago

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US nears 4 million coronavirus infections: Live updates | News

The United States is expected to pass 4 million cases of coronavirus on Thursday, amid a surge in cases, predominantly in southern and western states.

Death toll in Iran from the novel coronavirus has surged past 15,000 as 2,621 people tested positive in the last 24 hours.

Papua New Guinea has put out a call for emergency assistance to the WHO, fearful it might be facing widespread community transmission of the disease.

More than 15 million people around the world have been diagnosed with COVID-19, and at least 8.6 million people have recovered, while more than 622,000 have died – according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Here are the updates:

Thursday, July 23

18:00 GMT – French new cases rise, death toll edges up

France’s public health authority has said there had been a significant rise in new coronavirus cases, as the number of deaths in the country continues to edge up.

The number of deaths in France from COVID-19 rose by 10 from the previous day to 30,182 – the sixth highest casualty toll in the world.

The number of confirmed, new cases rose by 1,000, a 66 percent increase in three weeks, as people adhered less to social distancing measures and increased testing led to the discovery of new clusters in parts of the country.

US: Many still awaiting promised stimulus cheque

17:30 GMT – Florida reports another record virus death toll

Florida has reported a record daily coronavirus death toll of 173 in the latest reflection of the COVID-19 surge in America.

The state health department said there were 10,249 new cases for a total of 389,868 people infected and 5,518 fatalities.

For nearly three weeks now Florida has been reporting more than 10,000 new cases a day. Other states in the south and west of the US are also seeing alarming increases as the country now regularly reports more than 60,000 new cases a day.

A total of 82 percent of the new fatalities in this warm, sunny state popular with retirees were over age 65. And 46 percent lived or worked in nursing homes.

17:00 GMT – US evictions set to soar as pandemic protections expire

As the coronavirus began to shut down large swaths of the US economy in March, spiralling millions of people into unemployment, a patchwork of state and federal eviction bans were enacted to keep people in their homes.

These protections are vanishing. Moratoriums have already expired in 29 states and are about to lapse in others. On Friday, a federal stay, which protects roughly one-third of American renters who live in buildings with mortgages backed by the federal government, will run out unless Congress acts fast.

As many as 28 million people could be evicted in the coming months, according to Emily Benfer, a visiting law professor at Wake Forest University who is the co-creator of Princeton University’s Eviction Lab, a national research centre on evictions.

Read more here.

08:10 GMT – Philippines re-imposes non-essential international travel ban

The Philippines has reimposed a ban on non-essential travel abroad, more than two weeks after permitting touristic trips outside the country, a government spokesman said.

Filipinos were banned from all non-essential domestic and international travel from mid-March when a lockdown was imposed to contain the spread of the coronavirus.

Passengers wearing personal protective equipment for protection against COVID-19 queue at the check-in counters in Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Pasay City, Metro Manila [File: Eloisa Lopez/Reuters]

07:45 GMT – China’s Sinopharm says coronavirus vaccine could be ready by year-end – state media

A coronavirus vaccine candidate developed by China National Pharmaceutical Group (Sinopharm) could be ready for public use by the end of this year, state media reported, ahead of previous expectations that it may become available in 2021.

Sinopharm Chairman Liu Jingzhen told state broadcaster CCTV the company expects to finish late-stage human testing within about three months.

Sinopharm’s China National Biotec Group (CNBG), which is responsible for two coronavirus vaccine projects, said in June the shot may not be ready until at least 2021 as a lack of new infections in China made it difficult to find people to test it on.

07:37 GMT – Germany links over 2,000 cases to slaughterhouse

A German official says authorities have now linked more than 2,000 coronavirus infections to an outbreak at a slaughterhouse last month that led to a partial lockdown in two western counties.

Regional authorities restored some coronavirus restrictions in the Guetersloh and Warendorf areas in late June after more than 1,400 people at the Toennies slaughterhouse in Rheda-Wiedenbrueck tested positive for the virus.

07:20 GMT – Australia reports highest coronavirus deaths in 3 months, infections climb

Australia reported its highest daily number of coronavirus-related deaths in three months as new infections continued to climb in its second-most populous state.

Victoria state said it had confirmed another 403 infections, while five people had died from the virus in the last 24 hours.

The fatalities, including a man in his 50s, mark the country’s biggest one-day rise in COVID-19 deaths since late April.

People wearing face masks walk while maintaining physical distance at Fitzroy Gardens in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia [David Crosling/EPA]

07:10 GMT – Russia’s coronavirus tally nears 800,000

Russia reported 5,848 new cases of the novel coronavirus, pushing its national tally to 795,038, the fourth-largest in the world.

The country has recorded just over 12,700 deaths to date and more than 570,000 recoveries.

06:53 GMT – South Korea reports worst economic performance in more than 20 years

South Korea’s economy recorded its worst performance in more than 20 years in the second quarter, the central bank said, as the coronavirus pandemic hammered its exports.

Asia’s fourth-largest economy contracted 2.9 percent year-on-year in the April-June period, the Bank of Korea said.

It was the fastest decline since a 3.8-percent drop in the fourth quarter of 1998, the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis.

06:20 GMT – South Africa reports new high in virus deaths

South Africa’s confirmed coronavirus cases have nearly reached 400,000 as the country reports a new daily high of 572 deaths.

South Africa is now one of the world’s top five countries in terms of reported virus cases, and it makes up more than half of the cases on the African continent with 394,948. Deaths are at 5,940.

Public hospitals are struggling as patient numbers climb, and more than 5,000 health workers have been infected.

Restaurant workers gather in Parkhurst, Johannesburg, to join a national protest organized by the Restaurant Association of South Africa (RASA) against the national lockdown regulations the government issued to fight the rise of COVID-19 [Luca Sola/AFP]

05:55 GMT – Israel names coronavirus supremo as infections grow

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has named a public health professional to head the coronavirus response, his office announced, amid mounting calls for Israel’s government to appoint a dedicated coronavirus response coordinator.

It said in a statement that the job went to Professor Ronnie Gamzu, CEO of Tel Aviv’s Sourasky medical complex, who was appointed the National Coronavirus Project Manager, his office said.

“Professor Gamzu has many years of administrative experience in the health field, including previous service as health ministry director-general,” it added.

05:20 GMT – India sets another daily record for virus cases

India’s health ministry reported a new record surge of 45,720 new coronavirus cases, taking the total tally of infections to 1,238,635.

India has recorded 685 virus deaths in the past 24 hours, as well as 444 previously unreported fatalities, bring the nationwide death toll from the pandemic to 29,861.

Many states in India have started reimposing lockdowns as health authorities struggle to trace transmissions.

India has the third-most coronavirus cases in the world after the United States and Brazil [Danish Siddiqui /Reuters]

Hi, this is Usaid Siddiqui in Doha taking over from my colleague Kate Mayberry.

05:00 GMT – Australia warns of record decline in economy

Australia says its economy is likely to shrink at its fastest pace in history in the second quarter.

Officials expect the gross domestic product (GDP) to shrink by 7 percent in the three months ended June leaving Australia in its first recession in 30 years. The economy shrank 0.3 percent in the first quarter.

Treasurer Josh Frydenberg is also forecasting a record budget deficit as the government steps up spending to keep the economy going and people in work.

03:50 GMT – Papua New Guinea calls for WHO help over outbreak

Papua New Guinea has called on the WHO for help, citing a “high likelihood of expanded community transmission”. It has asked the WHO to deploy Emergency Medical Teams for an initial period of one month.

PNG is one of the poorest countries in the Pacific and has limited medical resources. It currently has 30 cases of COVID-19, compared with 11 on Sunday. Most of those affected are medical workers.

Following an increase of cases in Papua New Guinea

there is an urgent need for clinical teams (EMTs) to support the country to prepare for and manage a surge in COVID-19 cases. Read the full request for assistance here: https://t.co/wThzLdAmNh #EMTeams #COVID19 pic.twitter.com/sFt16sP6wJ

— Chantal Claravall (@ClaravallC) July 22, 2020

National pandemic response controller David Manning said the WHO was in the process of mobilising international medical teams to deploy to PNG. Manning said testing was limited beyond the capital, Port Moresby.

03:30 GMT – China reports 22 new cases – most in Xinjiang

China’s National Health Commission has reported 22 new cases of coronavirus on the mainland, most of them in the far western region of Xinjiang where mass testing is under way.

Chinese mainland reported 22 new confirmed #COVID19 cases (18 in Xinjiang), and 31 new #asymptomatic COVID-19 patients pic.twitter.com/QkmHZPY2Rg

— Global Times (@globaltimesnews) July 23, 2020

Urumqi, capital of NW China’s #Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region, is carrying out free nucleic acid tests for all residents and people who are visiting the city, in a bid to screen for novel #coronavirus infections and reduce the risk of the epidemic spread. #Covid_19 pic.twitter.com/d55Dvf3GAy

— China Daily (@ChinaDaily) July 23, 2020

03:00 GMT – China offers $1bn loan for Latin America vaccine access

China will offer a $1bn loan to make any coronavirus vaccine it develops available to countries across Latin America and the Caribbean.

Mexico’s foreign ministry says China made the promise in a virtual meeting.

02:30 GMT – California overtakes New York in coronavirus cases

California has overtaken New York to record the highest number of coronavirus cases in any US state.

Health officials say the state’s total caseload now stands at 413,576 – about 4,700 cases more than in New York.

California’s death toll remains much lower, however. It has recorded 7,870 deaths since the start of the pandemic, compared with 25,068 in New York.

01:30 GMT – More records tumble in South America

Brazil and Argentina have both registered new daily records for coronavirus cases.

Brazil confirmed 67,860 cases on Wednesday, while Argentina recorded 5,782 cases. Both countries also reported more deaths from the disease, while Peru added 3,688 previously uncounted people to its death toll, lifting the total to 17,455.

Meanwhile, Brazil’s President Jair Bolsonaro has still not shaken the virus, which he once referred to as nothing more than a “little flu”. A test on Wednesday – his third – showed he still had COVID-19.

00:15 GMT – South Korea’s economy in recession as exports slump

South Korea has entered recession after exports recorded their steepest decline since 1963. The economy shrank by 3.3 percent in the three months ended June, compared with the previous quarter.

Exports account for 40 percent of South Korea’s economy, and it plunged 16.6 percent.

Finance Minister Hong Nam-ki struck an optimistic note, however. He says government spending, cash handouts and a slowing pandemic could help growth recover.

Containers at the port of Busan in South Korea on May 13, 2020 [File: Yonhap via EPA]

00:00 GMT – Final bow? UK warns of theatre closures after lockdown

A UK parliamentary committee on arts and culture says the coronavirus lockdown has pushed British theatre to the brink of collapse.

The committee estimates that more than 15,000 theatrical performances were cancelled in the first 12 weeks of the lockdown that began on March 23, and put total losses at 603 million pounds ($768m).

The UK has about 1,100 theatres from London’s West End to smaller towns and cities around the country.

Steve Clarkson, head of maintenance and facilities at the Palace Theatre in Manchester, carries out a maintenance check of the auditorium on June 19 [File: Oli Scarff/AFP]

—

Hello and welcome to Al Jazeera’s continuing coverage of the coronavirus pandemic. I’m Kate Mayberry in Kuala Lumpur.

Read all the updates from yesterday (July 22) here.

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salixj · 7 years ago

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I came into my feminist destiny in 1967, both as an academic and as an activist. Our original feminist vision was radical and transformative. We believed in universal human rights. We envisioned multicultural diversity but we were not multicultural relativists. We called out misogyny when we saw it and did not exempt a rapist, a wife-beater, or a pedophile because he was poor (his victims were also usually poor); or a man of color (his victims were often people of color); or because he had an abused childhood (so had his victims).

Like other American radical feminists, I was active in the civil-rights and anti-war movements. Unlike other feminists, I had “once lived in a harem in Afghanistan.” This is the opening line of my book, An American Bride in Kabul. Quite unexpectedly, I lived in a polygamous household in very posh purdah—which meant I was not allowed out without a male escort. Quite surprisingly, my father-in-law had three wives and 21 children—facts my Westernized husband failed to mention during our long American college courtship.

When I was 20, I saw Afghan women stumbling around in burqas—sensory-deprivation isolation chambers, ambulatory body bags. These ghosts were forced to sit at the back of the bus. This was long before the Taliban arose. I remembered that sight even when I critiqued American sexism, racism, homophobia—and imperial overreach.

Phyllis Chesler in Israel, 1972. (Photo courtesy Phyllis Chesler)

Between 1967 and 1975, I joined NOW, went to meetings, joined a CR group and a class-action lawsuit, founded women’s studies at CUNY, co-founded the Association for Women in Psychology—and the National Women’s Health Network. In 1970, I delivered a fiery speech at the annual American Psychological Association meeting in Florida. I demanded reparations for the women who had been misdiagnosed, pathologized, drugged, and institutionalized by the psychological and psychiatric professions. Two-thousand people laughed at me—but nervously. Some accused me of ��penis envy.”

I began writing what would become Women and Madness on the plane back to New York. My speech made world headlines. I was deluged by publishing offers. At the end of 1972, Adrienne Rich reviewed the book on the front page of the New York Times Book Review. My book became a bestseller, a “landmark,” a classic.

In the early to late 1970s, I delivered feminist speeches in Israel, began working with Israeli feminists; led a delegation of left-wing and feminist journalists to Israel; obtained signatures opposing the UN’s “Zionism=racism” resolution; co-organized a press conference and then a legendary conference about feminism and anti-Semitism and about women and Judaism; co-founded the first feminist Passover Seder which we held in my Manhattan apartment—and created Jewish-feminist life-cycle events. I also worked with Muslim dissidents and artists from Israel, Egypt, Kuwait, Iran, Lebanon, etc. During this time, I published three more feminist books.

In 1981, I convened a panel at the annual meeting of the National Women’s Studies Association in Storrs, Conn., about anti-Semitism and Feminism. For the second time, Aviva Cantor interviewed me for Lilith on this very subject. However, I did not become a professional Jew, I did not turn my Jewish identity or my concern about our survival, into a career or a calling.

Between 1981 and 2002, I researched and published six feminist books. I conducted campaigns on behalf of mothers losing custody, birthmothers being forced to surrender their genetic children against their will (aka surrogacy); a woman’s right to self-defense; and Jewish women’s religious rights in Jerusalem at the Kotel. (Yes, I prayed in the ezrat Nashim that first time in 1988, co-founded the International Committee for Women of the Wall, was a name plaintiff in our original lawsuit, and, after a quarter-century of grassroots and legal struggle, joined the Original Women of the Wall “Tfilat Nashim Bakotel.”)

I can tell you that anti-Semitism—Jew-hatred—is not new among feminists. I first encountered it in the early 1970s among radical feminists and lesbians and, together with Aviva Cantor and Cheryl Moch, immediately began exposing it.

However, a new and what I describe as a “faux feminism” has arisen in the last 30 years, a postmodern and postcolonial feminism that passionately condemns Christianity and Judaism as the greatest danger to women’s rights but dares not critique religiously supremacist Islam for this same reason; an intersectional “faux feminism” that condemns only Western imperialism and refuses to acknowledge the long history of Islamic imperialism, colonialism, slavery, anti-black racism, and religious and gender apartheid; a “faux feminism” that is far more concerned with the alleged occupation of Palestine than it is with the occupation of women’s bodies, faces, minds, and genitalia world-wide–including those women who are being forcibly face-veiled, death-threatened, and honor killed in the disputed territories.

Women’s studies associations, national feminist organizations—many feminist Jews—are not merely “politically correct”; they have become “Islamically correct.” They are currently more concerned with the religious sanctity of head and face veiling than they are with FGM, forced face-veiling, honor-based violence, polygamy, child marriage, and honor killing in the West. Not only have faux feminists betrayed the Jews—in the name of anti-racism, they have also abandoned tribal and immigrant women of color—Muslims, Sikhs, and Hindus—to barbaric misogyny. Above all, they have abandoned the most heroic ex-Muslim, Muslim, Sikh, and Hindu feminist dissidents, both in the developing world and in the West.

And that’s the tragedy—that so many Western feminists have become such conformists. They are no longer independent thinkers. Faux feminists have also been persuaded that Islam is a “race,” not an ideology or a religion; that America’s historic enslavement of black Africans, and South Africa’s apartheid regime, is exactly the same as alleged Israeli discrimination against Arab Palestinians, including Jew-hating bomb makers and terrorists with blood on their hands.

Fundamentalists are trying to destroy what feminists have accomplished.

Feminists in America exposed, condemned, and analyzed rape. We began rape-crisis counseling and changed the laws about rape. Today, Western professional feminists—our women’s studies professors, politicians, journalists, human-rights activists—are not rescuing rape victims in Islamic communities, either in the Middle East or in the West. Feminists are too nervous about being called “Islamophobes,” “racists,” or “colonialists.”

We may not be able to personally, physically, rescue the raped girls of ISIS or Boko Haram or those in refugee camps across Europe. But American feminists can fund those who do; we can also call barbarism (beheading, stoning, crucifixion, public gang-raping, the destruction of our human cultural heritage) by its rightful name. We can finally understand that the leaders—not the people—of Iran and all the Caliphates in formation are dangerous to America and to a Western way of life. American-style feminism is also on the line.

We can help girls and women who live here and who are being beaten, stalked, and death-threatened by their own families because they refuse to veil or to marry their first cousin. Their blood should not be on our hands. We must create shelters or extended families that understand what honor-based violence is about. We must prosecute honor killers and their accomplices.

The battle for women’s rights is central to the battle for Western values. It is a necessary part of true democracy. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the 21st century is joined.

***

We live in dark times. We can feel it in our bones and see it written on the sky. Early in the 21st century, Jews were blown up, stoned, stabbed, and car-rammed to death in the Jewish state. The West refused to take note—and has now inherited the whirlwind. Think London, Madrid, Nice, London again, Barcelona; think Sept. 11, Fort Hood, San Bernardino, Orlando.

Like many people, I had assumed that the world’s hatred of Jews had ended, that Jewish history would never again repeat itself. I was wrong. Those who still believe that Jewish history can never again repeat itself must dispense with that illusion. Jewish history has always repeated itself and may continue to do so until the coming of the Messiah.

One of the things that’s new about the “new” anti-Semitism is that it is coming to us both from the Islamic world and from the Western intelligentsia—and this time it’s global, and 24/7, via videos, the internet, cable vision, doctored footage, etc..

Feminists are too nervous about being called ‘Islamophobes,’ ‘racists,’ or ‘colonialists.’

Anti-Semitism has, incorrectly, been viewed as solely a right-wing phenomenon. It is not. In fact, genocidal anti-Semitism has been perpetrated against Jews by ancient pagans, by Christians—both Catholic and Protestant, by Muslims—both Sunni and Shia, by Nazi-pagans, and by criminal psychopaths. We have recently been horrified by genuine, bona fide, American Nazi freaks in Charlottesville, chanting “Blood and Soil,” “Jews will not replace us,” and holding aloft flaming torches. This evokes terrible collective memories. Yet these hundreds of white Nazis on American soil are not nearly as numerous as Muslims who have been religiously, politically, and socially indoctrinated to hate and kill Jews and other infidels.

In 2003, I published the first edition of The New Anti-Semitism. I wrote that anti-Zionism is the new-Anti-Semitism—and I held the Western intelligentsia responsible for their alliance with Islamic-style Jew-hatred. My Berkeley-based editor fought with me about this. Back in 2003, what I was saying was considered heresy. It still is.

For the first time in my career, the increasingly left-(and no longer) liberal media was not interested in reviewing my work or publishing what I had to say. I was shunned by many of my feminist friends on the left but welcomed by conservatives, libertarians, and Zionists who had long viewed me and my cohorts as dangerous to Judaism and to Zionism. I sometimes needed police protection when I spoke on American campuses. But it was also as if I had not spoken. I was “disappeared.”

After publishing The New Anti-Semitism, I went on to write six more books, two not yet published, and nearly a thousand articles. I also conducted and published four studies about honor killing. This pioneering feminist research about femicide enabled me to submit affidavits on behalf of Muslim and ex-Muslim girls and women in flight from being honor killed in immigrant communities in Europe, North America, the Middle East, Asia, India, and Africa. This research has also been used in honor killing prosecutions in the United States and Canada.

The fact that I am also a passionate Zionist has been used to marginalize my feminist work. Like Ayaan Hirsi Ali, I have been disinvited as a keynote speaker at conferences. I have “made” some death lists. I have seen American classrooms being invaded by American totalitarians, fascists who, in the name of “free speech” and “academic freedom,” are verbally and physically violent. They mean to censor all objective truth, but especially the truth about Israel and Islam, and to redact history.

Today, my closest allies are not faux-feminists for Palestine. I work with genuine dissidents. Therefore, none of us are politically correct. We are anti-Islamists or anti-Sharia-ists: As the feminists of yore, we share one universal standard of human rights. We support post-Enlightenment Western values such as individual, human, and women’s rights, free speech, the right to dissent, freedom from and freedom of religion, the separation of religion and state. These dissidents comprise the major resistance movement of our time. Many write under pseudonyms and live with 24/7 police protection.

I can no longer work with Jew-haters. It is too painful. Therefore, my allies and I all support Israel’s right to exist and flourish.

Gender apartheid and honor-based violence are human-rights violations and cannot be justified in the name of cultural relativism, tolerance, anti-racism, diversity, or political correctness. Why are so many good feminist Jews confused about any of this?

Our tribes are, as ever, at war with each other. How may we best understand this? Rabbi Hillel is known for his three questions.

“If I am not for myself, who will be for me?” “If I am only for myself, what am I?” “If not now, when?”

Jewish conservatives, Zionists, and many Orthodox Jews are trying to answer his first question: “If I am not for myself …” Jewish liberals and leftists are trying to answer only his second question, “If I am only for myself….” As a people, we need to answer both questions, and as the rabbi asked: “If not now, when?”

Adapted from a speech, “The New Feminism and Anti-Semitism,” delivered at the UJA Federation in Manhattan on Sept. 12, 2017, in acceptance of the “Defender of Women’s Rights Award.”

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