The "we" of women's rights

It is difficult to know what to say in response to Mona Eltahawy’s explosive article on the experience of women in Middle Eastern countries. She writes about a level of institutionalized brutality that demands that readers pay attention.

At the same time, she doesn’t say anything new, nothing that wasn’t already made too vividly clear during the Arab Spring. Women telling of their experience at the hands of both police and protestors pointed to an unacceptable level of violence levied at women just because they're women and appearing in public.

But what to say? Many commenters have quickly turned to an “Islam vs. the West” set of comparisons, and the immediate result is a degradation of the conversation. Self-righteousness or smugness about the relative parity of women in our society takes us in the unhelpful direction of pitting “us” against “them.” Comparing Christianity and Islam on the subject of women’s rights is likewise of little value, a litany of analogous gains or losses, a losing battle for everyone. What seems to be most needed is an emphatic and united “we.”