![]() |
![]() |
![]() |
Two days before International Wimmin’s Day, Condoleeza Rice appointed a high- ranking diplomat to an office to focus on the rights of wimmin, and specifically the rights of wimmin in Islamic countries. As MIM pointed out, the offensive on wimmin’s issues from the Bush administration is part of a huge new shift of funding and resources toward anti-Iran propaganda.
If we trace back Shirin Tahir-Kheli, a womyn from Pakistan, we will find that she carries enough clout to fill in in some fashions for UN ambassador John Bolton on the subject of UN reform. She appears to have started her career in the Reagan administration on a wide variety of international assignments.
As of March 6, Shirin Tahir-Kheli has a new job in the State Department. "Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has appointed Dr. Shirin Tahir- Kheli as her Senior Advisor on Women’s Empowerment, working with the Office of the Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. In this capacity, Dr. Tahir-Kheli will focus especially on multifaceted outreach to the women of the Muslim world."(1) If we look at the office web page connected to this work, it reads like a web page some "Women's Studies" department could have authored.
If we trace Shirin Tahir-Kheli back academically, we will find that she was just at John Hopkins University as a professor. Not surprisingly, she was in the same place as Azar Nafisi and did a roundtable with her.(2)
MIM points this out mostly because we do not want any international confusion about Amerikan academia--the revolving door to the U.S. Government. There is literally no major research university touching on international studies that is not infiltrated by u.$. intelligence to the core. The documentation of just CIA ties to professors at John Hopkins and similar places such as the University of California, Berkeley, the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Harvard University, Princeton etc. is in the thousands of pages before finishing with two universities. In addition would be such things as the setting up of academic presses by the National Security Council and work with the State Department.
It's not surprising that pseudo-feminism lines up with the Bush administration. The U.S. government has penetrated academia for so long, that it's hard to tell them apart anymore. Perhaps the pseudo-feminists should consider that if the Bush administration is saying the same thing they are, complete with web pages, that maybe it's time to say something new to heighten the struggle for wimmin's liberation.
Notes:
1. http://www.state.gov/r/pa/prs/ps/2006/64162.htm
2. http://www.learningpartnership.org/news/events/2002/02womenandleadership