I would consider saving that picture and defacing it, either by computer or printing it out and using a pen, but it doesn't really need much work! It's terrifyingly hideous enough as it is.

Equating either Dinnerjacket's or Khameini's authority with that of allah / fake-God / Tash would seem to be the gravest blasphemy. And that reported happily by a 'moderate' newspaper? That's OK then, we can all relax, the 'moderates' are saying things we can all understand and respect...

Yes, ETA have been unusually quiet lately so it seems a bit much to think that they would do something so outrageous with no warning.
Don't forget that the Madrid bombings were immediately blamed on ETA, then it turned out that they weren't involved and it was Al Qaeda. The only thing that supports the ETA theory is that the attack was targetting the Civil Guard, which has been their arch-nemesis since forever. I guess we won't know until there's conclusive evidence one way or the other...

The abaya makes her look like an Egyptian mummy.
Kind of appropriate really...dead inside, merely physically preserved.

I absolutely agree; if feminism just means what you describe then I'm behind it 100%. I think it's sad that it seems to have been warped and become a vehicle for anti-male, anti-West rhetoric. Any movement that extends our freedoms to muslim women has my support, but it doesn't seem to be coming from traditional feminist quarters, for reasons we can only guess at.

Are you referring to me? :S

Technically, a feminist is a woman who seeks independence from men. In that respect I would say that I am a feminist because I don't want any aspect of my life to be under the control of anyone, male or otherwise.

However, after the protest culture of the '60s began to peter out in the '70s, the feminist movement took weird and fragmentory turns, because there was so much theory and arguments over what it actually means to be a woman and how woman's emancipation can really be defined (the most basic example being, is a woman who flaunts her body for money considered free and empowered because she knows what she's doing and is taking advantage of mens' primitive desires, or is she merely a pawn; a slave to their lust and cash? In the case of islam it's the worrying idea that women "choose" to cover themselves from head to toe and it's just misogyny to want to force her to uncover herself).

Thus it became pretty much impossible to pin down what exactly it was that 'feminists' wanted and how they proposed to get it, because there was so much infighting and contradictory statements between different groups. You can listen to one feminist who claims to speak for all women, and then another who also claims to speak for all women who says the exact opposite. Women can't be lumped into one big category that assumes we all think, feel and want the same things. That's why I don't go out of my way to label myself as a feminist, because it propagates that myth rather than seeing a complex individual with a rich array of things that make up one's identity.

Sorry, that was a bit of an essay but I'm afraid I can't answer your question about how we organise women who don't consider themselves to be feminists - the best I can offer is to keep hammering away at the logic of universal human rights rather than letting anyone think that women are different and must be treated as such, especially when "different" only means "worse" (not that I'm in favour of preferential treatment either, just to be clear!).

I don't like describing myself as a feminist because it always conjures up negative stereotypes of 'hysterical' women who, like persikas says above, care less about women than about hating men.

I care about everyone being treated equally with love and respect, which just happens to mean that women tend to need a greater amount of attention and support because they are treated far worse proportionally to men. Having done modules on feminist theory as part of a Politics degree I agree with everyone else here who is appalled that so little time and energy in Western feminist academia is devoted to the ill-treatment of muslim women. Things are by no means perfect for Western women but I think we're reached a point now where we can afford to spare a thought for those less fortunate...

That's brilliant. Russia may have its problems but you have to respect that they really don't f**k around when it comes to this kind of thing!

Actually I wonder about the Racial Equality Laws - surely they could be used to disband the Black Police Officer's Association? It's an organisation with membership based on skin colour so it should be illegal.
Plus it's rotten to the core because the senior officers use it as a platform to cry racial discrimination when they're almost already at the top of the foodchain...

Thanks Markhole, glad to know you support the preservation of an ancient and good people rather than joining your fellow pond-scum in baying for their blood.