feminism and international relations

[frogwoman]

Female circumsion, kidnapping of young girls as witches and lots of other shit that goes on in West Africa where you have an intersecting of Animist and Christian/Islamic beliefs seem to be quite prevelant and even sanctioned from local government in some areas. Not sure about sending an army in but some sort of intevention is needed to bring these girls to safety.

yep

 

[Fledgling]

bump


So how did you approach the question, what did you talk about?

 

[frogwoman]

i haven't finished it yet but i've only got 500 words to go,

basically, i've talked about the distinction between different types of foreign intervention - basically between military and other stuff, like i dunno, stuff funded by the world health organisation

i've argued with the question and said that you can't necessarily view crimes against women as being worse than crimes against men, and that this can actually help patriarchy etc to carry on, because of the nationalist "myth of protection" etc

i've talked about how sometimes stuff like that can make stuff worse - eg in nepal, because of an initiative to stop trafficing against women they've actually banned women under 30 from going out of the country without a husband

 

[Gavin Bl]

What about somewhere like Sierra Leone though, OK so its still dirt poor and wrecked, but that psychotic level of almost gleefully cruel violence has been all but stopped through a military intervention. My mother in law is from there, and has started going back since the RUF were beaten, and its not a very popular view maybe, but most people there basically love the Para's and see military intervention as their salvation - at least in the short term. Not saying its always right (Iraq, Vietnam, etc), but equally, not sure that you can say a priori, that its always wrong - without just reciting ideological dogma.

 

[frogwoman]

What about somewhere like Sierra Leone though, OK so its still dirt poor and wrecked, but that psychotic level of almost gleefully cruel violence has been all but stopped through a military intervention. My mother in law is from there, and has started going back since the RUF were beaten, and its not a very popular view maybe, but most people there basically love the Para's and see military intervention as their salvation - at least in the short term. Not saying its always right (Iraq, Vietnam, etc), but equally, not sure that you can say a priori, that its always wrong - without just reciting ideological dogma.

this is true

 

[jimadore]

Not treating them as equal is a crime anywhere in the world.