On Islamists and women

Nina Burleigh has a post worth reading at The Huffington Post. Burleigh discusses the often-ignored motivation behind so much of Islamist rhetoric--the total disdain of women, and the belief--supported by women--that men cannot help themselves if they are tempted with sexual desire. She tells about a silent encounter she had with a fully-covered Muslim woman on the subway, and, as one would expect, there are already comments up questioning Burleigh's assertion that the "woman problem" is a significant part of Islamic extremism.

Burleigh also talks about an ugly encounter she had with an Arab man in a shop, and how she regrets she didn't respond to his aggression. Many years ago, I was walking down a sidewalk in the French Quarter and chose not to make eye contact with a man who was coming toward me with his eyes boring into me. If you are a woman, you will understand why, on the street, it is sometimes better not to make eye contact. This happened to be a man of color, and when he reached the spot where we would have passed each other, he stopped, got in my face, and whispered in my ear "Scared bitch."

I wanted to shake him and say "I'm not avoiding eye contact with you because you are black; I am avoiding it because you are male and staring a hole through me." But of course, I could not do that.