THE WAR ON WOMEN continues in the Middle East, and according to Roya Hakakian's article in the Washington Post, "How blaming the West hides a war on women", it developed to a fine art in Iran and has institutionalized misogyny in the Islamic fundies, and has put a killing frost in the Arab Spring.
The world cringed and turned away from Iran. Just then, the age of marriage was lowered to 9; the weight of a woman’s testimony in a criminal trial was halved against a man’s; divorce, abortion, inheritance and custody rights were slashed; several academic fields and careers were banned to women; and the Islamic dress code was reinstituted. Public spaces in Tehran, including buses, were segregated by gender, and the faithful’s fists pumped into the air, punctuating Friday prayers with “death to America” chants.