Tuesday, June 3, 2008

on Nafisa Shah, Pakistani MP

A profile of one of Pakistan's 72 female MPs (of 342), Nafisa Shah.

Ms. Shah sounds like an incredible woman. I got sort of a kick out of the headline - "female legislator takes on men". There was nothing in the article that indicated a specific instance in which she 'takes on' a man - although of course that could mean any number of things - but it's sort of implied that by participating in politics and working to curb honor crimes she is doing just that. My first impulse was to be all, you go, girl. It certainly is difficult to be in politics (I assume, never having had the pleasure of that experience) and being a woman can't make it easier.

On the other hand, though, it isn't really fair to men as a group to lump them together and label them 'honor crime perpetrators'. (The article discusses many of Shah's accomplishments but her work on honor crimes is emphasized). Categorizing all men as sexist by virtue of their gender is easy to do, but just as sexist as stereotyping women.

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