I ran across this op-ed on Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Facebook page (I always make sure to carefully read whatever she posts) and indeed, as usual, Ayaan didn't let me down.

The op-ed-actually the adaption of a speech delivered last week by author and self-proclaimed "radical feminist" Phyllis Chesler to the Gender Fairness Committee of the New York City Supreme Court-is a brave commentary on how feminists have a responsibility to the women of the world and how political correctness is leading many feminists to abandon their Muslim sisters.

In the speech, delivered on International Women's Day, Chesler spared the audience the usual bromides (like those delivered by the first lady at the White House's commemoration event, which I wrote about here), and explores two important questions: Are feminists doing enough to support women around the world-particularly in Muslim countries, and is fear trumping Western feminists concern for Muslim women's rights?

Chesler then lists some of the horrifying crimes committed against women in these Muslim countries. These crimes include normalized daughter- and wife-battering, forced veiling, female genital mutilation, polygamy, purdah, (the segregation or sequestration of women), arranged marriage, child marriage, first cousin marriage, acid attacks, public stonings, hangings, and beheading, and the further victimization of rape victims who are jailed, tortured, and executed.

Considering these truly gruesome crimes, Chesler excoriates mainstream feminists and the Muslim community for staying silent, saying:

Chesler then explains the difference between honor killings and domestic violence--a distinction the Western media refuses to acknowledge.

Chesler concluded her remarks by reminding us why we fight for women's rights. She says "the battle for women's rights is central to the battle for Western values. It is a necessary part of true democracy, along with freedom of religion, tolerance for homosexuals, and freedom of dissent. Here, then, is exactly where the greatest battle of the twenty-first century is joined."