Athena and Islam

A few years back, I wrote a piece for a magazine that never got picked up. The editor of this particular magazine had asked me to write a piece on my opinion of how to liberalize the Middle Eastern Islamic nations. I questioned my qualifications for such a piece but he assured me that my educations coupled with my singular experiences in the Arab states would give me a fresh perspective. It took a while to flesh out but it was easier than I thought because I had some vague notions of this floating around in my head already. What was produces of roughly 5000 words titled "Athena and Islam." I was quite chuffed with the product until the editor (still a friend) convinced me that my idea was of questionable value.

My idea was simple. If you want lasting positive change in the Middle East, you must begin by educating the women. Now I'm not so arrogant to believe that I had an original idea. I probably stole in from someone and I just can't remember who. But it was extremely gratifying to read in Thomas Barnett's book "Blueprint for Action" that he felt the same way. Dr. Barnett states quite powerfully that any nation that treats its women as breeding vessels will be doomed to a lower level standard of living. Women have always been the Guardians of Culture. Civilization itself is a feminine idea. For a developing nation, there is simply no downside to educating its female population. The birthrate and infant mortality rate goes down. Women who wait longer to have children generally treat those children better thereby giving them a better chance at not just surviving but succeeding.

All the authoritarian regimes are masculine by nature. Empower women and the country will attain democracy and pluralism naturally and at it's own pace. Women's rights should be a primary agenda of the US and the UN. Remarkably, the UN has never done much to aid the plight of women in these countries. In fact, UN officials have been positively linked to the sex slave trade. What we should be doing in Iraq and Afghanistan is not just opening the schools up to girls but compelling all females under the age of 16 to attend. Admittedly, this 'seeding' will take a long time to fully flower and depending on the political situation may never happen. But it's the only chance those countries have at long terms success. Trying to impose it from top down will fail. Democracy will fail unless the women in those countries learn to read.