Why Gender Matters in Understanding the September 11th Attacks

Why Gender Matters in Understanding September 11th

Usually when the word gender is used in a political sense often times what is described is the role of women in a certain aspect of politics. This paper is a look at certain social norms that are directly related to women and their rights that seem to allow and harbor terrorist. The idea of the article that I am basing this paper on is by Amy Caiazza Ph.D. who suggests that if we were to change some of our ways in society regarding women we might have been able to fore see the events of the September 11th attacks.

Historically women have taken a back seat to men in almost every aspect of life we were always second choice. Fortunately for us as the time moves forward we see a dramatic increase in the role that women play in society today. Though our progress has been great there are still women who are not satisfied with the place in society that women have. Locally here in the U.S. women have it pretty good and most of them tend not to complain but there are those feminist that want women abroad to be able to experience the same freedoms that the women of America enjoy and some times take for granted.

Women in our traditional roles or as some may say in our natural state are known as the child bearers, family care takers, household keeper, and nurturer of all. The list that I just stated is only the beginning of what a woman can do. In other countries for example

in Afghanistan in 1997 when the now popular Taliban first came into power they put into practice a radical form of Islamic rule known as Sharia. This radical rule that they governed with limited women in so many ways the women of Afghanistan were not allowed to educate themselves. These women were also not allowed to participate in any form of activism and were not able to even have a physical position in their own society. When women have been found in violation of these rules the end results were never too good. In fact many women have been beaten and put to death once they were caught breaking the rules.

These acts of disrespect and violence against women are no secret to the United States of America. America jokingly is often called the world police and is known for "sticking their nose in other peoples business" but for some unknown reason they have taken no action against the Taliban for these injustices they are imposing on the women of Afghanistan. The sad excuse that has been given in the pass is that the policies against women in Afghanistan are culturally specific. Also another excuse is that it is an internal situation in which the U.S. or the U. N. cannot get involved in. It is quite interesting to see how our perspective of Afghan women is the assumption that the governments have lead us into believing that these women don't want and would never enjoy freedom and independence.

Doctor Caiazza states in her article that most often times groups that promote or even allow violence against women tend to be violent in many other ways. This mistreatment of women in Afghanistan is one of the key points she believes shows us

how if we as women and as U.S. citizens get involved with the issue of women's rights abroad that we may have been able to effectively prevent or even fore see the events of September 11th. She has a profound belief that women's rights are essential and that they are "central to human rights". Ms. Caiazza has studied and found that there are direct links between economic development, violence, women's activism, and peace- building she explains that the views of a women's role in society when it is incorrect breeds violence and makes it almost impossible to have a peaceful society.

The idea of embracing women into society and promoting their involvement in every aspect of society is what she believes to be the start of our success in a movement toward a peaceful society. Another good point that she presents in this article is that the frustration that is built inside a woman when she is denied her right to be equal with everyone else forces her to rebel and support terrorism. The support of terrorism is not what she believes to be the most important it is understanding why the support is given and how it is justified. This point is used to show that women don't only have to be the victims of terrorism but may also be the perpetuators the terrorism.

Some ways that women engage in terrorism have been just by raising their sons in a manor that commits their values to military and terrorist causes which makes these children devote their lives to achieving what ever cause by any means necessary. Women also commit suicide bombings and assassinations though there are not a great number of women terrorist it does happen and you could understand why. Women as stated before are often only seen as target and not the perpetuators of terrorist acts. Since this common

view is what is held by most people women are not usually looked at in a suspicious manner. So when they are up to devious plans they are usually successful because they are believed to be