Why Gender Matters in Understanding September 11th :: September 11 Terrorism Essays

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 foresee 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.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  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 â€Å"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.