Men's 'guidelilnes' for women 'to follow' in Iran ... and Latin America

No one doubts that men are implacable when it comes to reaching power, and women must be aware of this.It is important to see the connection between what men are doing in Latin America versus what they are doing in Iran. In a post made by Global Justice, I made a comment that I want to bring about and share with all of you.

The original post from Global Justice is: http://www.worldpulse.com/node/11884, and the comment I made follows:

I want to thank you for bringing this up. The first remark is on how little money is being invested in women's funds... just 50 million? Come on! The US only spends that amount remodelling ONE museum!. Another remark is on how brave women are. Throughout the planet, women have been the first to go out and fight for every human right that was violated. I have one big concern though, this advocacy from women all over the world to fight for justice, human rights and peace, has, in the last 20 years, been wrongly used by men.

I have witnessed how left wing parties in South and Central America have used women to fulfill their political dreams. First, they knew that in the 80s they had lost all their positions worldwide, because they had a tremendous failure in all governments behind the iron curtain (wow, that sounds old), as well as in South America, specially in Bolivia where the hyperinflation under the left wing reached 10.000% (it is not a typo, it is 10,000%). So, weak economies in the lost decade of the 80s gave birth to fifteen years of right wingers on governments in the Americas. In the aftermath of damages, the right wing has made a lot of progress in the region's economy despite the fact that the left has found a very nasty way of fighting to come back, but it has made a huge mistake: it failed to connect the governments with the people, they were not able to see the ant-like work the left was doing with the baseline people, specially the women.

During the 80s they managed to bring a lot on European NGOs who taught women and grassroots men different skills, as for example how to form small groups of artisans, street sellers, etc, and give themselves a name and be registered as a social group under the government's registration, so that they would have an empowered voice to fight government's policies. This sounds terrific, and it was so until the real intention showed up: more than 400 million dollars were spent by the NGOs to finance what they would call \"Social Movements\", which became the real opposition to governments. Evo Morales was, in the 80s and 90s, the leader of the coca growers in Cochabamba only. In Europe, by 1995, the the left wing NGOs had already designated him to be the president of Bolivia, long before Bolivians even thought of him as important.

They gave him money to make the social movements important. Social Movements were fighting in the streets against everything the government wanted to do, good or bad, it didn't matter. The best strategy used was the blockage and the street fight, and, of course, women were utilized to be in the front lines of these fights. Until now, women are used in all fronts of president Morales's policies. Morales's landmark is the blockage. He taught every social movement how to block roads, with violence, and appear in the international media as peaceful and innocent. He taught them how to use women in the frontline so that the media would turn the society against anyone who hurt the movement. He taught women how they should NEVER make a decision without consulting the 'bases' (you can read 'men of the party'). He taught all society that democracy meant to allow him to go against the rules because he was 'fighting for the greater good'.

Same sort of things happened in Venezuela, Ecuador and Honduras.

How is this bad? you may be asking. Well, it is good because it has empowered women to raise their voices, but it is bad because they have made women's poverty their work and sustent. So, technically and in real grounds, poverty of women will keep existing because if they were not there, Morales's party, for example, would have no job. They have used women, they have told them they were important, they have taught them how to fight, they have taught them how they should worship Evo Morales, but they have not taught them that power comes with responsibilities, and the biggest one is to learn how to read and write, learn science, learn math, to leave the one thing that perpetuates poverty: ignorance. Of course, it has paid off to the NGOs. Their millions were well invested. Morales now has the power, women worship him, people love him, but he will keep them poor by keeping them ignorant, otherwise the flag of his job is lost.

But, he has freed Bolivia from illiteracy in the last three years! is the comment I will hear. And it is true. But let us check the facts: The educational reform, which he opposed fiercely for years for considering it too expensive and affensive to the cultures of Bolivia, cost 20 million over ten years. His program against illiteracy cost 50 million dollars in .. two years. And this money comes from international loans given by Venezuela at rates higher than the World Bank's. Levels of corruption are obvious. And the results?, well, people have learned to read HIS biography (small paragraphs), HIS good deeds, etc. which makes the women worship him, even though what they have learned is not enough to understand a full paragraph that does not talk about things about Evo, which are widely spread by the state's 100 radio stations (yes, they bought 50 more lately) and the state TV.

In the end, women in Bolivia, Nicaragua, Venezuela, Ecuador, El Salvador, and Honduras are utilized to be in the frontlines, but they are not given true power. Women have lost their lives and relatives in pro of the change, the revolution, but all it has given them back is more poverty. You need to watch out for these movements. I do not agree with the right wing's senseless lust for money, but I do not agree with the way the left wing perpetuates poverty as a means of profit for the new burocrats either.

We need to be more responsible, more proactive. Muslim women are not going to be the exception, as they are vulnerable and live in the middle of horrendous wars. Muslin women must realize that men's conception of how women should be will NEVER be in accordance with their dream of true empowerment.

I don't buy the 'good intentions' of 'the good people' anymore. We (all women of the world), must be our own guides. We must look out for the hidden reasons behind men trying to trick us into giving us money IF we follow their guidelines. We need to build our own guidelines.

I wanted to add this comment so that this golden opportunity to empower muslim women, will do so by also educating them to have their own clear thinking preserved from the 'guidelines' of interested men.