At Tuesday’s press conference, President Obama referred to the horrific shooting of Neda Agha-Soltan in Iran, a murder that was caught on video and has become a rallying cry in both Iran and the world, saying,
“When a young woman gets shot on the street when she gets out of her car,” Obama said, “the violence clearly has reached an intolerable level.”
No doubt. So I have this followup question for the President: Is it also intolerable when women are shot in their homes? When women are raped in the Congo? Set themselves on fire to escape domestic violence in Afghanistan, are killed by their families for reasons of ‘honor’ in Iraq? And let’s bear in mind that this took place in a country where women’s human rights have been under siege for quite some time.
Will misogynist violence now be a focus point for your administration because while Neda’s death is horrible and a sad symbol of what is happening in Iran right now, the reality is that women get shot or killed in other ways every damn day on this planet for reasons that aren’t so different from why Neda got killed–namely the need to assert power over another and to control their lives–and those deaths rarely get more than lip service. President Obama, what new actions will you be taking to end the pandemic war against women?
That is the question I wish had been asked.
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