By Carol Rushton

Am I the only woman in the United States who has no idea why women were marching in cities across our country recently?

It was clear that the women were angry about something, but I could not figure out why. I know they were angry because pictures on The Daily Mail UK website of women marching and speaking at these rallies showed signs like “Angry Women Will Change the World.” These pictures also included many anti-Trump signs, so I received the impression that part of their anger had something to do with the fact that a man was president of the United States and not a woman. Didn’t they hold marches last year to protest the election of Donald Trump as president? Why were they doing it again? I confess I was completely baffled.

One picture in particular caught my attention. Some women were dressed as characters from A Handmaid’s Tale, a television serious adapted from the book of the same name. The series depicts a future United States ruled by a “Christian” theocracy in which women are forced to bear children for their “masters.” The women wear long, red robes and hats that look similar to a nun’s habit. The Daily Mail’s caption under one picture described the women dressed like this because they were protesting “against female oppression.”

What??!!

That women are protesting because they are “oppressed” in one of the freest countries in the world is beyond the pale. Women in the United States can be anything they want. A woman can choose to become a ballerina, astronaut, school teacher or college professor, physicist, writer, journalist, lawyer, nurse, doctor, or brain surgeon. She can choose to be a stay-at-home mother or the CEO of a large corporation. American women can become actresses commanding millions of dollars for films or compose music for those same movies. She can walk down the runways of top designers modeling beautiful clothes or become a top athlete running in grueling marathons. She can be appointed to the Supreme Court or hold any political office our country has to offer, even running for the highest office in the land. If she so chooses, an American woman can now even decide that she no longer wants to be a female and call herself a male! A woman in the United States of America is limited only by her talent, brains, and drive.

If women are oppressed anywhere in the world, it is under dictatorships and totalitarian regimes, especially those in the Middle East. Somehow, American feminists always neglect to mention what life is like for girls and women under an Islamic theocracy like Saudi Arabia or Iran. Only in 2015 did Saudi Arabia graciously decide to allow women to vote and in 2017 to drive cars. Wow, I wonder how long it will be before women are actually allowed to buy a car. Ladies, you’ll probably have to wait just another 100 years or so.

Women must wear long, black robes that cover them completely accompanied by a scarf or hijab. In some countries like Oman and Yemen, a woman must cover her face completely with only two small slits for her eyes so she can see where she is going. In many Arab or Muslim communities, a woman is not allowed to leave her home unless she is in the company of a male member of the family, either her father or husband. This is because a woman cannot be trusted to stay out of trouble unless she is constantly monitored in public by a male relative.

According to the Qur’an a woman must have four male witnesses to prove she has been raped. So you don’t have four male witnesses? Sucks to be you! You are now accused of acquiescing to have sex with a man. And heaven help you if you are not a Muslim woman. The Qur’an gives Muslim men carte blanche to rape you as much as they want as long as you are part of the spoils of war or purchased as a slave. How enlightened! In times past, we used to call people like this barbarians. I have no idea what feminists call this today because they simply never address the issue.

I have given up that so called feminist activists will ever do anything meaningful with their time and actually address real issues affecting women in a substantive way. They would rather participate in meaningless marches and give meaningless speeches that will change nothing for the women are actually oppressed and suffering in our world.