Does Feminism Belong to the Secular Left ?

An interesting observation by Naomi Wolf:

Because feminism in the 1960s and 1970s was articulated via the institutions of the left […] there is an assumption that feminism itself must be leftist. In fact, feminism is philosophically just as much in harmony with conservative, and especially libertarian, values — and in some ways even more so.

The core of feminism is individual choice and freedom. [Many] women are socially conservative […] and religious — and yet they crave equality as strongly as any leftist vegetarian in Birkenstocks. It is blindness to this perfectly legitimate approach to feminism that keeps tripping up commentators who wish to dismiss women like the former British prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, or Muslim women, or now right-wing U.S. women leaders, as somehow not being the “real thing.”

How does this apply to Lebanon? It could help clear up some stereotypes: If a woman is wearing a hijab, don’t automatically assume that she is against the proposed domestic violence law. She might be the best advocate you can find for this cause.