An Iranian woman called Hanna cried out for freedom this week. According to the NYTimes she posted this on the website of an Iranian opposition candidate:
“I AM ALIVE BUT MY SISTER WAS KILLED. SHE WANTED THE WIND TO BLOW INTO HER HAIR, SHE WANTED TO BE FREE; SHE WANTED TO HOLD HER HEAD HIGH UP AND SAY: I AM IRANIAN. MY SISTER DIED BECAUSE THERE IS NO LIFE LEFT; MY SISTER DIED BEASUE THERE IS NO END TO THE TYRANNY.”

Make no mistake, it was no mistake that Hanna wrote she wanted the wind to blow into her hair. Make no mistake she wrote about the death of a woman, not the deaths of the men who have died this past week.

In his Celebrity World Tour, Barack Obama reached out to Muslim men by tossing them the bone of women’s freedom. It was shameful and EXACTLY Obama—the sly use of misogyny and sexism and female repression to up his credibility with males (and those percentage of women who prefer male authority as the world order, even though they would never admit this, even to themselves. See Ann Coulter and Jessica Valenti as perfect examples of women who prefer Daddy Power! )

Here are those shameful words of Mr. Obama:
"I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal." ~ Obama in Cairo

Never mind that Obama
banned the hijab from his election podium! What a hypocrite!

Here is what one women activist Ms. Habchi has to say to Obama:

“The hijab flies the flag for extremism”
FRANCE - Silhem Habchi has been president of the women's rights movement Ni putes ni soumises (Neither whores nor submissive) since 2007.
I'm very disappointed. Obama, the first president to represent diversity, is supposed to symbolise peace-making. And yet, he forgot one half of humanity. I'm furious. It's like he tried to make a compromise with the Arab world with women paying the price. Trying to get closer to the Muslim world in turning a blind eye to women's rights, to democratic values and to the right of emancipation, is to exploit women. He can't truly want to fight against religious extremism and give in over the hijab issue at the same time. The hijab flies the flag for extremism."

Obama has gone on to say:
"It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim citizens from practicing religion as they see fit -- for instance, by dictating what clothes a Muslim woman should wear. We can't disguise hostility towards any religion behind the pretence of liberalism." ~Obama in France.

Repression, Of course, was and is what Obama was really selling to Muslim men:
“It is important for Western countries to avoid impeding Muslim Men from repressing women as they see fit.”
That is EXACTLY what Obama was saying.

Sure get those girls in school, but feel FREE to dictate every other aspect of their daily lives including forcing women to wear what males dictate, see and marry whom males dictate, circulate in society as males dictate, gain power as males dictate, have child custody as males dictate, exercise control over their bodies as males dictate,.. etc. etc.

Now hear this:
As long as Muslim society has males demanding how females must dress there is no freedom for women, no "choice" to wear the burqa or have “the wind to blow into her hair.”

But the one sure thing Mr. Obama has learned from the U.S. elections: Males in power love it when powerful males tell them it is OK to accept double standards of freedom and respect and power for women and girls.
American women have their own hijab: it is the word bitch and slut and whore. Powerful males insist on using it (see NYTimes calling Hillary a bitch or CNN or MSNBC or Air American, or etc., etc.) and there are plenty of silly women who see the word bitch and slut and whore as a choice word, the way the hijab is choice.

Such women are are actively setting us backwards…all in the hopes of acceptance into the boyz club. Admittance is simple, such women have learned: just support men for top power spots, accept sexism and double standards applied to women they don’t happen to like, and say that feminist work is NOT about gaining equality for women, but is…well, it is whatever…you know, like when you fingerpaint mushrooms and hang the picture on your wall…that is feminism if a woman says so!

Women have been primed for centuries to accept sexism and misogyny and 2nd class status in society. And it will always be the FEW brave women who push to move women forward. It is much easier to go with the flow; to not make waves. To not call for “the Wind to blow into her hair.”
Neda was the stimulus for brave Hanna to find her voice. Obama is far too cowardly to take up Hanna’s calls for freedom. The world will never hear Mr. Obama say that until no laws or cultural requirements force women to cover themselves as men dictate, they no woman can truly be FREE to wear the hijab.

The Burqa is just too bizarre to even entertain…it is like women having men lead them around by dog collars…only freaks (see Feministe and Feminsting and Obama) would support “choice" of this behavior in public. Yes here is my daughter presented for school in a dog collar and leash: see to it she keeps this on and don’t expect the other kids to value her less because she “chooses” this get up! Yak!)

Instead, Obama will continue to tell Muslim Men that HE will never ask them to truly free women. Obama himself finds that idea mind-shatteringly scary.

link to nytimes Hanna quote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/23/world/middleeast/23neda.html?_r=1&scp=2&sq=a%20young%20woman's%20fate%20resonates&st=cse