The possibility of a total collapse Roe v. WadeThis is an attack on bodily autonomy and it is necessary to oppose it, especially since most Americans are not in favor of it. want to keep Roe intact. The American public has less than two months to rally against the Supreme Court’s final decision, and protesting, striking and otherwise opposing a majority right-wing decision to overturn RoeAt this point, things remain dire.
With that being said, we can very effectively show our public disdain for this potential court ruling without comparing the U.S. to Afghanistan’s Taliban government or to Islamic Sharia law, which has been a comparison made to show anger toward this likely judicial outcome. Protesting and showing our support for women and marginalized people’s rights should occur — but not at the cost of stigmatizing Middle Eastern or Muslim people.
It is not uncommon to compare losing abortion rights in the United States to Islamic extremism. Different hashtags were used to describe the Texas six-week abortion ban, Senate Bill 8, which was passed in September 2021. #ShariaLawInTexas #TexasTalibanTwitter made it viral, with thousands of followers and engagements. Today, the hashtag is ## #AmericanTalibanIt is also being discussed, which is another way of associating Islam and the Middle East to a judicial ruling made by a minority of Americans and U.S. citizens.
This behavior is so common that Democratic political candidates verified Twitter usersThese dangerous comparisons are expressed by blue checks and huge followings. Headlines that read “Texas goes Taliban on Abortion Rights” or “The Texas Taliban wing of the Republican Party” are also published across various mainstream news websites, directing the onus to the Taliban and away from the actual source — U.S. politicians.
The comparison of Roe’s potential overturn to Taliban rule is exceptionally ironic, given that the Taliban is now in control of Afghanistan due to the U.S.’s 20-year, manufactured war. As a justification for U.S. occupations of Afghanistan, Iraq and Afghanistan, the Bush administration has repeatedly stated that the Middle East governments would suppress the rights of women. As sociologist Kim Berry points out, the Bush administration used “Afghan women as symbols and pawns in a geopolitical conflict, thereby muting their diverse needs and interests and foreclosing the possibility of contributing to the realization of their self-defined priorities and aspirations.”
First Lady Laura Bush went as far as to make the liberation of Afghan women her purpose during Bush’s presidency, stating that, “Civilized people throughout the world are speaking out in horror — not only because our hearts break for the women and children in Afghanistan, but also because in Afghanistan, we see the world the terrorists would like to impose on the rest of us.”
Two ideas were implied by her: that the Afghan people were uncivilized and that the Taliban would eventually overthrow the U.S. government to impose their laws on American sovereignty. This false comparison was propagated by the Bush administration. First Lady Bush promoted it to legitimize the invasion. The U.S. Department of State even released the multipage report titled “Taliban’s War Against Women,” which dives deeper into using the Taliban’s extremist subjugation of women’s rights to justify the Afghanistan invasion.
Furthermore, comparisons to an “American Taliban” remain harmful toward Middle East and North African (MENA) populations, both at home and abroad, and lifts the blame from evangelical, white nationalists who are the ones making these decisions in our own country, not the Taliban or other foreign entities.
Trump’s administration was advised solely by conservative and evangelical-leaning groups such as the Federalist Society, Heritage Foundation, and the Heritage Foundation. 11 potential Supreme Court nominee suggestions. This impending reversal can be attributed to conservative elected politicians in this country Roe. These are the groups towards which we should direct our criticism.
The likely reversal of RoeTo Muslim extremism is a cover for white Christian nationalism, which is historical embedded in U.S. History. Since the earliest days of the Puritans, to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan, the regression of women’s rights in the U.S. is no one’s fault but domestic religious extremists and the U.S. politicians they elect to office.
Before the early 19th Century, getting an abortion was illegal. was common and accepted throughout North America. But the arrival after the Civil War of many Catholic immigrants soon threatened the majority white male professional classes. white, Anglo-Saxon protestants launched a campaign against abortion to ensure they remained the majority with power and financial advantage. As women continued to fight for their bodily autonomy, male doctors and politicians attacked abortion as “immoral, unwomanly, and unpatriotic,” writes Leslie J. Reagan in her 1996 book, The Crime of Abortion.
Comparing foreign governments in Middle East does not remove any responsibility on Christian nationalists or those advocating for this reversal. It also elevates stereotypes about people from the MENA region who have historically persisted hate crimes and xenophobia.
We must pay attention to those who are responsible for this outcome. The U.S. government must hold organizations such as the Heritage FoundationThe Federalist SocietyThey are responsible for their real-life influence in national conservative politics. In addition, we must apply that standard to administrations like former President Donald Trump’s, which appointed more conservative judges to federal courts in his first term than in either Barack Obama or Bush’s first presidential terms.
Although it goes without saying that the Taliban is an extremist Muslim group; they aren’t the cause of Roe’s overturn. We must hold our elected officials responsible, not some extremist group that has virtually no influence over these political decisions.
We have less than two weeks to organize, strike, give and rally, before the overturn. RoeIt could become an official. The least we can do is hold the people responsible for the current state we’re in accountable, instead of redirecting blame on the Taliban or Sharia law.
You can call it what you will: A minority group of conservative, evangelical, male-dominated and politically appointed people who drive policy. Instead of using Bush-era rhetoric, do the work to speak out against their political choices.
