How do we explain losing control of our bodies?

In 2005 I worked in Egypt on a project regarding the exporting of flowers and flower essences.  The problem was that the males were jealously guarding the export gateway which is the most lucrative. Women had many acres of land in flowers and the best flower essences. Yet they could not break into the export market. So the task was to get the women into the decision-making positions of the flower exporting cartel.

That required meeting the businesswomen across the country who owned and ran the flower and essence companies. Between us we devised a legal strategy to get them on the board and opened the gates for women producers. One point mentioned by nearly every businesswoman I met was that she regretted every day that her daughter had fewer rights than she did.

These women were fierce and ferocious and fought in the war against the British and French over the Suez Canal in 1956. They marched, they fought, they protested – in military uniforms equal with the men. Now their daughters must be veiled. The daughters cannot speak out or march or protest or carry a weapon. Women protesters were assaulted and mocked during the Arab Spring uprising for allegedly exposing their bodies. They have been arrested for photos on social media.

All the women I spoke to had been genitally mutilated and hated it. It was a horrible experience, and they had no sexual pleasure ever after. Yet they did it to their daughters. Why?  Because no man would marry them otherwise. This loss of freedom, this physical torture was based on twisted religion.The women said they were sorry they had even participated in the fight against Britain and France because they had more freedom before.

Algeria was a very similar story. I worked there in 2008-2009 on a project to train Algerian lawyers on using international human rights law for cases in their own country. We formed an advisory board of well-known women lawyers. After I got to know some of them quite well, they told me a similar story to the women in Egypt. During the war with France for independence from 1954-1962, they fought with the men. They carried guns, they used them, they threw grenades, they sabotaged rail lines, they did it all – just as we see women doing in Ukraine today. It was a long and brutal battle. Once the war was won, and the religious zealots took over, the women were sent home – just as they were in the U.S. after WWII. Those women likewise said they were sorry they had fought the French because they had more rights under the French than the current Algerian government.  Many moved to Canada to avoid raising their daughters in that repressive system.

So here we are now in the U.S. with the exact same dynamic playing out. Those of us who fought in the 1970s and 1980s to get and keep the right of women to own their own bodies are sick over the attempt to enslave women once again. If you don’t have the right to control your own body, you are a slave and no other rights matter. Will we, the older generation go to our graves bemoaning the fact that our daughters have fewer rights than we do?  How will we explain that to our daughters and granddaughters?

This draft Alito decision was not an example of the Rule of Law but of patriarchy and theocracy carved on the bodies of women based on a 13^th century zealot who thought women were witches and marital rape was a duty. The only authority the supreme court has is that we believe in it.  That is true no more.  We dissent to the draft opinion. We do not consent to be governed by six theocrats.  We will not obey.