Hillary, call your office

Feminists are an odd bunch, having conniptions about access to abortion, sex ed for children and equal rights for women -- but stories like this don't interest them much:

A girl of 16 was given 50 lashes after a judge ruled her knee length skirt was indecent. Silva Kashif was punished without her family being told after she was arrested while walking alone near her home in the Sudanese capital, Khartoum.

Her mother, Jenty Doro, said: ‘I only heard about it after she was lashed. Later we all sat and cried. ‘She is just a young girl but the policeman pulled her along like she was a criminal. It was wrong.’

She was wearing the same sort of blouse and skirt that many women wear, but she seemed to be in a place where passing police wanted to make a point. The law fobids caning persons under 18 but being alone and unable to get help, she was beaten anyway. The law is also supposed to make exceptions for non-Muslims (this girl is a Christian) but that point was also ignored. Shari'a enforcers may bend the laws, no one else can.

Hillary Clinton did a grand tour of Africa in August, but may not have been briefed about how women are marginalised, abused and beaten because of just such legal constructs.

Clinton made it clear during her confirmation hearing that women’s rights would be at the center of her approach to foreign policy. “[O]f particular concern to me is the plight of women and girls, who comprise the majority of the world's unhealthy, unschooled, unfed, and unpaid,” she said. “If half of the world's population remains vulnerable to economic, political, legal, and social marginalization, our hope of advancing democracy and prosperity will remain in serious jeopardy. We still have a long way to go, and the United States must remain an unambiguous and unequivocal voice in support of women's rights in every country, every region, on every continent.”

Well, a comment or two on what shari'a does to women would add a lot of punch to that "women's rights" schtick, but perhaps she's waiting for the right moment -- for impact. We're waiting, too.