Hillary Clinton Says World's Women Must Gain Power & Rights

Stephanie Sinclair for Newsweek Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in Abu Dhabi in January.A new Gallup poll reports that US Secy of State Hillary Clinton is the most popular person in the Obama Administration.

“Clinton’s popularity may be partly due to the nature of the secretary of state position, which is somewhat above the fray of partisan politics and focused on defending US interests globally,” writes Lydia Saad of the Gallup polling organization. But Ms. Saad also notes that Clinton “is seen in a favorable light by 45 percent of those who separately say they disapprove of the job Obama is doing as president.” via CSM

According to a recent Newsweek story on Hillary, two years into her tenure, she has out-traveled all of her predecessors, with 465,000 air miles and 79 countries under her belt. Secy Clinton is insistent that her ‘Hillary Doctrine’ is simple: the betterment of life for women and girls around the world.

Newsweek paints a portrait of Clinton as fully engaged, citing her presence on Egyptian news site Masrawy.com. Her presence resulted in more than 6,500 questions in three days—from young people across Egypt.

“We hope,” she said, “that as Egypt looks at its own future, it takes advantage of all of the people’s talents”—Clinton shorthand for including women.

A number of questioners accused her of meddling in Egyptian affairs with her persistent references to women’s rights. Clinton replied: “If a country doesn’t recognize minority rights and human rights, including women’s rights, you will not have the kind of stability and prosperity that is possible.”

“I believe that the rights of women and girls is the unfinished business of the 21st century,” Clinton told Newsweek. “We see women and girls across the world who are oppressed and violated and demeaned and degraded and denied so much of what they are entitled to as our fellow human beings.”

Clinton continued: “because where women are disempowered and dehumanized, you are more likely to see not just antidemocratic forces, but extremism that leads to security challenges for us.” Secy Clinton consistently positions issues of women’s rights as a national security issue.

Perhaps some Arab countries are listening. Saudi Arabia’s Prince Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud wrote in a NYTimes Op-Ed piece last month that  women must be empowered in the wave of reform sweeping through the region. (Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz Al-Saud, a grandson of the founding king of modern Saudi Arabia, is the chairman of the Kingdom Holding Company and the Alwaleed bin Talal Foundations.)

Rahim Kanani, editor-in-chief of World Affairs Commentary recently interviewed Melanne Verveer, U.S. Ambassador-at-Large for Global Women’s Issues, on conditions for women and girls around the world, national security and U.S. foreign policy as it relates to women, the Obama Administration’s position on CEDAW, the role of men and boys in advancing women and girls and concerns about international women’s rights after Secy Clinton is no longer leading the charge for women.

A key question in the interview concerns the fact that Congress has failed to ratify CEDAW, a position we share with rogue state countries like Iran, Somalia and Sudan.

Readers can imagine that the same Congress that is waging outright war to control the bodies of American women at both a federal and state level, has little interest in promoting an international equal rights treaty for women. 

Secy Clinton has said that ratifying the treaty is a key promise that she has made to the world’s women. Secretary of Defense Gates agrees that the empowerment of women in a national security issue. It is only under this umbrella that Clinton might be able to get the CEDAW treaty ratified. B

Because America doesn’t believe in equal rights for its own women citizens — and the situation is worsening — I can’t imagine that Congress will ratify CEDAW. It is American Conservative’s intention to roll back rights for women, pursuing a more Biblical vision of women’s role as helpmates and not leaders or independent citizens with inalienable rights at home or abroad.  Anne

Followup: Dan and I disagree on Hillary’s commitment to trying to help women in Africa.

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Hillary Stunned & Emotionally Drained Confronting Life for Women in Congo