She sued. The questions: Does the First Amendment right of pornographers override a woman’s personal religious beliefs and her rights to on-the-job safety? Does being surrounded by pornographic magazines constitute a “hostile” work environment? The company retaliated for her lawsuit by depicting her to the press as a fanatic on a rampage against both secular society and free speech. My decision to testify on her behalf led some of the usual suspects to question my political sanity and my feminism.
Over the years I have been consulted by other women, especially those in blue-collar, formerly all-male jobs who have often been harassed and forced to live with sadistic pornography placed in their lockers, locker rooms, and work areas.
The film “North Country,” which stars Charlize Theron, depicts exactly such mistreatment of women miners. The film is based on a real class action lawsuit that 19 women first filed in the 1970’s against Ogleby Norton in Eveleth, Minnesota. The women sued because they were subjected to verbal, physical, psychological, and sexual abuse and to omnipresent sexual graffiti.
It took more than 20 years for the women to win a settlement, but only after they found themselves put on trial: their sexual, gynecological, psychological, and marital histories were scrutinized in the courtroom.
Many people said that the women simply ought to “tough it out.” Some said that pornography and insults were protected under the First Amendment.
Today, if a person tries to tell the truth about Islam or departs from the politically correct line – against America, Israel, Jews, and religion – he or she is often subjected to hostile working conditions, just like the women miners of “North Country.”
In the West, authors critical of Islam are routinely threatened, sometimes sued for “defamation,” or slandered as “racist.” In Muslim countries, such authors are more often jailed, mobbed, murdered or forced into exile.
Western academics who criticize Islamic culture have been ostracized or silenced on campus. They are shouted down, shamed, interrogated, and cursed.
Do we want speakers on our campuses to be subjected to such hostility, to run such a gauntlet in order to be heard? Why have so many university presentations descended to the level of the “Jerry Springer” show?
Why has the Western academic world given a free pass to those who defend the rights of misogynist terrorists who practice both religious and gender apartheid in Islam’s name? The women in “North Country” have counterparts in the Islamic world today who suffer worse than mere harassment: Some are stoned to death, some are publicly hanged; others are sexually attacked, still others suffer genital mutilatation.
When speakers tell the truth about this on American campuses, they must endure harsh and punitive working conditions. This reality must be exposed, challenged, and transformed. We must call Nazi tactics by their proper name and not confuse them with a civilized or scholarly exchange of ideas. We must liberate our campuses from such barbarism.