Journal | Women Triumph Over Tyranny ~ Women ~ The Holocaust ~ The Hijab

The Hijab

THE DISPATCH below was written in 2016.

I grew up in a very loving family where my father and I were outnumbered by my mother and my sisters.

My sisters and I had a loving upbringing. Our parents obtained the right balance. We were also acutely aware that our parents were equal in all respects. Dad was head of the household, for sure. But Mum kept us all on the straight and narrow. Dad was head of the family until 2012 whereupon Mum became head of the family until 2016. And now, very thankfully, our elder sister is the head of the overall family, all branches. Within each branch my brothers in law and my nephew respectively are the head of their households. But the same rule applies. There is a perfect balance between all four husbands and wives.

What happened in Iran on very Monday, 10 October 2022, marked the writing on the wall for men, vicious in their outlook, cruel in their deliberations, spiteful and vengeful in their intentions and their judgments.

What must they make of Western Society, of the role of Women in Government, the Armed Forces, the Police and the Emergency Services, our Universities, and Schools?

A glimpse of that manuscript written 1,500 years ago whereupon, legend has it that its author was taken up into the sky by a horse ~ Myth, legend, fairytale.

How can a man, in Afghanistan, a Taliban bully, beat a young woman with a long whip in a marketplace without warning, for having “bare arms” simply because of the excessive heat, when bedecked in his dirty-sweating-armpit-uniform, has his own sleeves rolled up as far as he can raise them for precisely the same reason?

Ayatollah Khomeini brought hatred, death, and vitriol to millions in his own benighted country, Iran when the Shah of Iran was overthrown. The present Ayatollah is worse.

It says much of any man, who dares to have in his title the word, for some of you, the name Allah?

When men see themselves as gods, equal to god, even superior to god, then what lies ahead is dreadful. And that is so on every religion.

Iran is a pariah state.

Afghanistan is a pariah state.

Russia is a pariah state.

Religious tomes can easily slither into that infamous Mein Kampf category, if religion is allowed to dictate the status, role, and education of women and girls, sexuality, gender, disability and racial status.

30 January 2023
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

Women

8 March 8, 2016

International Holocaust Memorial Day annually on 27 January

International Women's Day annually on 8 March

I

IN MY personal calendar, these two international dates represent the triumph of freedom over tyranny. There are nations who do not subscribe to them, there are nations who pay lip service to them, there are nations who violently oppose them, then there are the majority of nations who uphold them, strengthen them, and determine that they will not disappear in the fog of history.

II

International Holocaust Memorial Day (IHMD) features often in my work and on this website, so I close the cover on that chapter in this Dispatch and open the cover on International Women's Day.

In the United Kingdom, we have a thriving democracy where freedom and universal suffrage are taken for granted.

The world over, millions of women do not enjoy this freedom and universal suffrage.

We cannot pontificate about the plight of women, and argue self-righteously, that we would not condone such 'captivity', enslavement, and misogyny when these three traits of human nature not only spring from the bedrock of their various cultures but exist here in parts of Britain and Northern Ireland in sections of our society - of all persuasions, races, colours and religions.

III

Down the ages, women have been a force to be reckoned with, and very often is that natural healing balm in diplomatic relations, when their male counterparts seem unable to come to an agreement. And they have intervened in great danger to themselves. In history, we look of course to the almost mythological characters of Joan of Arc, of Queen Anne Boleyn, of Queen Esther - she who interceded to prevent what would have been the extermination of the Jewish People. We can read the biblical account in the Book of Esther in Judaeo-Christian Scripture.

We race along the timeline of history to the last century, to Queen Elizabeth (later the Queen Mother) famously named the most dangerous woman in Europe by a man who sought to subjugate and rule the whole of Europe and more, Adolf Hitler. 

Across the Ocean, we see the liberating presence of Eleanor Roosevelt, the First Lady, and one who has probably done more than anyone else in the twentieth century to fight for women's rights, including what is variously referred to as the LGBT+ or GLBTQ or GLBTIQ communities.

Often, the day’s achievements are clouded, unseen even, until the dust of history settles and the warm rays of perspective shine once more upon the scene of battle.

Golda Meir, Prime Minister of Israel

IV

I remember, in 1969 (I was sixteen) the appointment of Golda Meir as prime minister of Israel.

This fascinated me because of my interest in the history of the Second World War, and I remember musing, with considerable satisfaction, at an imaginary conversation with some Nazi official (gangster is the better phrase) in history ... Well, so much for the master race attempting to exterminate the Untermensch! I bet you wouldn't have believed it twenty years ago, as you stood at the ovens of Auschwitz, that the third woman prime minister in the world would be Golda Meir of Israel! Preceded by Indira Ghandi of india and before Mrs Ghandi, And guess what? Think on this : Mrs Meir was preceded by Mrs Indira Ghandi of India, and Mrs Sirimavo Bandaranaike as the world's first female Prime Minister of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) nine years earlier in 1960.

Imagine, therefore, as a 20-year-old (now in simultaneous police and RAF VR service) watching this same prime minister snatch victory from Israel's enemies in a war that became a rout - her resolute determination to stand her ground, to inspire her country's armed forces, and, as it seemed to me, to be the collective voice of some six million people, making their presence felt from beyond the graves and ovens, from behind the veil.

No! This time, we will NOT give in. This time we WILL resist!

V

In Liverpool of course I tread a very thin line when I recall Margaret Thatcher.

In Liverpool, judgment is coloured and highly subjective. But politics aside, I am proud indeed that Mrs Thatcher served three terms, and whilst I understand a city's ill-feeling, it will never be reconciled, that Liverpool's mayor ordered the Union Flag not to be flown at half-mast on that Lady’s passing, but a week later played politics with the passing of an equally great Lady of Liverpool and ordered that the flag most definitely be flown at half-mast.

But these are all famous people.

VI

I remember a delightful conversation with a client when I practised law in Beaconsfield in 2002, and her recounting to me her wartime service. Her job was to fly aircraft from Canada to the UK via Newfoundland with minimal crew, and often looked upon with disfavour by her male colleagues, not all, but even one is too many.

And so misogyny lies, always, just below the surface.

As a retired RAF VR officer I was embarrassed to think that some of my wartime counterparts could harbour that attitude towards women who flew to this country the aircraft that they would then take over. 

But I have a wry smile - and way beyond the clouds, I’m sure they do too - that today we have women flying our fast jets in the Royal Air Force in front-line combat.

Which then has me recalling that during the Second World War, many of the Soviet Union Air Aces were women. In his memoir, The First and the Last (first published 1953) General Adolf Galland writes of the Luftwaffe’s shock! Too right!!

Rufina Gasheva and Nataly Meklin, both Soviet Air Force officers who flew 848 and 980 Night Combat Missions respectively, hereseen just after each being decorated as a Heroine of the Soviet Union, for their service with the famous ‘Night Witches’ Squadron during WWII (The Great Patriotic War). The image has been colourised and researched by Ms Olga Shirnina from Russia. Ms Shirnina confirms that the officers stand in front of their Polikarpov Po-2 Biplanes, and to whom all rights are reserved.

Joy Lofthouse - Air Transport Auxiliary Pilot - Image is Courtesy of The Spitfire Society

Mary, Lady Heath of Ireland

VII

And that is why I love the great Aviators of the 1920s, 1930s and 1940s.

For me though, the Irish Aviator Mary, Lady Heath stands out; and therefore naturally this century's Aviatrix, Tracy Curtis Taylor, who has flown Mary Heath's epic flight across Africa to the United Kingdom.

VIII

There are countless women to be remembered on this very special day, and I close by expressing my thrill at the possibility that in time, we will see a brilliant career for Malala Yousafzai and the powerful impact that this young woman has already had on the world stage, and the tremendous courage and fortitude of Aung San Suu Kyi of Myanmar (formerly Burma), and, dare I say this? Hillary Clinton. Yes. But … …!

As I review this dispatch in May 2019, it saddens me to note here Aung San Suu Kyi's fall from grace. Politics is a very dirty, dangerous and foul business. The Rohingya People of Myanmar will know this only too well.

People change, and not always for the better. The reasons for Aung San Suu Kyi not coming to the aid of the Rohingya People is complex. But it does not sit well. People will argue that had she done so, Madame Suu Kyi would have made the situation even worse. That tries my patience. All I see is a great deal of hand-wringing; exactly the situation we had in the 1930s and 1940s. I will leave it at that. 

Secretary of State, Madeleine Allbright - the first woman to hold office as the Secretary of State of the United States of America.

Reading Hilary Clinton's biography, so too the biography of America's first woman Secretary of State, Madeleine Albright and one of her own former students, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, we cannot miss the impact of women in our lives, at home, at play, on the world stage. And this came home to me loud and clear in Liverpool.

The London Carriage Works - one of those posh places - was taken over for four days by the USA when Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice visited. And it seemed extraordinary that we, the city, were hosting the Secretary of State. And on the Sunday morning, driving along the Strand past the Royal Liver Buildings, I was brought to a stop … goodness, those motorcades really do exist. And there, seated in this Limousine was, how can I put it, that very famous hairstyle sweeping into the Albert Dock.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice- Liverpool 2008 - Maritime Museum Liverpool

I lift a glass with the young lady on the jetty, one of my favourite framed prints in my lounge high above me in Liverpool looking out across the Mersey to the famous Birkenhead Docks. It is fair to say, this beautiful young woman dominates the room and brings calm, peace and serenity, as well as very happy memories of long distant times past, aeons ago, with Meriel.

Lady on a Jetty

With thanks too to Despina Christodoulou, Carol, Vanessa, Jackie, Megan, Suzie and Caroline, Rita and Silke.

The Aviatrix - Tracey Curtis Taylor

30 January 2023
All Rights Reserved

© Kenneth Thomas Webb 2023

Penned on the Liverpool Waterfront ~ 8 March 2016

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