By Donna Gentile O’Donnell, Ph.D.

“Tear down that wall, Mr. Gorbachev”, became the rallying cry uttered by Ronald Reagan, when he confronted the injustices of the remnants of communist history. It is a line oft repeated as a reminder of the kinds of abrupt and declarative statements world leaders must sometimes make to draw attention to the disparities that exist when freedom is trammeled.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, whose sharp comment to a poorly worded and misogynistic student question, underscored what she had been facing that day, on her diplomatic tour of Africa. In too many African countries, the treatment of women includes mass rape as an acceptable tactic in tribal conflict; genital mutilation as a rite of passage; societal standards in which male domination is the cultural norm; and women as chattel is a concept deeply embedded in day to day African life.

Secretary Clinton began her day meeting with Joseph Kabila, president of the Congo, and one of the most serious violators of human rights in African leadership. In the Congo, despite international efforts and financial support to help prevent sexual violence as a weapon of war, where these horrific acts are condoned, de facto, with the government and the police turning a blind eye to the plight of women who are brutalized savagely. There are credible reports, most recently by the New York Times, that as many as five Congolese military officers have been implicated in these despicable acts. Later, Secretary Clinton, who has publicly and privately denounced these heinous practices, spent time in one of the camps, Mugunga, with some of these victims. She bore witness to these women and girls, who have been raped, sometimes repeatedly, humiliated, mutilated, and then ostracized. And then, emotionally spent, and physically drained, Secretary Clinton came to a meeting in which she was queried about a most important matter…what her husband thinks.

It was no mistake for our Secretary of State to take umbrage with the question. It was her obligation, to women around the world, here and abroad, to make it clear that the United States does not abide misogyny, in its simplest and most complex forms. To have treated this question as though it was less than what a was—a budding propensity in a still developing mind about what matters most—what men think.

The pillorying of Hillary on this matter has got to stop. If the media insists on being fascinated by it, then, for God’s sake, see it for what it is, and not for what the 24/7 news cycle insists it must be. Here is what it is not. It is not a(nother) symptom of the Bill/Hillary stage sharing problem. It is not a diplomatic faux pas. It is not a need for a “do over”.

It is an international teaching moment. It is a recognition that some cultural differences are just plain wrong. It is an opportunity for that young man, who posed that ill fated question, to see a strong, powerful, influential woman stand up to the cultural divide and say: back off, and re-think your starting point.

What our Secretary of State did, by circumstance, intuitiveness, instinct, and control, was make it clear: we do NOT live in a just a man’s world anymore. And she did it in a country that needs to learn that lesson on many levels. That was the real story, and the real lesson. And the national news media failed the pop quiz.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, March 2nd, 2010 at 1:01 pm and is filed under Front Page Stories. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.