m if] OGRESSIVE WOMAN'S QUARTERL v . JOHN LEWIS: xs IOLE 74A70 78532 3 The world as women live it Her search for a legal abortion led The memoir of AM Norma McCorvey Sally Belfrage, to become the daughter of anonymous radical writers ROE plaintiff in the Cedric Belfrage landmark Supreme MY LIFE, and Molly Castle, ROE V. WADE, Court decision. who yearned to be AND This book is her an "all-American FREEDOM personal story, o r girl" during her CHOICE "a direct, unsenti- McCarthy-era mental, and often adolescence in the harsh account of NORMA McCORVEY conformist 50s. WITH ANDY MEJSl.Eft a real life at the "Wry and heart of historical poignant." events." SALLY BUFRABE —Publishers — Publishers Weekly Weekly BALKAN "Through short but deeply "A bold and original felt essays on everything exploration of female "With simplicity, and honesty, from housepaint and high- inventiveness and courage." Bloodlines movingly describes heeled shoes to point-blank — Harriet G. Lerner, Hales evolution and ultimate murder, Drakulic tells the author of The Dance of Anger liberation. Powerful and story of the Balkan crisis as poignant." people are living it." "Buoyant and instructive... — The Nation a welcome counterweight to — Chief Wilma Mankiller the pressures society still "Moving and eloquent." "Mesmerizing." exerts on women who want —New York Times — New York Times a life of their own." Book Review With four new chapters — New Woman Winner of the $11.00 paperback $12.00 paperback American Book Award $11.00 paperback pzs^m Also available from HzrperCollinsCanadaLtd. U M N S ri illinium SEXUAL WHO STOLE HOFFMAN FRONT LINES NETWORKING AT INCEST? 3 2 OXFORD 30 High Noon in Moscow 10 Obscuring the political WIN SOME/LOSE SOME By Katherine Eban import of child rape RAPPING 5 Finkelstein By Louise Armstrong 8 Why Roseanne Rivets Us BOOK REVIEWS A SACRIFICIAL LOUISE 50 LIGHT BOURGEOIS' CHESLER 14 FEMINIST ART 26 FEEDBACK Self-Immolation 33 Mississippi Feminists 60 in Tehran By Arlene Raven Under Attack By Martha Shelley SAFETY NET TALKING FEMINIST CUTTING SOME SEXUAL PERFORMS 24 SLACK APARTHEID IN IRAN VANISHING ACT The OJ. Simpson 64 17 37 Chronicles Altar Girls? Excuse Me for Tightening restrictions Will reform make welfare By Andrea Peyser Not Dancing at the News on women more un-fare? By Susan J. Kraus By Mahin Hassibi, MD By Lynn Phillips ON THE COVER OTI DIALOGUE OVARIAN CANCER TOWARD A 45 Cover Painting by REVOLUTION IN The myopia of medical Jody Williams VALUES power 20 By Beverly Zakarian Congressman John Lewis and Andrea Dworkin ADVENTURES OF GERTRUDE BELL connect feminism UPDATE and civil rights 42 By Robert Kimball Green As we go to press, Taslima Nasrin has reached safety in Sweden (see "Death Bounty on Bangladesh Feminist," page 6) TIME WARP IN THE and Dr. Nicolai Ivanovitch Osipov has been relieved of his TOY STORE position as head of the Moscow Clinical 48 Center Marine Hospital (see "High Noon in Moscow," page3). contentBy Ellen J. Reifler s ON THE ISSUES * FALL 1994 * VOLUME III NUMBER FOUR FRONT LIMES oJSSUES VOL III NO.4 FALL 1994 Publisher/ Editor in Chief MERLE HOFFMAN Editor RONMI SAMDROFF ROlUtUI SAMDROFF Executive hJitonal Consultant THE FIRE THIS LINDA CUTSTEIM Editor at Large TIME PHYLLIS CHE5LER Special Projects Advisors ANNE MOLLEGEN SMITH JOHN STOLTENBERC JOY SILVER Assistant Editors KAREN AISENBERC wo Iranian women physicians approached SUZANNE LEVINE me at an international medical conference in 1985. They wanted to tell Contributing Editors a western woman journalist how the tightening fundamentalist restric- JILL BENDERLY tions were interfering with their ability to care for their patients. One CHARLOTTE BUNCH WIIMIE BURROWS Tdoctor described rushing between medical buildings, hurriedly conferring with a IRENE DAVALL male colleague on how to treat an emergency case. They were stopped on the street BELL HOOKS FLO KENNEDY by two teenage boys with rifles who demanded to know why the woman doctor FRED PELKA had let her chador fall open and expose her hair, and why she was conversing with ELAYNE RAPPING a male who was not a relative. The two were detained for only 20 minutes—but HELEN M. STUMMER CAROL WHEELER long enough to throw the doctors considerably off their stride and allow their patient s Designers condition to grow more desperate. BOB CIANO Since then, things have gone from bad to worse for women doctors, and all women, JOSEPH PASCHKE in Iran. Fundamentalist efforts to eradicate the presence and influence of women in Photo Editor ADRIANNE DE POLO the public sphere has been a particular burden for Iran's professional women, many Advertising and Sales Director of whom have studied and lived abroad. When a woman has tasted professional and CAROLYN HANDEL personal freedom, its loss is horrific, and for some, ultimately unbearable (see Martha Circulation/Business Consultant Shelley's "A Sacrificial Light"). ANNE S. KEATINC Relentless anti-female dogma and ever-tightening restrictions serve a clear purpose in todays Iran; they help to distract the male population from the economic, social, ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's and military failures of the fundamentalist regime, writes Mahin Hassibi, MD, in her Quarterly: a feminist, humanist magazine of cnticaJ article on "Sexual Apartheid in Iran." thinking, dedicated Co fostering collective Sexual apartheid? We choose that phrase because, ironically,' 'apartheid'' now implies responsibility for positive social change. ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly the hope of radical change. When black and progressive groups in the U.S. began (ISSN 0895-6014) is published quarterly as an their long campaign to end apartheid in South Africa, many doubted if international informational and educational service of CHOICES pressure and boycotts would help, or if anything short of a prolonged civil war could Women's Medical Center. Inc., 97-77 Queens Boulevard, Flushing, NY 11374-3317. uproot the apartheid system. But we lived to witness the dissolution of a seemingly Unsolicited Manuscripts: All material will be read intractable system of social oppression. by the editors. For return, enclose a self-addressed, stamped envelope with proper postage. Articles should If the freedom of women all over the world is to be protected, sexual apartheid in not be more than 2,0011 words. All editing decisions the fundamentalist Moslem world must someday meet a similar fate. While interna- are at the discretion of the editors. Feminist cartoons tional support can help, ultimately, the hope of radical change is the responsibility of are also acceptable under the same provisions. ON THE ISSUES does not accept fiction or poetry. the women and men there—-just as change in South Africa resulted, primarily, from Advertising accepted at the discretion of the the sustained and heroic efforts of its people. The special tragedy of sexual apartheid publisher. Acceptance does not imply endorsements. is that so many women in fundamentalist countries have incorporated the belief that Publisher's Note: The opinions expressed by contributors and by those we interview are not misogynous separatism, couched as the will of God, is the only way to protect them- necessarily those of the editors. ON THE ISSUES The selves from male harassment. Progressive Woman's Quarterly is a forum where women may have their voices heard without censure The positive synergy that can emerge from linking race and gender struggles is or censorship. highlighted in two other pieces in this issue. Be sure to read the stirring—and sur- Subscription Information: I year SI4.95; 2 yean prising—OTI Dialogue between Freedom Rider and now Congressman John Lewis 824.95, 3 years S34.95. Institutional rate: Add S10 first year, S5 each additional year. Add S4 per year for (D-GA) and feminist activist Andrea Dworkin. And check out Phyllis Chester's visit Canadian orders; S7 per year foreign (surface mail) or to Camp Sister Spirit, a feminist education outpost under local attack, for a glimpse S2II per year foreign (air mail) Send to ON THE at what's changed, and what hasn't, in Mississippi. ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, P.O. Box 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ (17834. Second-Class For insights into how our world rulers are schooled to make the apartheid/gender Postage Pud at Flushing, NY and additional mailing oppression connection, see Katherine Finkelstein's "It's a Rocky Rolodex at Oxford." office. We're proud of many other pieces in this issue, too—so read on and please let us Postmaster: Send address changes to ON THE ISSUES The Progressive Woman's Quarterly, know what you think. P.O Box 3000, Dept. OTI, Denville, NJ 07834. ON THE ISSUES FALL 1994 MERLE HOFFMAN ously biased against contraception, par- OIU THE ISSUES ticularly the pill. Convinced that the pill causes cancer, most gynecologists HIGH NOON preach the virtues of repeat abortions. Of course, the fact that many of them IN subsidize their $10 a month salaries by MOSCOW doing abortions in women's homes might well have an influence on their thinking. The only contraceptive devices locally produced are condoms—and so badly (due to problems working with latex) that they are called "galoshes;" few men consent to use them. Russia is a country where the obstetric wards are empty of patients, and where it is estimated that one out of three women die in hospitals from the complications of second trimester abortions. I heard story after story oflives that were blight- ed by sterility, sexually transmitted dis- eases, and domestic violence. They so omewhere in the course of moved me that I began to think in terms of replicating my women's medical cen- planning my latest journey to ter, CHOICES, in Moscow. There, I could offer Russian women state of the art Russia I lost my fear of flying.