The New Future
Kavita Ramdas on Terror

Ramdas was born and raised in India. As CEO of the Global Fund, she directs financial grants to grass-roots women's organizations. Since 1987, the fund has given nearly $20 million to groups in 157 countries.

By Kavita Ramdas
CEO, Global Fund for Women

Is there a "woman's response" to the war against terrorism?
Our Website has been flooded with women writing us from Kosovo, Iraq, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Northern Ireland--places that have had their share of terror and ethnic strife. There was an outpouring about how terrible this is, how we stand with Americans, and how important it is not to perpetuate the cycle of violence and hatred. For a few weeks the women's movement collectively held its breath, hoping the U.S. would take this to the U.N. so that there would be an international peacekeeping force in Afghanistan and an effort to bring the perpetrators of this act of terror to justice through mechanisms like the International Court. The U.S. must stop bombing. It will not stop terrorism. It will only create a generation of people who think the U.S. is anti-Islam.

How should the U.S. balance respect for sovereignty of nations with concerns for the rights of women in the Middle East?
Don't even get me started. Why does the U.S. have Saudi Arabia as an ally? If it cared so much about women's rights, it would make more sense to be allied with Iraq right now: Iraqi women have been the most liberated women in the Arab world by any measure.

How about Afghan women? Do you have a sense that they want change in their country? What kind?
I've spent time in the refugee camps in Pakistan, and Afghan women there have a very specific idea of change they would like. But it may not be what Western women would want. They aren't primarily interested in changing what they wear so much as having an education for themselves and their daughters and sons. Many are devout Muslims, but they believe they have the right to interpret their own religion. One of their first acts of resistance is setting up places where women can recite verses of the Koran. The Taliban says that is impure.

How do you see globalization playing out?
Globalized culture creates a bizarre collision with traditional cultures. In India it plays out dramatically in the issue of dowry. When a boy marries a girl now, his father asks her father for a BMW, or a scooter, or the latest TV set from Toshiba--symbols of modern Western middle-class achievement in an ancient system where the girl goes to a new household and brings dishes and saris. Contrast that with Osama bin Laden, who looks, speaks, and acts in an austere, simple way. That in its own way has its fascination. Even people who hate them acknowledge that the Taliban act out of genuine belief. That is respected by people who feel their values are under assault.

Next: Haim Harari

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