In our support for the Constitutional rights of American women, we support the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.) as an urgent and necessary protection for American women. Many of the reasons for such protection have been well documented: sexual discrimination against women, inconsistently enforced oppression and violence against women, the denial of equal rights and opportunity in the workplace, the disparate laws across the United States of America, which provides inconsistency in the protection of women’s rights.

But one other aspect to having a culture where there is a shared understanding of women’s rights and equality UNDER THE LAW is in the repeated cases we have seen on extremist attacks on American women.

Such extremists who seek to attack, threaten, oppress, injure, or kill women, based on some extremist ideology would now be held to a higher standard. If local courts did not ensure the protection of such women and the enforcement of the law, federal protection of women’s equal rights would.

One instance would be in cases of so-called “honor killings” by extremists, which are enforced differently in states around the nation. Only when there is interstate issues of travel or kidnapping do federal authorities get involved. Our American justice system should set a standard for consistency in Constitutional equality for women, as the LAW of the land, where all people coming to the United States of America will know that crimes against women – are crimes against this great United States of America itself.

We have seen such crimes against women, where a Constitutional amendment to enforce such women’s equality might have made the difference in protecting not only women’s rights, but also women’s lives.

Amina and Sarah Said in Dallas, Texas: sisters aged 17 and 18, murdered for dating non-Islamic boyfriends and developing “Westernized” ways. They were shot 11 times by their father Yaser Abdel Said, who remains at large.

Amina and Sarah Said – Victims of “Honor Killings” in Dallas, Texas

Methal Dayem in Cleveland, Ohio: shot four times with three bullets hitting her legs and torso, with the fourth going through her neck and she suffocated on her own blood. Cleveland prosecutors sought to bring charges against men believed in an “honor killing” against her, but her murderer(s) have never been punished. Her mother left the American court, sobbing that “You will not get away from Allah. Allah will punish you.”

Methal Dayem – Victim of “Honor Killing” in Cleveland, Ohio

Noor Almaleki in Peoria, Arizona: 20 year old woman murdered by her extremist father Faleh Almalek, who used his Jeep Cherokee to run over his daughter and another woman. He sought to commit an “honor killing” because her daughter was “too Westernized” and left an arranged marriage.

Noor Almaleki – American Girl Murdered for an “Honor Killing” in Peoria, Arizona

Aasiya Zubair Hassan in Buffalo, New York: 37 year-old woman beheaded by her husband Muzzammil Hassan in an “honor killing;” Ms. Hassan was a spokeswoman for a Muslim television program, “Bridges.” A Buffalo National Organization of Woman (NOW) representative was criticized for challenging an ideological view which believed that women were subordinate to men.

Aasiya Zubair Hassan – Victim of Suspected “Honor Killing” in Buffalo, NY

Sandeela Kanwal in Jonesboro, Georgia: 25 year-old woman strangled to death and beaten with an iron in a “honor killing” by her father Chaudhry Rashid, because she wanted to get out of an arranged marriage.

Sandeela Kanwa – Victim of “Honor Killing” in Georgia

Tina Isa in Indianapolis, Indiana: 16 year-old child was stabbed to death 13 times by father in an “honor killing” for causing “dishonor”to her family for applying for a job at Wendy’s restaurant and seeing a black friend from school.

Tina Isa – Victim of “Honor Killing” in Indianapolis

Amina Ajmal in Brooklyn, New York: 23 year-old woman told a court of her father “honor killing” threats and plots, after she was forced into an arranged marriage and allegedly gunned down her true love’s father and sister after she ran away

Amina Ajmal threatened with “Honor Killing” in Brooklyn, NY

and another child threatened with an “honor killing” for seeking freedom of religion…

Rifqa Bary in Columbus, Ohio: teenage girl who stated her parents threatened to kill her for changing her religion and converting to Christianity.

Columbus, Ohio: Christian Convert Rifqa Bary – Stated She Was Threatened with “Honor Killing” Death

And these are just the ones we KNOW about.

These murder and attacks by those with an extremist ideology are an affront to the women’s human rights. They did not take place in Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Iran, or another extremist nation.

These attacks and threats happened in:
— Dallas, Texas
— Cleveland, Ohio
— Peoria, Arizona
— Buffalo, New York
— Jonesboro, Georgia
— Indianapolis, Indiana
— Brooklyn, New York
— Columbus, Ohio

They happened in AMERICA – from Arizona to Buffalo.  Your country.

The same America, where the failure to set an expectation of full Constitutional equality for women has led people to believe that women in this nation can be treated as subservient to men, who if they fail to obey, such extremist men think they have the right to murder such women.

The same America, where women still in this 21st century, don’t have guaranteed Constitutional equality in this nation, where such crimes can be investigated (or not) based on each city or each state’s laws.

The same America, where some politicians question, if we need an Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.)?

But I have some first hand insight on this, coming from another city in Chicago, Illinois. It was a heart-chilling sight for those who respect American equality. In Chicago, I witnessed a public meeting of the extremist group Hizb ut-Tahrir in a Chicago hotel venue to promote the same Caliphate that ISIS seeks. The women in that venue were instructed that they had to be seated in the back of the room, where their “male masters” felt they belonged.  In our nation.  In the 21st century.

Hizb ut-Tahrir Instructs Women to Sit in Back of Conference Room

(This is the same Hizb ut-Tahrir organization, which had an anti-women’s rights event in the United Kingdom in March 2015, to deny that women’s equality was a universal human right, and the same group that had previously scheduled an event “Honor Killings are Morally Justified.”)

Scene for Hizb ut-Tahrir’s Anti-Women’s Rights Event – where Women are NOT Equal to Men (Source: YouTube)

This didn’t happen in a Middle East extremist nation. This happened in America – in YOUR HOME – that your children will inherit.  Is this the America you want to bequeath to them?

But some politicians still don’t think we need an Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.)?

More than ever in our nation’s history and its place in the role, the United States of America truly needs the Equal Rights Amendment (E.R.A.). America needs to make stand without question, without caveat, that in the LAW of this land – women and men are partners with full Constitution rights in this great nation.

We need to show once again we are a nation – responsible for equality and liberty – for ALL.