Sonia Sodha in the Observer- excellent article

I came on to post a link too. I thought it was great. Set out so clearly.

he Newsnight investigation that revealed several Muslim female councillors who have experienced pressure not to stand from Asian Labour party members, which prompted the Muslim Women’s Network to call for an inquiry into systemic misogyny in the party that was met with overwhelming silence; the smears the MP Naz Shah has faced from local Asian men in her party; the negative response to the anti-FGM activist Nimco Ali from her local Labour party. The white privilege discourse makes this more not less likely, because it makes people more scared of being culturally insensitive.

I was so pleased to see these women were acknowledged.

The irony is that radical feminism has often run counter to the mainstream left on this precisely because it regards female oppression as cross-cultural. Intimate partner killings, female genital mutilation or forced marriage: it’s all patriarchal violence at the hands of men, a universal female experience.
…
It is telling that Zakaria chose not to engage with a critical book review by Joan Smith, the longstanding campaigner against domestic violence, instead launching a personal attack on her “old and white” appearance.

“Be kind” is not a platitude, it is a political slogan, for without kindness, how can we foster the solidarity that must be built, not demanded?

Elegant writing that makes its points so well (it should be an obvious skill for a newspaper writer but it's not always there).

I loved this:
"one gets the impression that white women can’t win, damned for speaking only of their own experience, but scolded for getting involved in fights that aren’t their own"

Thank you for sharing

"To stack up the argument, she stereotypes feminism beyond recognition as a shallow, consumerist and exclusionary movement dominated by selfish white women who care little about scrutinising the male violence perpetrated by white men."

Zakaria seems to be talking about who we might call "liberal feminists". And yet it's liberal feminists, especially the men who say they are feminist, who I see use the phrase "white feminist" most as a silencing tactic.

'"The black feminist tradition has challenged feminism’s blind spots around race and class not in the interests of separatism, but to strengthen our collective movement.”'

What a great quote by Pragna Patel in Sodha's piece.