This has been a fascinating week to think about the role of women in public life, here in the U.S., and around the world.
If behaving like an executive is a criterion for running the state South Carolina, then I'd say that the governorship rightfully belongs to Jenny Sanford. Her cool aplomb this week shows the kind of grit under pressure that the people seek in the midst of a crisis. The bad news for Ms. Sanford is that the G.O.P. is highly likely to support a woman who sounds less than completely forgiving of her errant spouse. Think of the precedent! However, if they do wise up, one can only hope the state Democratic party is paying attention.
Meanwhile, women in Iran have become symbolic and actual leaders of the resistance to the oppressive dictatorship under which they live. Modestly scarved, but politically incisive, they are taking a clear-eyed view at the hypocrisy and self-serving authoritarianism of Iran's current leadership, and demanding that the revolution of 1979 remain true to the revolution's children.
The stories share a stern new response to the pronouncements, and hypocrisy, of conservative, fundamentalist men.
Women are at the front of the resistance in Iran, as Roger Cohen says this morning
From Day 1, Iran’s women stood in the vanguard. Their voices from rooftops were loudest, and their defiance in the streets boldest. "Stand, don’t run," Nazanine told me as the baton-wielding police charged up handsome Vali Asr avenue on the day after the fraudulent election. She stood.
Images assail me: a slender woman clutching her stomach outside Tehran University after the blow; a tall woman gesticulating to the men behind her to advance on the shiny-shirted Basij militia; women shedding tears of distilled indignation; and that young woman who screamed, "We are all so angry. Will they kill us all?"
It would be impertinent even to laud the courage of these brave young women. In part, it seems that their boldness flows directly from their belief in their nation and the men who run it; they feel betrayed by the failure of their government to respect the will of its people. They seem to understand that the theocracy running the country prefers power to principle.
Back here at home, in a difficult, though obviously less dangerous situation, Jenny Sanford is reportedly taking a tougher line than many a betrayed political wife. Given the comparative dignity of husband and wife, it seems to me that South Carolinians chose the wrong one to lead. Mrs. Sanford, who has contributed mightily to her husband's rise--she's been called his his "No. 1 sounding board" and "the brains of the operation"--sounds to me like a tough, smart, savvy leader who can handle herself in a tough situation. The governor, not so much.
Conservative men caught in the web of their own sanctimonious hypocrisy do tend to look awfully foolish. Mark Sanford seems at a loss as to how to proceed, as Gail Collins aptly shows,
While most people in the state seem to feel as if it would be swell if Sanford just resigned, the governor isn’t showing any signs that he intends to quit. It isn’t entirely clear why he wants to hang on. He’s term limited. And whatever presidential ambitions he harbored were pretty much quashed when he vanished and aides started explaining that he took a hike (well, not really) because he was emotionally exhausted from his fight over the state budget. You had to ask what he’d have to do to get over North Korea.
So far, it appears that Sanford is going to devote his career to apologizing. On Wednesday, he held a press conference and apologized to everyone from his father-in-law to American Christianity. On Thursday, he was closeted with his wife, which undoubtedly involved heavy-duty apology time. Friday, he called his staff together for more apologies, including one to the leader of the Commerce Department, to whom the governor conveyed his regrets for having undermined the dignity of a state trade mission by having sex on the Buenos Aires stop.
I know some will find this comparison unfair and disrespectful--though perhaps they might divide on who suffers most from the comparison, the S.C. Governor or the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
To me, though, the comparison reveals a cherished tradition of conservative men to prate about values (like fidelity, say, or the will of the people) and moral uprightness when anybody else's personal freedom and dignity is concerned. Their own mistakes, miscues, and oppressive acts somehow never seem to qualify for the same moral outrage and introspection.