Maybe this is the part of Islamist groups that terrifies conservatives most

And you thought it was just about 9/11 and terrorism:

The words 'feminism' and 'Middle East' are not often used in the same sentence. But, increasingly, women in the Arab world are beginning to demand greater authority for themselves in their societies. Interestingly, it's not secular or liberal groups that are effectively leading the way in pushing forward on women's rights issues; instead, it is Muslim women, involved in conservative Islamist organizations like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood, who are starting to raise their voices and question their status in society.

The failure of secular groups to take the lead in pushing for women's rights has to do, in large part, with the popular perception that they espouse elitist and condescending views. Wafa Sultan, for instance, one of the most prominent Arab secularists, is a darling of West, but is poorly received in the Arab world. A feminist and an atheist, Sultan blames Islam -- and not just isolated extremists -- for terrorism, a view that undoubtedly doesn't sit well with her largely-Muslim audience.

So, rather than being propelled by secular and liberal groups, this new interest in feminism is actually occurring within more conservative circles; namely, Islamist groups. There's a reason for this: as Islamist organizations like Hezbollah and the Muslim Brotherhood have been given a greater role in democratic politics over the past few decades, they've had to pitch to a broader constituency. The result has been that more women have been given leadership roles in these organizations in order that they might reach out to other female voters, provide input on political strategy, and even run for office themselves. Imbued with newfound authority, many Muslim women have begun to raise broader questions about their role in society. (For more on this, check out my earlier post or, for a much more in-depth look at this phenomenon, take a look at this Carnegie report.)

I've written about this subject before, so I wasn't planning on just re-writing my earlier post, but a recent Al Ahram article caught my attention. Omayma Abdel-Latif, the author, discusses an interesting case of Muslim female empowerment: that of Ghazwa Farahat, a Hezbollah-affiliated Lebanese woman who won a position in the Al-Ghobeiry municipality in southern Beirut.

She was the first female candidate the Islamic resistance movement nominated on its electoral list. Indeed, the party fought hard to convince Farahat's family of her nomination. "My family was divided," said Farahat at her office in Al-Ghobeiry. "They asked Hizbullah officials why they wanted to nominate a woman when there were men in the family," she explained.

If anything, Farahat's story reflects how the Islamic movement has frequently proven more progressive in its stand on the role of women in society than the society it operates within.

I'm not sure why increased roles for women often come from the conservative side of the fence. Mr. Brilliant's mother was prominent in NJ Republican circles back when Stokley Carmichael was saying that "the only position for women in SNCC is prone" and NOW didn't even exist yet. It's to the Republican Party's eternal shame that it allowed the religious right become so prominent and hypocrisy to become its watchword, with women like Phyllis Schlafly and her heirs in their business suits and Ann Coulter in her cocktail dresses flying around the country preaching the virtues of kinder, küche, kirche for OTHER women.

The Bush Administration made much fuss over Afghan women tossing their burqas in the aftermath of the 2001 invasion of that country, after years of U.S. policy that didn't give a rat's ass about the plight of Afghan women. And as far as the Administration is concerned, the rights of Iraqi women are a reasonable sacrifice to make in their efforts to gain control of the oil in that country, now that they've turned it from a secular state into an Islamic one. Given the plight of women in these countries, it's all the more notable that in these groups the U.S. has branded as terrorist, women are taking an increasing role.

Perhaps that's what scares them the most.