Actress Mayim Bialik slammed the Left and feminists in a blog post this week, explaining that feminist activists often ignore the suffering that many women in majority Muslim countries endure on a regular basis.
Writing in a post on her website GrokNation, the Big Bang Theory star responded to Palestinian activist Linda Sarsour’s recent claim that a person cannot be both a Zionist and a feminist.
“Zionism is the belief in the right of the Jewish people to have an autonomous state in Israel,” Bialik, an Orthodox Jew, wrote. “I am a Zionist. Feminism is the belief that a woman-driven movement can bring about race, class and gender equality and that women deserve all of the rights and privileges afforded to men. I am a feminist.”
The actress specifically called out “the left,” who she says “needs to reexamine the microscope they use to look at Israel, and we all need to take a step back and remember we are stronger together: women, men, lovers of peace, and lovers of freedom and justice.”
Bialik saved her most harsh criticism for feminists who ignore “atrocities against women” in majority Muslim countries.
“The question is this: Many countries – many Muslim countries, in fact – perpetrate atrocities against women which include: female genital mutilation, forced marriages, child brides, systematic abuse of women by the justice system, revenge rape and honor killing,” she writes. “Why is Israel held to a standard none of these other countries – whose offenses are, arguably more extreme – are held to? And why is belief in the State of Israel something that should exclude women – or men, for that matter – from identifying as feminists?”
“Ultimately, for a feminist activist – or any activist – to place the blame for policies made by a few people on the entire entity of Zionism and all who are committed to the idea of a Jewish state is irresponsible,” Bialik argues. “It’s disgusting, it’s insulting, and it’s wrong. It creates fragmentation in a movement that needs cohesion, needs to stand together for equality, domestically and internationally.”
CBS just renewed The Big Bang Theory for two more seasons, which will carry the long-running sitcom to its 12th season through 2019.
Follow Jerome Hudson on Twitter @jeromeehudson