A feminist decries pacifists' 'rubbish'

That intersection lies at the heart of Schreier's objections to the Lysistrata Project, which began this winter with the aim of preventing war in Iraq. Earlier this month, an estimated several hundred readings and staged adaptations of the ancient Greek comedy "Lysistrata" took place in all 50 states and nearly 60 other countries. In Aristophanes' play, the women of Greece, led by the title character, decide to withhold sex from their husbands until they put a stop to the Peloponnesian War.

Schreier says she found the project "very disturbing on a number of levels," particularly when she read about a splinter group advocating that modern-day women follow the play's example and stop having sex with any pro-war male partner. Schreier's online retort: "And what would their rallying cries be? Frigid for Feckless Foreign Policy? UNdersexed for the UN?" "They were making the presumption that women cannot influence the world through their votes or what they write or what they say or any other means, except through having sex," she says.

Schreier thinks that the war on terrorism may be a "turning point" in forcing Western feminists to make tough choices about how best to support and assist women in countries where they're treated like chattel.

"I think it's increasingly obvious to people in America, both male and female, that much of the Middle East has a large problem with misogyny," she says. "And if mainstream feminist organizations do not step up to the forefront and take this on as a major challenge, which they seem unwilling to do because they're so concerned with being perceived as being antiwar and pro-estrogen, then I think it's going to severely damage their credibility. I think instead people are going to be more likely to say that women's rights are human rights and that it is groups that will be championing human rights and human freedom -- which in this case would definitely be a conservative Republican president -- who are going to be getting the credit for making women's lives better and for paying attention to women's issues."