Baeguk

[beifengxiaoxiao]

The Dankioray
November the Ninth, 5730

OPINION - Sunday's Terror Attacks Were a Wakeup Call for a Society in Need of Reform
Jienist Orthodoxy and the Denial of Women's Rights has stoked Resentment that Could be Exploited by Communist Terrorists

The public bombing in Seongtaek yesterday that killed 5 soldiers and 1 bystander and injured 7 more was beyond a shadow of a doubt mortifying and detestable. The Pro-North insurgent group, the "National Liberation Front" (NLF), was quick to claim responsibility for this heinous crime. In their own manifesto they claim that they fight "to totally overthrow the southern feudal regime and reunite the Socialist Dranean Fatherland".

However, this episode has lessons for our society, lessons we should heed deeply to ensure that the 4 murdered in cold blood yesterday will be the last in Baegukese history. I strongly believe that the NLF would have never had the support or sophistication necessary to initiate their campaigns of terror if our nation's women's rights were not in such a terrible condition.

Baeguk is dead-last in the world for most female rights. A woman isn't even allowed to show her face on the streets in this country or she risks arrest and charging with a misdemeanor for forgetting her Jang-ot or Neool. The prohibition on female officials and legislators has meant that generations of aspiring little girls and capable grown women have been deprived completely of the representative government their male peers enjoy in the Senate and the provinces; the only female lips to reach the Maripgan's ears have been those of attendants and court ladies.

Abortion, child control, and other maternal rights normally granted unconditionally to women in other countries are unheard of in our Kingdom. Female adultery is a capital crime here when men are freely permitted to deflower multiple concubines in addition to their legal wives. A woman is barred from initiating a divorce no matter how abusive or terrible her husband or in-laws are. A woman is unable to inherit anything from her parents unless there is no male immediate next-of-kin to the deceased or closest deceased male. Civil liberties for women are in such a wretched state that women can't even drive cars in Baeguk. While women can now be educated from kindergarten to university (a recent development!), they are still forced to attend worse, separate-but-"equal" gender segregated schools and universities with worse funding and opportunities, putting them at inherent disadvantage.

Jienism is not wholly repressive philosophy, and I certainly am no revolutionary calling for a revolution. However, the human rights and dignity of women in this country are in such a terrible state that it is obvious to anyone sympathetic to the oppression of women in Baeguk that the NLF then seems a reasonable organ of resistance, and terrorism a necessity to force change. I am not in any way endorsing the NLF, but they did not pop up out of thin air. Partially organized by Northern spies and communist agitators and informants, but also partially recruited by our government's own repressive abuse of more than 50% of the Baegukese people. If one is asked who radicalized segments of the Baegukese population to be so violent and revolutionary, the finger can be pointed at none other than our reactionary Jienist administration.

Sunday was a tragedy that should never be repeated. But it was not only that. It was a wakeup call to an ignorant, backwards nation in need of serious reforms and change. The furthering of women's rights in our country and the restoration of their empowerment will strike a more fatal blow to the NLF than thousands of patrolmen in the city streets ever could.

This is an opinion piece independently edited and written by the author. It does not in any way represent the views of The Dankioray.