Salon.com > Megan Twohey

Taking off the abaya

Thu, 16 May 2002 19:23:00 +0000

Lt. Col. Martha McSally has done well by the military. Through hard work and model comportment, the 5-foot-3 woman has muscled her way up the ranks to become the top female fighter pilot in the Air Force. During the last decade, she's flown combat missions in the no-fly zone over Iraq, instructed pilots deployed to Kosovo and directed search-and-rescue missions inside Afghanistan.

But the vehicle of McSally's success also has been the source of her oppression. In an environment dedicated to equality, she says, principles have been sacrificed for appearances.

For seven years, McSally has been fighting military rules that formerly required and now "strongly encourage" women stationed in Saudi Arabia to wear a head-to-foot Muslim robe called an abaya, to ride in the back seats of vehicles and to be accompanied by men when off base.

McSally, who was stationed in the Muslim kingdom in 2000 and 2001, argues that the rules are unconstitutional because they improperly force women to conform to another country's religious and social customs. Last year, after failing to secure change within the system, she filed suit in U.S. District Court to force the Department of Defense to eliminate the policies.

Dan Quayle’s strange victory

Fri, 10 May 2002 15:07:00 +0000

Dan Quayle's sense of satisfaction appeared as sweet as the strawberry mousse cake that was served Thursday before his speech at the National Press Club.

The last time he lived in Washington, his words were parsed almost as closely as the current president's. He still lets off the occasional zinger; last month during an appearance on "Hardball," as he tried to "set aside the Middle East peace situation" from the war on terrorism, he asked the rhetorical riddle: "How many Palestinians were on those airplanes on Sept. 9? None."

And just Thursday morning, when he discussed the continuing problem of out-of-wedlock births with Katie Couric on "The Today Show," he warned of "young men that like to go out and try to impregnate as many children as possible." (In a similar statement to the press club later in the day, he did correct "children" to "women.")

But nothing was going to stop him from treating the day as a prolonged victory lap. In 1992, the former vice president came under merciless criticism in the media when he attacked the TV character "Murphy Brown" for deciding to have a child out of wedlock. At the time, during an ill-fated reelection campaign, it seemed like just another embarrassing blunder that was bringing the ticket down. But history, Quayle believes, has saved him.

Energy’s big tease

Fri, 26 Apr 2002 13:54:00 +0000

Within hours of a court-ordered Thursday deadline, the Department of Energy released a list of all the documents pertaining to Vice President Dick Cheney's energy task force that it has refused to disclose, along with the reasons why the documents would remain private.

But those reasons were vague -- at times, in fact, downright inscrutable -- which has left the National Resources Defense Council, a plaintiff in the Freedom of Information Act suit against the department, unsatisfied. Late Thursday evening, the NRDC vowed to drag the federal agency back to court.

"There's still one big set of documents that they continue to withhold," said Sharon Buccino, an attorney with the NRDC. Specifically, Buccino said, the Energy Department refuses to release documents pertaining to the actions of Andrew Lundquist, executive director of the energy task force, and other top energy officials in charge of the effort.

"That glaring omission remains," she said.

Going nuclear

Wed, 24 Apr 2002 19:03:00 +0000

Their stories were similar. Many had grown up in poverty. Most had abused drugs. Some had served time in prison. And all of them had turned their lives around with the help of God and a family revitalization program that promotes marriage.

That was the message delivered by three couples who spoke earnestly about the virtues of marriage at a news conference on Capitol Hill Monday convened to promote marriage-friendly welfare proposals in Congress. While they all said they were not affiliated with any politician or legislative proposals, they represented the launch of what will likely be a long and contentious debate as Congress begins debating the reauthorization of America's federal welfare program.

And their message dovetails nicely with a preferred program by President Bush, an outspoken advocate of integrating religion into social service programs, who has called on Congress to allocate $300 million in annual federal funding for state and local initiatives that help nudge couples down the aisle.