Women in the World: One Woman's KKK Battle

Today: ‘I Pray My Daughters Have A Life Like Mine’ , Why Women Should Stop Trying to Be Perfect Week of September 26, 2012 CONTROVERSY 1. One Woman’s KKK Battle Malika Fortier doesn’t think the first grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan is someone to celebrate. Fortier is leading a charge against the construction of a monument in honor of Nathan Bedford Forrest in her hometown of Selma, Ala. Forrest, a Confederate general hailed by some as a Civil War hero, is believed to be the first national leader of the Klan. Fortier calls the proposed monument “boldly racist.” On Tuesday, she turned in a Change.org petition with more than 325,000 signatures to the Selma city council. Her efforts paid off; the city council voted Tuesday night to halt all work on the statue until the courts decide who owns the property where the monument would be based—the city or a Civil War historical society. “I never dreamed that we might, as a town, go backwards,” Fortier tells Abigail Pesta on The Daily Beast. Read it at The Daily Beast UNVEILED 2. The Lives of Saudi Women “I pray my daughters have a life like mine.” These were the words of the devout, conservative matriarch with whom Karen Elliott House lived as she wrote her definitive new book on modern Saudi Arabia. In Newsweek, she describes this woman’s life: “By choice, Lulu rarely leaves home. During the week I spend with her (and on subsequent visits), it is clear that Lulu not only accepts but welcomes the confines of her life. She is the primary caregiver to her seven children and has no household help, as the salary of her professor husband can’t cover maids for both wives and Islam requires that a husband treat his wives equally. And Lulu has no aspirations beyond living a life that pleases Allah and ensures the entry of her and her family into paradise.” Read it at Newsweek WOMEN 3. Stop Trying to Be Perfect Sure, women have powerful jobs, well-run homes, and perfect children. But we’re still not making it to the very top, says Debora Spar, the president of Barnard College, in Newsweek. “I have juggled like mad, with three wonderful kids, a husband I adore, and jobs that leave me perched perpetually on the edge of insanity,” she writes. “Through all this chaos I have become increasingly convinced of two interconnected points. First, that there is undeniably still a ‘women’s problem’ in the United States, a problem that relates deeply and intimately to the bleak roster of numbers that tell this story. And second, that part of this intractable problem is tied to the fact that women in this country are struggling far more than is necessary not only to have that ephemeral ‘all,’ but to do it all alone.” Read it at Newsweek GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors. GET Culture Beast Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast.

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