Well, it seems that Nicholas D. Kristof, late in September, discovered that women in Muslim societies aren’t treated too well. As they say: What a scoop!

Anyhow, Kristof felt the need to start off his column about Mukhtaran Bibi, a Pakistani woman who was gang-raped and is now leading a crusade against such brutality, with a swipe at President Bush:

I’m still trying to help out President Bush by tracking down Osama bin Laden. After poking through remote parts of Pakistan, asking for a tall Arab with a beard, I can’t say I’ve earned that $25 million reward.

But I did come across someone even more extraordinary than Osama.

Quite the hook. Especially since the cheap shot is being leveled against the president who destroyed the Taliban regime in Afghanistan — the brutality of which toward women I think I need not elaborate upon here.

Later in the column, Kristof claims that:

The plight of women in developing countries isn’t addressed much in the West, and it certainly isn’t a hot topic in the presidential campaign.

But that’s funny. I’ve actually listened to the president’s speeches some over the last three or so years, and I recall the rights of women — in the Arab world, in particular — being what I might go so far as to call a theme of Bush’s.

In just one speech last year, at the 20th anniversary of the National Endowment for Democracy, Bush mentioned women’s rights in the developing world in four separate passages in his speech:

In many Middle Eastern countries, poverty is deep and it is spreading, women lack rights and are denied schooling. Whole societies remain stagnant while the world moves ahead. These are not the failures of a culture or a religion. These are the failures of political and economic doctrines.

…

Ruling cabals like the Taliban show their version of religious piety in public whippings of women, ruthless suppression of any difference or dissent, and support for terrorists who arm and train to murder the innocent.

…

Governments across the Middle East and North Africa are beginning to see the need for change. Morocco has a diverse new parliament; King Mohammed has urged it to extend the rights to women. Here is how His Majesty explained his reforms to parliament: “How can society achieve progress while women, who represent half the nation, see their rights violated and suffer as a result of injustice, violence, and marginalization, notwithstanding the dignity and justice granted to them by our glorious religion?” The King of Morocco is correct: The future of Muslim nations will be better for all with the full participation of women.

…

Successful societies privatize their economies, and secure the rights of property. They prohibit and punish official corruption, and invest in the health and education of their people. They recognize the rights of women. And instead of directing hatred and resentment against others, successful societies appeal to the hopes of their own people.

Now, have women’s rights in the developing world been a “hot” campaign issue, per se? No. But the issue is implicit in Bush’s grand strategy of remaking the Middle East, a strategy which there can be little doubt that John Kerry would abandon.

At the end of Kristof’s column, he lamely offers that the West could help women in the developing world “with health and literacy programs.” Of course, he’s right. Those things could be extremely helpful — just as soon as we’ve deposed the regimes that hold public executions in soccer stadiums.