IMBRA: Time To End Feminist Destruction Of Marriage and Free Speech
By David R. Usher (02/14/07)
Feminists' success destroying marriage in America, and exporting it to many foreign nations via the United Nations under the guise of "Democracy" is now legendary. Feminist victim-politics - in which demands for "equal rights" mask powerful agenda mandating unequal wrongs - must be ended.
A substantial number of moderate and conservative women’s organizations now oppose the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Not only did the outgoing Congress ignore the will of the people in reauthorizing VAWA last year, it added a dangerous anti-marriage known as IMBRA – the International Marriage Broker Regulation Act – a new and alarming legal construct to arbitrarily interfere with our constitutional right to free association.
IMBRA is a brute blockade making it impossible for foreign women to meet American men for marriage. American men must provide hardcopy about their criminal, family court orders, and arrest records to marriage introduction services, which must then show it to the woman and get her signature, before sharing contact information.
Since few foreign women are within visiting distance of the introduction service, and where less than half have access to the internet, they are effectively denied the possibility of marrying-up in the world. American men cannot freely meet or marry a nice woman who truly understands the value of marriage, and does not see men as just another sexual conquest leading to alimony and a huge child support order.
Feminists abhor American men having a way to find a marriage partner worth taking a risk on. Most American men who look overseas for marriage do so because in many foreign countries, women truly understand the purpose and value of marriage and having a husband. These women were not raised into a cult believing marriage is a war for domination and submission. They do not see marriage as being a trap hindering post-Kinsey sexual freedoms such as single-mother stripping and looting of Duke University students, or prostitution so staunchly defended by the National Organization for Women.
Having spent some time working in Korea, China, and Singapore I can testify to the vast attitudinal differences towards marriage between foreign women in these countries and their brainwashed American counterparts.
The first tip-off that IMBRA is a feminist social cartel: IMBRA does not provide information to American women because matchmaking services with more than 50% of female American clients are exempt.
IMBRA was invented by feminists on the fabrication that violent abusive American men like to wed foreign women because they are easier to abuse for lack of social protections and supports. Never mind that, as part of the immigration process, all potential foreign brides receive a nice pile of contact information for embassies, hotlines and women’s abuse centers which also contains embedded agitprop about how nasty American men are.
There is not one whit of scientific evidence suggesting that foreign brides are abused to any notable degree. Feminists have a very small number of cases cited as mass gospel, inflated by hubristic rumor-mill anecdote to paint an image tantamount to Edvard Munch’s “The Shriek”.
Here is the truth of the matter: the only scientific study done on marriages involving foreign brides was published by the Immigration and Naturalization Service in 1999, written by Dr. Robert Scholes. It found that between 4000 and 6000 international marriages occur as a result of international matchmaking agencies each year. Divorce rates are miniscule: 80% of these marriages “survive over the years”, compared to less than 50% of marriages with American women. Despite a lack of scientific evidence of abuse rates in these marriages, the report is laden with imaginary feminist pontifications.
Feminists also claim that international matchmaking somehow constitutes sex trafficking, despite the fact that there is no evidence that organized sex traffickers use these services. Feminists consider all marriages with foreign women to be “servile” sex trafficking and inherently abusive and provide no science to support the notion:
“Bringing a woman to the U.S. is not always considered to be sex trafficking. Some of the men treat their wives well and are looking for companionship, not just a housekeeper who provides sex”.
One major promoter of IMBRA is the Tahirih Justice Center. Tahirih receives federal VAWA grants, spending some of it on helping abused women, but apparently spending greatly on paid lobbyists and “Public Policy Advocacy” not itemized in its annual report. This is the traditional alarmist self-aggrandizing fundraising technique used by radical women’s advocates.
Where the Constitution guarantees the right of free association, and where Newt Gingrich and many others oppose speech censorship in the name of national security, I maintain that IMBRA is invalid. American men do have an unfettered right to “say hello” (which is exactly what International matchmaking services do).
The danger of IMBRA to free speech cannot be understated. If IMBRA stands court tests, virtually any speech can be blocked on the internet for any manufactured reason whatsoever. Speak now, before the liberal elite holds your speech for you.
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David R. Usher is Senior Policy Analyst for the True Equality Network and President of the American Coalition for Fathers and Children, Missouri Coalition
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