The women of FLDS
May 8th, 2008 by JOE WINDISH
I don’t know nearly enough about them. But I was fascinated to learn they had put up a website.
BOB GARFIELD: The FLDS community has been described as something like a tribe in Papua, New Guinea, that is untouched by the modern world. Are they really living in the middle of the 18th century?
BROOKE ADAMS: I think that’s a false perception of this group. They have a number of people who have been to college. They are quite Internet-savvy, as the world now knows with the websites that they have put up to spread their view of what’s happened to them in Texas. So I think the idea that they’re totally isolated is false.
BOB GARFIELD: I want to ask you about the websites that have popped up amid all of the uproar. Are they coming from within the Yearning for Zion compound itself?
BROOKE ADAMS: Yes and no. The FLDS that are there at the ranch have put up, as far as I know, two websites on which they have posted a number of the pictures they took during the initial days of the raid there at the ranch. But there are a number of other websites that have been put up related to the actions in Texas. […]
BOB GARFIELD: There is another issue, apart from the welfare of the children, that has emerged in all of this, and that is the women in the community, who have been occasionally portrayed as essentially being slaves, having to be utterly submissive to the men in the household.
And I wonder if, in your reporting on this story, you get the sense that the women are utterly powerless within this community.BROOKE ADAMS: I don’t get that impression. And I’ll talk about two women that have spoken publicly about their lifestyle in particular.
One of them testified she talked about how she had gone to college and then had gone on to pursue training as an EMT. And she said she did that even though her husband had not wanted her to become an EMT. So there was an example of some independence and modern thinking and making her own decisions about her lifestyle.
Another woman testified about going to college, again, and being trained in computer design and Web design. And, again, she decided to pursue her career interest.
Brooke Adams is described as the Salt Lake Tribune’s polygamy reporter.
I’m thinking that there’s much more to this FLDS story than meets the eye. Point me to it people!
This entry was posted on Thursday, May 8th, 2008 at 6:14 am and is filed under Family, Mother, Child Abuse, Children, Women, Society, Women's Issues, Feminism, Parenting. Both comments and pings are currently closed.
