Posted on 05/26/2005 7:44:05 PM PDT by Lorianne
Women activists in Cairo don't welcome the U.S. First Lady's visit.___ In a bid to promote American values and women’s rights in the Middle East, Laura Bush, the wife of the American president, arrvied in Cairo 23 May. Arab feminists, however, are telling the U.S. First Lady to mind her own house.
Bush, who visited Egypt after stops in Israel, the Occupied Palestinian Territories and Jordan, told the World Economic Conference in Jordan that “freedom, especially freedom for women, is more than the absence of oppression. It’s the right to speak and vote and worship freely.”
Attendees at the International Conference of the Arab Women’s Solidarity Association (AWSA), however, viewed Bush’s visit as inappropriate.
“Her visit is a paradox, she’s coming to propagate her husband’s policy for false democracy,” said conference organizer and noted Egyptian feminist Nawal Al Saadawi. “What we’re doing here at this conference is the antithesis of George and Laura Bush.”
The conference, entitled “Creativity, Dissidence and Women,” brought together feminist scholars, activists and artists from as far away as the United States, Norway, and Nigeria to discuss the plight of women. Taking place on the grounds of the Greater Cairo Library in Zamalek, the conference ran from 21 to 23 May.
“I think [the Bushes] need to take care of women’s rights at home first,” said Algerian scholar Soraya Mekarta, a professor of literature at Spelman College in Georgia. “If the husband is so concerned about his ‘democracy,’ they should think about inconsistencies at home including the genocide of native Americans and the enslavement of blacks, take care of the problems at home first and the world might listen to you.”
Although the AWSA conference was planned long before the announcement of Bush’s visit to the region to promote women’s rights, a consistent topic among many of the attendees and speakers was the belittling attitude Westerners have regarding non-Western women.
Speaking on the topic of American academics, African-American scholar Gloria Joseph of Hampshire College said “I accuse feminist theorists of cultural imperialism and intellectual arrogance and compartmentalized thinking.”
Egyptian anthropologist Fadwa Al Guindi, currently of Georgetown University, agreed. “The American-based feminist agenda presumes to speak for Arab and Muslim women and propagates the idea of the universal woman.”
Though America has been struggling with its perception in the Arab world for some time, the American First Lady’s visit to the region comes at a particularly tumultuous time. The United State’s image has taken a battering in the face of new revelations of torture in Afghanistan, stories of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay, as well as new evidence surfacing of the American government’s efforts to take the country and allies in the United Kingdom to war whether or or not there was
sufficient cause.
While her husband, the U.S. president, told an audience in Wisconsin that Laura Bush was going to the Middle East “to help advance the freedom agenda—which is really the peace agenda,” many in the region feel that the United States has no right to tell other countries how to conduct their affairs.
“The U.S. keeps its own people from knowing the truth,” Al Guindi told the conference. “They lost credibility and any claim to moral leadership in Abou Ghraib.”
Copyright © 2005 Cairo Magazine
It's time to cut the purse strings to the Egyptians to show them who's paying the bills.
Civilization isn't welcomed there either apparently.
This woman is three sheets to the wind. Right next door is where the black slavery is happening. Also, maybe she'd like to explain the travel warnings for Cairo for unattached foreign women!
So now Bush is responsible for the genocide of native Americans and the enslavement of blacks. He must be a lot older than I thought.
Wow! The time machine has been invented and I didn't hear about it.
From the Cairo Magazine, enough said.
To the TROP FOAD>
I agree. If they go down the toilet, at least we're not paying for it anymore.
Worst value for a buck in US foreign economic policy.
I would have thought the image rules around Ann Coulter and other Conservative 'Babes' would have extended to Mrs. Bush as well.
Just a suggestion...
"Arab feminists, however, are telling the U.S. First Lady to mind her own house."
Isn't that exactly what an abused woman says when people ask her or when the police come to check out the situation?
“The U.S. keeps its own people from knowing the truth,” Al Guindi told the conference. “They lost credibility and any claim to moral leadership in Abou Ghraib.”
This dimwit forgets conveniently that it was the US military that uncovered the abuses at Abu Ghraib not some virtuous journalist.
"genocide of native Americans and the enslavement of blacks,"
Do these idiots believe we are killing and enslaving our citizens of ANY type? What is the press convincing them we are about. This sounds like democrat talking points.
This from the land of female circumcision.
This is exactly where NOW and the rest of the feminists in the US lost their power. When the feminists in this country got what most of what they wanted, they had to find some other complaint. When they branched out and became too diversified, they lost their power. The problem is different in Cairo and in the Middle East. Many women are pro-family and see the American feminists as dangerous to that. These people are listening to secondary rants of American feminists without understanding history or facts (not necessarily the same thing thing anymore).
"The United State’s image has taken a battering in the face of new revelations of torture in Afghanistan, stories of Quran desecration at Guantanamo Bay, as well as new evidence surfacing of the American government’s efforts to take the country and allies in the United Kingdom to war whether or or not there was sufficient cause."
This statement in the above article is rubbish.
While these people constantly question America's judgement, they forget the fact that we have to go to war in the first place because 3000 people were killed by these Islamic terrorists who believe in Allah.
Pre-emption is the best cure for the disease of Islamic terrorism. And in this regard, I think Iraq war is correct. Torturing captured terrorists for gathering intelligence or just to humiliate them is correct because they humiliate a non-Muslim in the most evil form - torturing and beheading. It is ridiculous to see people (i.e Muslims) from Egypt and other middle eastern countries who do not respect human rights even a tiny bit telling America what to do and how to respect human rights. Islamists are nothing but a bunch of hypocrites and violent jihadists that respect a pedophile and his violent book of Jihad which is directly responsible for the death of 3000 people on 9/11.
“If the husband is so concerned about his ‘democracy,’ they should think about inconsistencies at home including the genocide of native Americans and the enslavement of blacks, take care of the problems at home first and the world might listen to you.”
This chick needs to get out more.
Nawal Al Saadawi had kind words for Hillary Clinton during Clinton's tour of Egypt.
But, this attack on the Bush regime was for internal political reasons.
She's also probably correct, this tour is part of the cosmetic changes the Arab countries are putting forward in the English language media, that will be wiped away when Bush's term of office is over.
All tours by First Ladies of North Africa are goodwill tours.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.