“Women wear head scarves throughout the world, and placing a scarf on one’s head does not necessarily imply that the wearer has embraced Islam. I believe that since it was a gift, that our First Lady perceived the gesture to be a cultural one, and not a religious one. She was obviously brought up to respond in that manner.”
Your comment makes a lot of sense.
She wore a lace mantilla to meet the pope. She is not a woman who normslly wears hats, but she wore a hat to go to the Queen Mother’s funeral. In each case she was conforming to the local protocol.
The item in question here was decorated with the pink ribbons of the breast cancer awareness movement, so it is not even the standard Saudi covering, which by tradition is all black; it was presented to her the way a pink tee-shirt might be presented at a breast cancer awareness event in the US. It seems clear to me that the women intended it thar way.
I doubt the women had ulterior motives. Look at that woman’s face, and the little girl’s. Clearly they are loving that Mrs. Bush is being there; they look happy and proud. Accepting the scarf and putting it on briefly (most of the time on this trip she has been bare-headed) was a gracious gesture. No more.
And no more a “submission to Islam” than wearing that black lace mantilla to meet the pope indicated she had converted to Catholicism.
I went to a service at a synagogue recently, and was presented with a yarmulke ; I put it on, as I observed a number of men whom I know are not Jewish were also doing. Did nor regard it as signifying “submission to Judaism.” -:)
That's the way I see it.