Mariam al-Mansouri, the first Emirati female fighter jet pilot, prepares to take off in United Arab Emirates, June 13, 2013.
Emirates News Agency, WAM/AP/File
Posted on 10/01/2014 3:41:10 PM PDT by sukhoi-30mki
UAE fighter pilot Mariam al-Mansouri shot to fame last week for her role in a US-led bombing campaign in Syria. While Americans hailed her pluck, for Arabs it's more complicated.
JERUSALEM — Last week Mariam al-Mansouri, a F-16 pilot from the United Arab Emirates, was introduced to the world. Smiling out from under her helmet and hijab after launching air strikes in Syria, part of a US-led campaign against Islamic State, her image went viral.
For some Americans, she was a sort of Katharine Hepburn meets Amelia Earhart who had shattered prevalent stereotypes of Arab women. A popular Internet meme reads: “hey ISIS. you were bombed by a woman. have a nice day.”
Her mission has aroused considerable “you go girl” sentiment in the Arab world as well, from Twitter to newspaper editorials.
“This woman has overcome obstacles and challenges with her determination and capability,” mused @BoZayed_9399, whose Twitter handle uses a Gulf term for father, suggesting he has roots in the region. Another tweet mockingly contrasted her feat with a Saudi sheikh’s opposition to women driving a car, saying it would damage their ovaries.
But her role in an American bombing campaign in a Muslim country also caused tremors along another fault line: the conflict between so-called moderate and more fundamentalist schools of Islamic thought in the Middle East. On one side of the fault line, Ms. Mansouri is depicted as a traitor to Arabs struggling to overthrow evil dictators. On the other, she’s an archetype of Arab society advancing into the future, in contrast to the backward-looking caliphate declared by IS leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.
(Excerpt) Read more at csmonitor.com ...
Mariam al-Mansouri, the first Emirati female fighter jet pilot, prepares to take off in United Arab Emirates, June 13, 2013.
Emirates News Agency, WAM/AP/File
She better never catch the golden bb and live to bailout. The political hay ISIS could make parading her around and then beheading her would be enormous.
Can’t drive a car...
Can fly a Jet...
Iv'e said it before on FR, the way to poison Islam is to liberate the Muslim women.
As far as Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi looking backwards; that's what religious people do.(Including Jews, Christians, Mormons etc.)-Tom
Umm, I’ve seen women, including nationals, drive in the UAE.
http://www.zu.ac.ae/main/en/_careers/faqs.aspx#womendrive
My mistake...
But she cannot drive in Saudia Arabia...
“Wow, that was FUN!!!”
I was just going to say, I bet ISIS cannot wait to rape her and cut her head off.
I fear that they have just painted a target on her back. I will pray for her safety. She is a trailblazer in an area that sorely needs them.
I think a lot of people are missing the subtle point here: she’s as much a message to the West as to ISIS. P.R exercises like this help portray the UAE as a modernist country and draw attention from the fact that most Sunni terror groups received some sort of active support from the Persian Gulf oil Sheikhdoms.
Religion deals with eternal verities. Religion isn't technology.
How do you know she can’t drive a car. Me thinks your ignorance is showing.
I wish her nothing but the best. I hope she can stand, or fly, as an inspiration for all Arab girls for as long as she is able.
Thank you for pointing that out.
Yeah, I am shocked she was even allowed. I just hope she is not assassinated now that she is public.
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