Sunday, June 01, 2008

"Borrowing from Oprah Winfrey, Beyonce and even Hillary Rodham Clinton, they move between tribal and Islamic customs and media markets that are often layered in sexual innuendo." Oprah, Beyonce, and Clinton? These are feminist role models? Are you kidding me? And why would Middle East women need Hillary or Beyonce for their inspiration? What kind of bull... is that? And then this: "What she notices these days is an increasing number of Middle Eastern women educated in the West returning to their countries with a progressiveness that threatens tradition." Oh, yeah: they need to be Western-educated to be feminist? Nawal Saadawi went to college in Cairo before she started on women's issues, and feminist pioneers in Egypt, Lebanon, Iraq, and Syria were not Western-educated. But then again: American reporters can never get enough of American self-congratulations. And why do Western reporters who are not feminist think that they become feminist as soon as they land in Muslim countries. Is that "colonial feminism"?