Saturday, April 28, 2012

Please add those correspondents of the Guardian to the list of clueless Western reporters and their aides

First of all, look at this:  "Eltahawy draws on anecdotal and empirical evidence for her tirade: 90% of women who have ever been married in Egypt "have had their genitals cut in the name of modesty"; not one Arab country is in the top 100 nations as ranked by gender equality; Saudi women have been prosecuted for daring to drive a car. Eltahawy nails the paradox that it is women who must cover up – because of the sexual impulses of Arab men."  When did Eltahawy ever conduct research on women, notwithstanding the numbers culled from Google searches.  Also, the figure of 90% is inaccurate: it is only around that in rural areas.  But who cares about evidence when a "semi-native" is parroting the propaganda that White Man wants to hear?  And notice at the last part "the sexual impulses of Arab men".  What does that mean? There is something odd and peculiar about the genetic makeup of Arab men?  If this was said about Jewish men or black men, the bigotry and hatred would have been widely condemned.  But my favorite part is this, to ascertain the views of Eltahawy (which were and are widely condemned or disregarded by Arab feminists and academics), the Guardian goes to a Lebanese right-wing (and self-described foe of feminism):  "But plenty of women across the Arab world have taken objection to Eltahawy's blanket condemnation of men.  "I agree with most of what she said but I think that the one thing that she might be reluctant to admit is that it's not about men hating women, it's about monotheistic religions hating women," says Joumana Haddad, a Lebanese author and journalist."  This is like reacting to an anti-Semitic article by interviewing another anti-Semitic author to respond.   Joumana Haddad is to Arab feminism what Sarah Palin is to American feminism.  (thanks Ahmet who sent me the link and wrote:  "Asad, the fact that she is the go-to "supposed feminist" in Lebanon is really disturbing, cue the vapidness and superficiality."