Letters to the Editor
-
Madam Speaker's detractors
Victoria L.;
Ahem. I tried to avoid this immature response to your post, but couldn't. You are an idiot. Get some world view, do some traveling. The rest of the world doesn't look or act like us. Also fake Snoop, the same.
-
Bipartisan Scarf
When the First Lady visited the Western Wall and the Dome of the Rock a few years ago, she wore a head covering out of respect for local custom. Speaker Pelosi is doing precisely the same thing in this photo.
-
Scarves
First of all, I would agree that donning the scarf (as many courteous Western women might do in any Mosque or orthodox Jewish temple) is as accceptable as my wearing a yarmulke while attending a Bar Mitvah. It is a sign of respect.
Second of all, there is a wide-ranging and thoughtful academic literature on the issue of the veil/scarf historically and currently. It is not something that has been universally worn by all Muslims since the time of the Prophet, nor is it necessarily seen as anti-women by all of its wearers. This can be seen especially in the case of Muslim women in Turkey and France who desire a higher education ( a progressive and, one would think, universally-desired outcome), but are kept out of universities and medical schools because of their desire to put a piece of cloth over their heads.
Not surpisingly, a topic which intersects with race, religion, gender, imperialism and our basic freedom to run our lives as we see it is more complex and nuanced than many observers want to admit. Of course the President doesn't "do nuance."
A good starting place for a historical discussion of this issue is the classic article "The Discourse of the Veil" by Leila Ahmed in her seminal book Women and Gender in Islam: Historical Roots of a Modern Debate (Yale University Press, 1992).
-
The less predictable response
Is anybody surprised by the Bush/chain of reburblican noise response? You can't be. Fred Hiatt at the Post ("the liberal Post", they say) continues to be a horses' ass. Not surprising. But what exactly is happening with CNN? Nothing but a FOX-like, unified derision. In the long term, I think that may be the most troubling sign.
-
Gosh
My point is that it is a bad example for a female leader in a western country to don a garment that is associated with oppression.
Let's hope she wasn't wearing heels, too, or you'll be really incensed.
Here's what should be incensing you: half of Congress isn't female (how "representative" is that?), we lack sensible and ample child care benefits and maternal care (woefully inadequate compared to the other, more progressive First World countries), women don't make the same amount of money as men, and the idea of a female president is actually controversial.
And you're worried about headscarves?? Let's get our own house in order, howsabout?
-
Headscarves and Muslim Culture
I've read several articles conducted with groups of professional, modern Muslim women who have no problem with wearing headscarves (burkas).
Victoria, in her blind self righteousness, appears to assume that all Muslim women consider wearing them a punishment---rather than a long held cultural tradition.
"Burka-bashing" is a facile attack method that appears to work with the Busheep. It's generally the first thing Laura Bush mentions when asked her opinion on equality for women in Muslim nations.
-
Dennis Hastert and Diplomacy
Dennis Hasert traveled to North Korea to engage in shuttle diplomacy while Clinton was in office, undercutting Madeline Albright? I don't understand where the Speaker of the House has the authority to conduct diplomatic missions like this, regardless of her political affiliation.
-- Calvin Broadus
You mean like when Dennis Hastert traveled to Columbia to conduct some back room deals with their government that undercut the Clinton administration?
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert
In 1997, Hastert led a Congressional delegation to Colombia. At that time, the administration of President Bill Clinton was concerned about human rights abuses by the Colombian military. Hastert urged Colombian officials to "bypass the U.S. executive branch and communicate directly with Congress."
Citations are on the Wiki page.
-
Repugnicans and Democrats
If two groups do the same thing, it is still not the same, or? Where was the outrage by all those rightwing mudslingers when their own favourites went to Damaskus to meet Assad? Pelosi got guts, her visit may show better results than those of the Bushy minions, she represents a branch of the Gouvernment afterall, even though King George the Turd may not agree. Does he even know the constitution? Sometimes one has to wonder.
-
To Victoria
Have you seen this link?
http://www.mahablog.com/2007/04/04/pelosi-wears-scarf-righties-bark-at-moon/
I personally think that the Bra is a more impressive symbol of female oppression,
But I don't take on a rant every time I see a woman or a man choosing to use it, for personal, religious or social reasons.
That old principle: "None of my business".
-
Regarding Hasert
WiJO:
Thanks for that Wiki citation. What Hasert did was wrong, too. And it doesn't make correct what Pelosi did. It just proves that both sides of the aisle are capable of this, and it's amusing to think that only one political party is capable of foolishness. But this is Salon, where with few exceptions you can connect anything from "The Sopranos" to "Dancing With the Stars" to that Mailer book on the Nazis to Bush and whatever lame puns are created about Repooprians or Reschlubricans or CONVICTservatives.
-
More on the Headscarf Business
I know most of these letters have already covered the ground of rebutting the initial letter attacking Speaker Pelosi for wearing a headscarf. But there is one piece of information that I don't see anyone discussing. Victoria asks why Nancy Pelosi would go to a mosque at all. The answer is pretty simple. The Umayyad Mosque which Pelosi visited contained a shrine believed to contain the head of John the Baptist, a revered prophet in both Islamic and Christian traditions. Nancy Pelosi is a practicing Catholic and made the sign of the cross in front of The Baptist's shrine as an act both of personal religious pilgrimage and solidarity with Syria's million Christians, who have at best a tenuous relationship with the Assad regime.
Unless you are willing to criticize the Catholic Speaker of the House for attending Mass conducted by a sexist and sexually oppressive priesthood in the United States, then her decision to visit a mosque for what are, primarily, personal religious reasons is just more Islamophobia of the worst sort. The most powerful woman in American history wearing a headscarf is no more offensive than her carrying a rosary. Indeed, seeing a proud, powerful woman standing in a mosque making the sign of the cross while doing her best not to offend her hosts is as profound a rebuke to the sexism inherent in all religions as I can imagine.