Arab Women Shun Bush Confidante (Karen Hughes)

The Telegraph (UK) ^ | 9-30-2005 | Francis Harris

[blam]

Arab women shun Bush confidante

By Francis Harris in Washington
(Filed: 30/09/2005)

A confidante and former chief image-maker to President George W Bush has discovered the limits of the spin doctor's art on her first tour of the Islamic world.

Karen Hughes, the new US under-secretary for public diplomacy, was told by professional women in Saudi Arabia and Turkey that she and America failed to understand them. Her tour had been designed to underline the Bush administration's new commitment to improving its image in Muslim countries.

Speaking to women in the Saudi city of Jeddah, the former television reporter who is a long-standing member of Mr Bush's inner circle, introduced herself as a "Mom" and said the right to drive a car was "an important part of my freedom". Saudi women are forbidden to drive.

The Texan was soon on the defensive. A reporter present said a member of the audience said: "The general image of the Arab woman is that she isn't happy. Well we're all pretty happy."

The audience applauded loudly. Many said they resented the idea they would adopt US lifestyles given the chance. "There is more male chauvinism in my profession in Europe and America than in my country," Dr Siddiqa Kamal, a female obstetrician, told the New York Times. "I don't want to drive a car.

"I worked hard for my medical degree. Why do I need a driver's licence?"

Others agreed that the absence of women's rights did not trouble them. American reporters said that Ms Hughes appeared to be taken aback by the response.

The difficulties continued in Turkey where another meeting with professional women was dominated by Iraq. "You cannot bring in war for the sake of peace," said Feray Sazman.

A human rights worker, Hidayet Sefkatli Tuksal, told Ms Hughes she felt "wounded and insulted" by the images of fear in the eyes of Iraqi women and children.

Arab newspapers such as Al-Hayat said her mission was a fraud because she was "carrying a fake message".

But leaders in several Arab countries said she was at least listening.

A US State Department report yesterday stated that after the Abu Ghraib prisoner abuse scandal and the controversy over detainees at Guantanamo Bay, America was seen less as "a beacon of hope than a dangerous force to be countered".

It added: "This assertion, repeated in newspaper columns, on radio and television broadcasts, and via the internet, diminishes our ability to champion freedom, democracy and individual dignity."

[JoJo Gunn]

....was told by professional women in Saudi Arabia and Turkey that she and America failed to understand them.

Hell, set a building on fire and drive 'em in. What's to understand? (rolleyes)

[SkyPilot]

http://www.apostatesofislam.com/media/stoning.htm

[tarheelswamprat]

Two observations:

1. None of these accounts are from meetings with Iraqi professional women, i.e. women from a country that has actually been liberated. They are all from countries where there is intense opposition to the liberation of Iraq because of the fear that it will have a destabilizing on their own societies.

2. Re: The Texan was soon on the defensive. BS

[bellas_sister]

Damn!

[Kryptonite]

Well, at least she's there, in person, to dialogue with them. Not that I think she should don their clothing and throw away her driver's license.

It's a dirty job but she's doing it.

[Hildy]

And what would they say to a PRESIDENT Hillary Clinton?

[montag813]

The whole idea of Hughes' "job" is ridiculous. Scrap it now. If Arabs are too stupid to understand that freedom is good and tyranny is bad, then f**k 'em. We don't need anyone to be convinced that we are right.

[ApplegateRanch]

a country where women don't want to drive? No doubt its safer there. ;)

Half as many bad drivers on the road than most other places.

[saradippity]

Now,Karen Hughes,a woman of success,eloquence and freedom visits and they say."You do not understand us?"

Well,think about this: Now,Hillary Clinton, a woman of success,eloquence and freedom comes to visit and they say."You don't understand us?"

Interesting,no? A blond,important,fiftyish woman from the United States visits a foreign land. The audience is unresponsive,even angry and they give her a piece of their mind.

In one case we sneer at these pathetic,downtrodden know nothings and the other we would cheer their honesty, perceptiveness and courage.

We need to be very aware of the fact that a Karen Hughes or a Hilary Clinton are end products of the feminist movement,maybe these women see more than some here do. Just a thought.

[Candor7]

What both women see are Arab women making a case for their own social order. They do have that in common. The facy is that in Hillary and Karen's case, the values which support their social order are based on natural rights and values which presume that human beings require freedom. The Aranb women's social order presume that women need a distinct control of freedom.

The fact is that Arab women enjoy the cloister and want to maintain it rather than face the very same changes that the modern world brought to European women after the American Revolution. The plenipotentiary instrument of
Islamofascism is the reaction to a world wide evolution towards what Pain considered to be civilized society.

Karen Hughes is a whipping post. I do not agree that we
do not understand Arab women. We understand them very well. They support the men who would bring the West to its destruction through the acquisition of national political power in an axis that stretches from Ankara to Jakarta, the use of nuclear missles , and the control of the Worlds oil supply.

Whats so difficult to understand about that? That is the understanding that Arab women want to confuse. I do not buy it.