So you will readily acknowledge that there were some angelic, good-mannered, honest and righteous Nazis? To discredit them entirely is, by your inane logic, bigotry. When we pass judgement on the Nazi Party we are, in fact, all bigots.
If you don’t see the difference between criticizing Saudis on the internet and the Saudi people forcing women to cover their face in public and banning women from driving vehicles then you are patently unqualified to start calling people bigots and passing judgement. You’re a deluded, self-righteous moron who needs to open his eyes and look at the real world. Get off your soapbox and call out true bigotry instead of huffing and puffing over the people defending the rights of women.
Sometimes, it’s worth having a pair and taking a stand. That’s why conservatives don’t buy the bullshit that is “cultural relativity.” In instances like this, bowing to the intolerance of other cultures makes you a spineless coward. Kudos to the First Lady.
A google image search turns up several examples of Hillary-in-Hijab. I noticed cites regarding visits to Pakistan and also Egypt. This appears to be Hillary in Pakistan.
People do realize Saudi laws regarding women having to have their heads covered don’t apply to foreign visitors don’t they?
Obviously, this doesn’t include indentured servants(they’ve come with yet another euphemism but I’m too tired to remember it and too disgusted to bother looking it up).
None of that is to defend the Saudis or their odious government which makes the Mullahs of Iran look progressive by comparison, however what Michelle Obama did was hardly that unusual or something that would give Saudis the vapors.
Angel Merkel didn’t wear a hijab when she visited Saudi Arabia either.
Anyone if anyone really enjoys seeing some westerners give the Saudis a cheeky “fuck you” here’s a clip from a few years ago.
Once again, a complete non issue for anyone else in the world, especially the people who were supposedly disrespected, gets American’s all hot and bothered.
A segment of the population would be outraged if she HAD worn a headscarf! There is no winning with American outrageaholics.
How does this stuff even get news coverage? Won’t people ever grow weary of this kind of nonsense and manipulation?
A fully symbolic role, which is, at most, a bully pulpit-by-proxy. Also, it’s a position where the only requierment is being married to a powerful guy, not something modern-day women should really aspire to. She has no real power, and the little symbolic power she has derives fully from her being married to POTUS.
Nobody would know who Michelle LaVaughn Robinson was if her husband wasn’t presidnet.
As Ibn Warraq said, headscarf laws don’t apply to foreigners so even if the gesture was intended, it didn’t register. Moreso if other US women, with actual legal power I might add, had already done it before.
There is NO leverage, there is NO message.
I see that the horrible, systematic mistreatment of women in SA is less important than their help. The message is, “Saudi women, we’ll have a meaningless, empty gesture as show of our non-existing support for your plight”.
I read that as “entitled woman gets to throw tantrum hiding behind her husband’s power”.
What message did she send and to whom?
Did the message register?
It’s more of a like-this-FB-page-if you-suport-Saudi-women in the real world of actual things that help.
Of course it’s exagerated and hypothetical, it was the whole fucking point.
Praising someone for (not acutally, by the way) disregarding other people’s traditions taht they think suck becasue they can get away with it should work both way.
I haven’t seen any report that sez Michelle intended to make a political statement by not covering her head. She’s not required to cover her head. This was an unplanned, last minute trip. Maybe Michelle didn’t bring any outfits that included a matching hat or hair covering? Hooray! Michelle Obama got dressed and walked about in public.
I can’t imagine our First Lady didn’t know that, or wasn’t told so by one of the protocol officers, so I assume she didn’t mean it as any kind of a protest. I wouldn’t slam her any more than I would give her credit - it doesn’t appear to be anything that deserves either credit or blame.
Tangential question - are there rules on what kind of head covering women are supposed to wear? Back in the days of “women must keep their head covered in church” in the US just a folded handkerchief satisfied the situation, at least according to the Lovely and Talented Mrs. Shodan, former Roman Catholic.
I grant you, it reminds me of school dress codes and “how much can I get away with”, but in situations where this would apply, how much room for compromise is there? There might be a balance to strike between “when in Rome, do as the Romans do” and “I refuse to wear such a symbol of subjugation”.
Perhaps a happy medium - a head scarf, and a bikini. And boots. Thigh-high, leather boots. On Michelle Obama.
Pardon me, I will be in my bunk.
I, for one, am surprised that Fox News hasn’t yet tried to spin this into “arrogant Michelle Obama disrespecting our allies by thinking she’s too good to dress properly for a diplomatic event”.
I hereby nominate Michelle Obama for a Nobel Piece prize. A non-piece of Michelle’s costume was unintentionally missing but a very important political statement has been unintentionally made.