It seems that the number of people eager to express their love for us is on the increase these days. The latest on the list is Elizabeth, daughter of US Vice President Dick Cheney. She is leading a State Department-sponsored campaign to bring information to Arab and Muslim women concerning democracy and freedom from an American perspective.
Arab and Muslim women are lucky to have someone showing all this concern for them. The US government has allocated $52 million for the campaign and women from 14 countries were carefully selected to take part. The women are from Algeria, Egypt, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Morocco, Syria, Palestine, Oman, Yemen, the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Tunisia.
A simple calculation will show that each woman will cost the American treasury more than $1 million. The figures pale when compared to the objective. The United States, this virtuous state, has now decided to play the role of reformer for the Arab and Muslim nation, even if it is done by coercion.
It is, however, reform of a different nature, involving a continuous process that only stops to allow its echo to be heard by others. It is a reform that overshadows anything else and does not listen to other voices, even if those voices come from nations with older and richer histories.
The subject was carefully prepared involving those at the highest level of government. It has nothing to do with teaching advanced technology, medicine or any of the sciences that we have been rightly blamed for not concentrating on. It is all about the US view of democracy and freedom, a subject — at least in US official eyes — much more important than anything else. They see it as far more important than our religion, language, customs and traditions.
American officials say the campaign aims at briefing Arab women on the role of American women in the electoral process, whether involved in organizing and running election campaigns or as candidates.
To Elizabeth Cheney and others in the State Department, I say please show some objectivity and fairness and allow Arab women to see the other face of American women. Allow the Arab women to come face to face with the sense of fear and insecurity many American women experience, the looming threats and thefts, rapes, murders, the increase in abortions — especially among minors — the spread of HIV, the rising numbers of suicide among women and all other social ills.
I wish the American women would frankly tell our Arab women that their freedom has failed to give them security and stability and that American democracy has up to now failed to get equal pay for women doing the same job as men, even if the women have the same qualifications.
This is not the case for Arab women. To those responsible for cultural and social organizations in the Arab world I ask this question: When will we see a similar effort to correct our distorted image and introduce the true picture to not only the US but also the entire world?
Arab News From the Local Press 27 November 2002
