Obama's Historic Speech in Cairo
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So Barack Obama's historic speech in Cairo is already getting rave reviews. It was, indeed, vintage Obama (if that's not an oxymoron), using his biography as a point of entrance and connection, eschewing what he views as old, false dichotomies, and stressing a pragmatic, hopeful way forward. One of Obama's strengths is the manner in which he dives into the thicket that many politicians talk around; his speeches often put complicated things in deceptively simple ways, as when he said that just as Islam is not the stereotype many Americans make it out to be, nor is "America ... the crude stereotype of a self-interested empire." He put his money where his mouth was. Where the Bush regime refused rhetorical nuance and deflected criticism by using words like "patriotism" and "democracy," by stark contrast, Obama spoke directly about America's complex history when he mentioned our role decades ago in the overthrow of a democratically-elected government in Iran. One question, though: Was he tough enough about women's rights? This was one area where I felt Obama didn't push hard enough, though his position is one I respect, and he frames it cogently. As he put it, "I reject the view of some in the West that a woman who chooses to cover her hair is somehow less equal, but I do believe that a woman who is denied an education is denied equality. And it is no coincidence that countries where women are well-educated are far more likely to be prosperous." I wish, though, he had said more on this subject; it has always seemed to me that his one point of weakness has been in reaching out to women in particular. Thoughts?

Comments
I think that it's a delicate
By: Dubious | Thu, 06/04/2009 - 13:49
I think that it's a delicate balancing act for Obama. On the one hand there's the need to push for womens' rights- and other causes that we here in America believe are just and proper. On the other, you have what happened when the Bush administration sent over various women to push for equal rights. If I remember right, Slate's writeups on it made it fairly clear that was a series of lead balloons and a steady diet of shoe leather.
Something that Obama appears to have decided upon for his strategies for dealing with things like womens' rights in the Middle East and religious freedom in China is the idea of scaling back the rhetoric and demands in favor of smaller gains that the other side is more agreeable to. What you can't break with a hammer you can erode away with the steady dripping of water.
We didn't get anywhere when we went for antagonistic force. Much the same way that outright assaults on Limbaugh does nothing more than further entrench his faithful listeners. What we seem to be trying now is baby steps forward. Recognize that women can be valuable members of the workforce. Then realize they can do more with an education. Then realize it's not necessary (or efficient) to accompany them everywhere. Then realize that if you're not accompanying them, driver's licenses makes sense. And so on.
It's small, it's subtle, and it may not be everything hoped for. But the most important thing to start with is getting them to be willing to consider our ideas and our points. Once that's done, then it becomes viable to start working towards the larger changes. One step at a time.
Beyond the Hijab
By: AndreaFord | Thu, 06/04/2009 - 13:01
I agree, I wish Obama had said more on women's rights. I generally agree with what he said, in his typically elegant way, but I'm kind of bored with the way the issue of equality is so often reduced to taking a position on whether or not Muslim women should cover their hair. That's not enough. It's time we moved beyond the hijab debate (which, by the way, he also brought up during the religious freedom part). Yes, education is a crucial piece of the solution, but I would have liked to have also heard him address the huge problem of violence against women.
Not to reduce the speech to mere numbers, but this is how the seven topics he spoke about break down (very roughly), in terms of word counts:
1) violent extremism: 917 words
2) Arab-Israeli conflict 1048 words
3) nuclear weapons: 353 words
4) democracy: 379 words
5) religious freedom: 347 words
6) women's rights: 243 words
7) economic development: 557 words
So, just over two minutes on women's rights. It seems scant for a topic that, in my view, is a very real factor in the way many Americans--ignorantly or not--view Islam.