First Arab Woman goes to North Pole

Elham Al-Qasimi is the first Arab woman to go to the North Pole. Here is a video from CNN: http://www.cnn.com/video/#/video/international/2010/06/02/ime.arctic.arab.woman.bk.f.cnn


Here's her blog:
http://elhamalqasimi.com/

Go Elham! Let's see how the media will cover this following Rima Fakih's story and SATC 2

Sex and the city 2 vs. hijabies in the city

So I watched Sex and the City 2 and wow do I have some mixed feelings about it.

First of all it's filled with stereotypes. Rich Arabs in "Abu Dhabi," dubbed the "new middle-east" which equals to "modernized." So the four ladies go to Abu Dhabi and stay at this super luxurious hotel with fancy shmancy butlers and food. The ladies are awed by the females who are at the hotel, wearing 'niqwab' which is actually supposed to be 'niqab.' I mean if you're going to make a film in an Arab country (the filmed was set in Morocco by the way) then at least get the Arabic words right.

Anyway, so they think it's funny how the niqwab-ed ladies eat french fries and poke some fun at them as well as the female swimmers in burkini's (a head to toe swimmin suit). At that same scene, however, they were talking about how pretty a girl's abaya was because of it's embroidery and this was popular among young liberal females.

Fast forward to dull, unoriginal boring scenes, (and a couple of Samanatha's disturbing scenes which I thought gave American ladies a bad image --i.e. think sexual desires at 52) and in the end you see some niqwab-ed ladies take off their head covering and abayas and are dressed in sexy stylish clothing and look hot.

Anyway, the movie emphasized that in Abu Dhabi (or any Muslim country), people dressed modestly and mixing and touching of the opposite sex is illegal (Samantha got arrested for what she was doing on the beach).

At times it portrayed Arab men as controllers, but it also showed that American men the same way as the lawyer lady (I forgot her name) kept being silenced by her male colleagues). So treatment of women was an issue in the movie, that both American, Arab, Muslim, non-Muslim females can be treated negatively and unfairly.

However, most of the strict scenes that happened in the movie, is most likely not true in a country as liberal and diverse and UAE. I mean if this movie took place in Saudi Arabia, then I'd understand.

Now, for any non-muslim who sees the movie and wonders if arab women are really like that, I'll leave you with a question. Are all american women like samantha?

It was also a bit awkward to walk out of the movie theatre after the movie was done with my friends (being all hijabi's and the movie had a bunch of stereotypes). But we wore stylish clothes, handbags, sunglasses, and walked out in confidence with our hijabs on proudly and out into the city -- Hijabies in the city.


Here's an article that critics the movie:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/05/25/sex-and-the-city-2-review_n_589155.html

Because Muslims are always the bad guys ...

two scenarios:

1- Muslim flies plane into building.
2- American white guy flies plane into building.

Hmm they seem pretty similar to me. innocent people die/injured in both scenarios. there's certainly a 'bad guy' involved in both scenarios.

But. Guess who makes it on all national news, with his religion's name plastered in every direction? Guess who will be labeled a terrorist?

Take a wild guess.

http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/82387-muslim-group-wants-government-to-call-austin-plane-attack-terrorism


Muslim group wants government to call plane attack terrorism
By Jordy Yager - 02/19/10 04:40 PM ET

A leading Muslim advocacy group is pushing government officials to call the suicide plane crash in Texas “an act of terror,” saying that if a Muslim had been flying the plane there would be no hesitancy to call it terrorism.

On Thursday, Andrew Joseph Stack III flew a small plane into the IRS's four-story office building in Austin, killing himself and at least one federal employee. Before the incident, Stack allegedly left a series of messages on a website expressing his disgust with the IRS, saying at one point that “violence not only is the answer, it is the only answer.”

“Whenever an individual or group attacks civilians in order to make a political statement, that is an act of terror,” said Nihad Awad, the executive director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR).

“Terrorism is terrorism, regardless of the faith, race or ethnicity of the perpetrator or the victims,” said Awad, adding in a statement that “if a Muslim had carried out the IRS attack, it would have surely been labeled an act of terrorism.”

In the hours after the crash, Austin Police Chief Art Acevedo told reporters that the incident looked to be “a criminal act by a lone individual.” And while Acevedo refrained from calling it an act of terror, he said the FBI, which is heading the investigation, would make the judgment call on how to categorize the crash.

A spokesman with the FBI’s San Antonio office on Friday said that the FBI was handling the case “as a criminal matter of an assault on a federal officer” and that it was not being considered as an act of terror at this time.

The White House had yet to make a public statement about how it viewed Thursday’s incident, other than to say that both President Barack Obama and Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano had been notified and had asked to be kept apprised of the situation.

But two lawmakers from the area were quick to call the plane crash, which resulted in two seriously injured people and 13 people with minor injuries, an act of terror.


http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/82387-muslim-group-wants-government-to-call-austin-plane-attack-terrorism